Anna Nicole Smith dies after collapsing at South Florida hotel
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Anna Nicole Smith |
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HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — Anna Nicole Smith, the former Playboy playmate whose bizarre life careened from marrying an octogenarian billionaire to the untimely death of her son, died Thursday after collapsing at a South Florida hotel, one of her lawyers said.
Smith, 39, collapsed and was unresponsive while staying at the Seminole Hard Rock Cafe Hotel and Casino, said the attorney, Ron Rale. She was rushed to a hospital.
“She checked in Monday at 8 p.m. as a guest. She was due to check out tomorrow,” said Danielle Giordaano, a spokeswoman for the hotel.
Smith had been a tabloid staple even before she became Playboy’s playmate of the year in 1993. Readers were fascinated by her bombshell good looks, her marriage to an elderly billionaire and subsequent court fight over his estate, her weight fluctuations, and last year, the sudden death of her 20-year-old son, Daniel Smith.
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Anna Nicole Smith, right, leaves the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington with her son Daniel Smith in this Feb. 28, 2006 photo. Smith's son died under mysterious circumstances in Nassau, The Bahamas on Sept. 10, 2006. A lawyer for Smith says she has died in Hollywood Fla., Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) |
A former topless dancer, she made her name squeezing into Guess jeans. She resembled the late actress Marilyn Monroe, a similarity played up in her Guess magazine ads, billboards and department store displays.
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Anna Nicole Smith arrives on the arms of a bodyguard before a boxing event Jan. 6, 2007, in Hollywood, Fla. A lawyer for Smith says she has died in Hollywood Fla., Thursday, Feb.8, 2007 (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee) |
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| The media begins to assemble outside the Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Fla.,Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007 after Anna Nicole Smith was found unresponsive in a room at the nearby Hard Rock Hotel. (AP Photo/J. Pat Carter) |
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Anna Nicole-Smith poses as she arrives for an awards show Dec. 1, 2004, in Los Angeles. A lawyer for Smith says she has died in Hollywood Fla., Thursday, Feb.8, 2007. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill) |
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Anna Nicole Smith arrives at the first MTV Australia Video Music Awards in Sydney, Australia, on March 3, 2005. A lawyer for Smith says she has died in Hollywood Fla., Thursday, Feb.8, 2007 (AP Photo/Dan Peled) |
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Anna Nicole Smith arrives for a film premiere Feb. 14, 2005, at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. Smith, the former Playboy playmate whose bizarre life careened from marrying an octogenarian billionaire to the untimely death of her son, died Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007, after collapsing at a South Florida hotel, one of her lawyers said. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok) |
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Anna Nicole Smith poses for photographers after arriving for a movie premiere Feb. 14, 2005, at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. Smith, the former Playboy playmate whose bizarre life careened from marrying an octogenarian billionaire to the untimely death of her son, died Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007, after collapsing at a South Florida hotel, one of her lawyers said. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok) |
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Anna Nicole Smith arrives at a press conference for the Australia MTV awards in Sydney,on March 2, 2005. A lawyer for Smith says she has died in Hollywood Fla., Thursday, Feb.8, 2007 (AP Photo/Rob Griffith) |
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Anna Nicole Smith waves during an appearance backstage during the Live 8 concert in Philadelphia, on July 2, 2005. Smith, the former Playboy playmate whose bizarre life careened from marrying an octogenarian billionaire to the untimely death of her son, died Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007, after collapsing at a South Florida hotel, one of her lawyers said. (AP Photo/Coke Whitworth) |
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Anna Nicole Smith makes a point during a break in her trial Oct. 9, 2000 in Houston. Smith is suing E. Pierce Marshall for a piece of the estate of her late husband J. Howard Marshall II. Smith, the former Playboy playmate whose bizarre life careened from marrying an octogenarian billionaire to the untimely death of her son, died Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007, after collapsing at a South Florida hotel, one of her lawyers said. (AP Photo/Carlos Antonio Rios, Pool) |
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Millionaire J. Howard Marshall II, shown in a file photo, made headlines in 1994 when he married l Anna Nichole Smith when she was 26 and he was 89. He died Aug. 5, 1995, when he was 90. A lawyer for Smith says she has died in Hollywood Fla., Thursday, Feb.8, 2007. (AP Photo/Courtesy Temple Webber Photography, from "Done in Oil," Texas A&M Press) |
In 1994, she married 89-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, the head of oil-based Koch Industries, which is part of a family fortune worth at least $400 million.
He died in 1995, setting off a feud with her former stepson, E. Pierce Marshall, over whether she had a right to his estate.
A federal court in California awarded Smith $474 million in a complicated legal twist that began after she declared bankruptcy. That was later overturned.
But in May, the U.S. Supreme Court revived her case, ruling that she deserved another day in court in her battle with her former stepson.
The justices said only that federal courts in California could deal with her case despite a Texas state court ruling that Marshall was the sole heir to the estate.
Then, the stepson died June 20 at age 67. But the family said the court fight would continue.
Daniel Smith died Sept. 10 in his mother’s hospital room in the Bahamas, just days after she gave birth to a daughter.
An American medical examiner hired by the family, Cyril Wecht, said he had methadone and two antidepressants in his system when he died. Low levels of the three drugs interacted to cause an accidental death, Wecht said.
Meanwhile, the paternity of her now 5-month-old daughter remained a matter of dispute.
She was born Vickie Lynn Hogan on Nov. 28, 1967, in Houston, one of six children of Donald Eugene and Virgie Hart Hogan.
She married Bill Smith in 1985, giving birth to Daniel before divorcing two years later.
