Anna Nicole Smith

Born Vickie Lynn Hogan in Houston, Texas, Anna Nicole Smith was working in a fried chicken restaurant when she fell in love with one of the cooks, Billy Smith. They married in 1985 and she gave birth to a son, Daniel, in 1986. The couple were divorced the following year and Anna Nicole turned to modeling to make money to support her son. She was working as a topless dancer in Houston in 1991 when she met her second husband, oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, older than her by 64 years.

In May 1992, Anna Nicole was the Playboy centerfold and the following year, was named Playboy Playmate of the Year. In 1994, she married Marshall, despite claims that she was a gold digger. When he died in 1995 at the age of 90, his son, E. Pierce Marshall, fought her for the rights to his father’s $1.6 billion estate. The court battle would last for years.

She was awarded nearly $500 million by a Los Angeles judge in 2001, which was later reduced to $88 million. However, in 2004, the US Federal Court of Appeals overturned the ruling, deciding all the money should go to E. Pierce. Smith fought back, and in 2006, the US Supreme Court awarded Smith the right to continue her legal battle to pursue her inheritance.

In 2002, Smith sprang into the spotlight with a reality show, The Anna Nicole Show. She was asked to lose weight for the series, and as the spokeswoman for TrimSpa diet products, underwent a dramatic weight loss, losing almost 80 pounds from her 5’11” frame.

Smith gave birth to a daughter, Dannielynn, in the Bahamas on September 7, 2006, but her happiness turned to grief three days later when her 20-year-old son Daniel died of a lethal combination of drugs in her hospital room while visiting to see his new baby sister. Her lawyer and companion, Howard K. Stern, was with them when it occurred, and later that month, Anna Nicole and Stern were bound in a “commitment ceremony” in the Bahamas.

In October 2006, celebrity photographer Larry Birkhead claimed he was the father of Dannielynn and demanded a DNA test. Smith denied the allegation, insisting Stern was the father, but a court ordered her to return to the States for the test. Since then, Frédéric von Anhalt, the husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, has also claimed that he may be the father.

During a visit to Florida, Anna Nicole collapsed in her hotel room on February 8, 2007 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, Florida. Only 39, her death made headlines around the world.

Filmography:

Illegal Aliens (2007)
To the Limit (1995)
Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994)
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)