Glitz, scandal, fame, loss -- and death at 39

Anna Nicole Smith had always made it clear: She wanted to be just like Marilyn Monroe. She struggled mightily to make herself into a platinum-tressed sex symbol. And though she never gained the acting credibility of Monroe, her death at 39 on Thursday in a Florida hotel poignantly echoes that of her idol.

Smith’s roller-coaster life of fame, fortune, weight battles, legal entanglements and loss proved irresistible fodder for the tabloids, entertainment TV shows and blogs that focused on her obsessively.

She became a teenage mother, a topless dancer, a Playboy centerfold and a Guess jeans model, all before marrying a man old enough to be her great-grandfather.

After he died 14 months into their marriage, she fought his grown sons for her share of his estate, then declared bankruptcy, starred in her own train-wreck of a reality show, became a spokeswoman for a weight-loss supplement, won a precedent-setting Supreme Court case, and lost her grown son days after giving birth to a daughter last year.

Smith was in South Florida with her partner and attorney, Howard K. Stern, to shop for a yacht when a nurse traveling in her six-person entourage found her collapsed in the two-bedroom suite of the luxury Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla.

A call for emergency medical help was made from Smith’s sixth-floor room at 1:45 p.m., and a police officer was dispatched along with paramedics, said Seminole Police Chief Charles Tiger. An “unresponsive” Smith was taken to Hollywood Memorial Regional Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Her 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn, was not with her at the hotel, said Seminole Tribe spokesman Gary Bittner.

The cause of death for Smith, who had been complaining of flu-like symptoms since checking in Monday, was unknown.

Broward County Chief Medical Examiner Joshua Perper planned an autopsy today but cautioned that toxicology work could delay determination of the cause of death for days or weeks.

Born Vickie Lynn Hogan in Texas, Smith had been bathing in a media spotlight for almost 15 years. It had intensified in recent months with the death of her 20-year-old son, Daniel; a paternity battle over Dannielynn; and a lawsuit alleging deceit in selling the TrimSpa weight-loss formula, for which she was a spokesman.

Smith’s death casts uncertainty on a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge’s order issued Wednesday that she and her daughter undergo paternity testing by Feb. 21. The test was ordered after Los Angeles photographer Larry Birkhead filed a lawsuit saying he is the father of Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern, who was born in the Bahamas on Sept. 7. Stern, Smith’s most recent romantic partner, has said he is Dannielynn’s father.

The Los Angeles attorney who had been representing Smith in the paternity matter, Ronald A. Rale, said Thursday evening that he would be in court today responding to an emergency motion from Birkhead and his attorney, asking Superior Court Judge Robert A. Schnider to order that a DNA sample be obtained from Smith’s body.

Though she experienced early success as a model, Smith’s high-profile life became a self-perpetuating media machine. Within hours of her death, CNN’s Larry King made a telephone appearance on Wolf Blitzer’s “The Situation Room” to offer his memories. The Biography Channel announced a special at 8 p.m. Saturday, “Biography Remembers: Anna Nicole Smith.”

Smith, a topless dancer in the early 1990s, became a Playboy cover girl after entering her photos in a contest. Within a year she was 1993 Playmate of the Year. She modeled Guess jeans for television ads, magazines and billboards before landing the role that would propel her into the ranks of the truly rich and famous.

Oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II had frequented the Houston strip club where Smith had worked the early shift since 1991. According to bankruptcy court records, she was too “big-boned” for night work. Marshall was too old to stay out late and frequented the club on the early side.

They married in 1994. He was 89, she was 26. Fourteen months after the wedding, Marshall was dead, and the still-unresolved fight over his vast wealth had begun between Smith and his sons.

Smith was often maligned as a gold digger. Court records suggest that Marshall was madly in love with her and had intended for her to be financially secure.

Smith went to court in 1999 asking for half of her husband’s $1.6-billion estate. Several legal rounds later, she prevailed in federal bankruptcy court, where, in 2000, she was awarded nearly $450 million. After more legal skirmishing, that amount was reduced to $89 million. In 2006, she won a unanimous Supreme Court ruling that sent the case back to a lower court. The case is pending.

“It’s just a horrible tragedy,” Philip Boesch, the Los Angeles attorney who represented Smith in the inheritance battles, said of her recent emotional blows and then death. “You rarely see such terrible things happen so quickly to somebody. She’s been through such a lot. It’s just hard to hear.”

Paul Marciano, chief executive and creative director of Guess Inc., is credited with masterminding Smith’s transition from Playboy pinup to fashion model when he cast her as a blond bombshell in the spirit of Jayne Mansfield for a series of Guess ads.

“This is a very tragic and sad day. Personally, I feel she did not survive the loss of her son, Daniel, who was the love of her life,” Marciano said.

As the share of Marshall’s estate that she claimed was held up in court challenges, Smith ran into financial troubles, wrestling with drug addiction and weight gain.

Tipping the scales at more than 200 pounds, she landed a contract in 2000 modeling plus-size lingerie for Lane Bryant. In 2002, she began a two-year run of “The Anna Nicole Show” on the E! network, which often showed her disoriented and incoherent at her home and around Los Angeles.

“People will see that maybe I have a little talent and will take me serious as an actress,” she said at the time, adding that she had two audiences: “large women and college boys.”

After losing nearly 70 pounds over three years, Smith became a spokeswoman for TrimSpa, which earlier this year paid $1.5 million to settle a Federal Trade Commission allegation that its weight-loss claims were unsubstantiated. The company also faces a class-action suit, in which Smith was named as defendant.

Smith, who appeared in the Coen brothers’ film “The Hudsucker Proxy” and in “Naked Gun 33 1/3,” had a role in the 2006 sci-fi spoof “Illegal Aliens,” which has yet to find a distributor.

Filmmaker David Giancola said he approached Smith for “Illegal Aliens” after watching her reality series. The movie follows three space aliens who transform into beautiful women.

“Her character was supposed to be naive and innocent and ditzy -- kind of like Suzanne Somers on ‘Three’s Company,’ ” Giancola said Thursday. “And I just thought that Anna had the market cornered on the dumb-blonde act.”

Smith took up residence in the Bahamas last year and gave birth to Dannielynn at a Nassau hospital. The birth certificate lists attorney Stern as the father. Her son, Daniel, was visiting Smith at the hospital three days after her daughter’s birth when he collapsed and died, reportedly from a combination of methadone and antidepressants. Bahamas officials have scheduled a fresh inquiry for March 27.

Her recent trials only burnished the scrappy survivor’s luster that attracted fans, impressed with the improbable tale of a teenage mother and waitress who climbed to the top.

“She was brokenhearted ever since her son died. You could see her going downhill ever since then,” said Marie Pellitteri, an 80-year-old fan standing outside the hospital where Smith was pronounced dead at 2:49 p.m.

Live TV coverage was beamed from mobile stations ringing the hospital and the sprawling casino village on Seminole tribal land about five miles away. Hundreds of curious onlookers gathered, though there was little to see. Inside the casino, with slot machines chirping and flashing, the scurrying medics and security details were taken in stride.

“I’ve been here since noon, but I had no idea what was going on until 3 o’clock, when a friend called to ask me what I could see,” said Amanda Sacharow, who works at the hotel lobby’s Players’ Club desk.

Word of Smith’s death spread quickly.

“I am very saddened to learn about Anna Nicole’s passing,” Playboy founder Hugh Hefner said. “She was a dear friend who meant a great deal to the Playboy family and to me personally. My thoughts and prayers are with her friends and loved ones during this difficult time.”

At New York Fashion Week, Smith was the talk of spectators at the Calvin Klein show.

“She did portray that certain girl, that healthy voluptuous blond look from the early ‘90s,” said Lisa Love, West Coast editor of Vogue magazine. “But it turned out not to be so healthy. It’s just tragic.”

carol.williams@latimes.com

robin.abcarian@latimes.com

Williams reported from Florida and Abcarian from Los Angeles.

Times staff writers Scott Martelle, John Horn, Daniel Yi, Maria Elena Fernandez, Booth Moore and Rose Apodaca contributed to this report.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

A public life of fame, fortune and loss

Famous for being famous, Anna Nicole Smith lived much of her life in the public eye:

1967: Born Vickie Lynn Hogan on Nov. 28 in Houston.

1985: Marries fry cook Billy Smith, with whom she has a son, Daniel, in 1986. The couple splits up in 1987.

1993: Gains fame as Playboy’s Playmate of the Year.

1994: At 26, marries 89-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, whom she met at a club in Houston.

1995: Marshall dies, setting off a feud over his estate between his son E. Pierce Marshall, and Smith.

2002-2004: Stars in a cable TV series, “The Anna Nicole Show.”

May 2006: Wins a U.S. Supreme Court decision in the inheritance suit.

June 20, 2006: E. Pierce Marshall, her adversary in court proceedings, dies at 67.

Sept. 7, 2006: Gives birth in the Bahamas to daughter Dannielynn. On the birth certificate, attorney Howard K. Stern is named as the father.

Sept. 10, 2006: Son Daniel, 20, dies of an apparent drug overdose in his mother’s hospital room.

October 2006: Former boyfriend Larry Birkhead sues and demands a paternity test, saying he is the baby’s father.

Feb. 8, 2007: Dies at 39 in Hollywood, Fla.

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Source: Times staff and wire reports