Anna Nicole: Life played out as an extraordinary tabloid tale

Anna Nicole Smith, the pneumatic blonde whose life played out as an extraordinary tabloid tale - Playboy centrefold, jeans model, bride of an octogenarian oil tycoon, reality-show subject, tragic mother – died yesterday after collapsing at a hotel. She was 39.

She was collapsed while staying at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and was rushed to a hospital. The cause of death was under investigation and an autopsy would be done today.

Just five months ago, Smith’s 20-year-old son, Daniel, died suddenly in the Bahamas in what was believed to be a drug-related death.

Through the ’90s and into the new century, Smith was famous for being famous, a pop-culture punchline because of her up-and-down weight, her Marilyn Monroe looks, her exaggerated curves, her little-girl voice, her ditzy-blonde persona, and her over-the-top revealing outfits.

Recently, she lost a reported 69 pounds and became a spokeswoman for TrimSpa, a weight-loss supplement. On her reality show and other recent TV appearances, her speech was often slurred and she seemed out of it. Some critics said she seemed drugged-out.

The Texas-born Smith was a topless dancer at strip club before she entered her photos in a search contest and made the cover of Playboy magazine in 1992.

She became Playboy’s playmate of the year in 1993.

She was also signed to a contract with Guess jeans, appearing in TV commercials, billboards and magazine ads.

In 1994, she married 89-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, owner of Great Northern Oil Co. In 1992, Forbes magazine estimated his wealth at $550m (€422m).

Marshall died in 1995 at age 90, setting off a feud with Smith’s former stepson, E. Pierce Marshall, over his estate.

Smith starred in her own reality TV series, “The Anna Nicole Show,” in 2002-04. Cameras followed her around as she sparred with her lawyer, hung out with her personal assistant and interior decorator, and cooed at her poodle, Sugar Pie. She also appeared in movies, performing a bit part in “The Hudsucker Proxy” in 1994.

Smith’s son died on September 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 died accidentally of a combination of methadone and two antidepressants. Last month, a Bahamas magistrate scheduled a formal inquiry into the death for March 27.

Meanwhile, the paternity of Smith’s now five-month-old daughter remained a matter of dispute. The birth certificate lists Dannielynn’s father as attorney Howard K. Stern, Smith’s most recent companion. Smith’s ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead was waging a legal challenge, saying he was the father. An emergency hearing in the paternity case was scheduled for today in Los Angeles.

Smith was born Vickie Lynn Hogan on November 28, 1967, in Houston, one of six children.

Her parents split up when she was a toddler, and she was raised by her mother, a deputy sheriff.

She dropped out after 11th grade after she was expelled for fighting, and worked as a waitress and then a cook at Jim’s Krispy Fried Chicken restaurant in Mexia.

She married 16-year-old fry cook Bill Smith in 1985, giving birth to Daniel before divorcing two years later.