Smith, Anna Nicole

Born Vickie Lynn Hogan, November 28, 1967, in Houston, TX; died of an accidental overdose of prescription medication, February 8, 2007, in Hollywood, FL. Model and actress. Anna Nicole Smith, who began her career as a topless dancer, pushed the boundaries of what fame meant. “It was almost like she was this explorer who went out to the edges of celebrity,” Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, was quoted as saying in the Washington Post. “By watching what she was able to achieve, we know more about the nature of celebrity.”

From dancer to model to reality-television star, Smith had a way of staying in the spotlight. She moved in and out of lawsuits, the best known based on the inheritance of J. Howard Marshall II, her husband who was 63 years her senior. Smith’s life was never far from the tabloids, from her weight fluctuations to the birth of her daughter and the death of her son within a week of each other.

Born Vicki Lynn Hogan in 1967, Smith was the daughter of Donald Hogan, an itinerant laborer, and 16year-old Virgie Tabers, who later became a deputy sheriff. Marriage between Hogan and Tabers dissolved quickly, and Smith grew up in the small town of Mexica, Texas. She idolized Marilyn Monroe and longed to leave behind small-town life but dropped out of school in ninth grade. At 17, Smith married her fellow Krispy Fried Chicken worker, 16year-old Billy Wayne Smith. The two had a child, Daniel, but their marriage did not last.

Smith left the Krispy Fried Chicken restaurant to work at Wal-Mart, as a waitress at Red Lobster, and finally to become an exotic dancer in Houston. Already blonde and buxom, she got breast enlargement surgery to enhance her career opportunities. In Houston, she met J. Howard Marshall II, who was immediately taken with her. With encouragement from a friend, Smith submitted photos of herself to Playboy magazine. She appeared on the March 1992 cover and was named 1993 Playmate of the Year. Her success in Playboy launched her modeling career. She became the spokesperson for Guess! Jeans, and at an agent’s suggestion she changed her name from Vicki to Anna Nicole. In 1994, she and Marshall, then 89 to her 26, were married.

When Marshall died 14 months later, Smith was launched into a legal battle for her husband’s inheritance, fighting her stepson, E. Pierce Marshall, for a percentage of the estate. Dragged through several court systems, the suit in 2006 was finally brought, through appeal, to the Supreme Court. The case rocketed Smith into the tabloids and into the public eye.

After the successful ratings of a celebrity biography special on E! Entertainment Television, the network approached her about filming a reality television show. “I was like, ‘Hmm, I love cameras.’ So why not?” Smith was quoted as having said in Entertainment Weekly. Her life was featured in all its ups and downs for two seasons as one of the highest rated shows in the history of E!, though it was panned by critics. In the Washington Post, Smith was quoted as having promoted the show: “People won’t be able to stop watching once they tune in. My life is a roller coaster, so hold on and enjoy the ride.”

Smith’s life was no less tumultuous after the television show ended. She faced a court case against TrimSpa, a weight-loss service for which she served as a spokesperson, for false advertising. She had a daughter, whose paternity was immediately questioned and taken to court, and lost her son from her first marriage to a drug overdose in the same week.

Throughout her life, Smith loved the attention she received. “I love the paparazzi,” she was quoted as having said in the New York Times. “They take pictures and I just smile away. I’ve always liked attention. I didn’t get it very much growing up, and I always wanted to be, you know, noticed.” According to CNN.com, her estranged sister, Donna Hogan, commented, “She was a woman who was determined to get out of her small town in Texas and make a name for herself.” Smith herself once told Entertainment Weekly, “I’ve made my goals. I’ve done everything I wanted to do.” She was labeled a “postmodern pinup for a tabloid age” by Adam Bernstein and Tamara Jones of the Washington Post, and American Studies lecturer of the University of California at Berkeley Kathleen Moran commented in the Chicago Tribune, “We’d like to be able to come from nowhere like she did, and organize a coup and get it and win.”

Smith had often stated that she expected to die like her idol, Marilyn Monroe, through an overdose. Tragically, that was not far from the truth. After the death of her son, she suffered severe depression and was on several medications. On February 8, 2007, she died of an accidental overdose of a sleeping medication that combined badly with her other prescriptions; she was 39. “For those of us who worked closely with Anna Nicole and got to know the woman behind the public persona, this is devastating news,” senior vice president of E! Networks Jeff Shore commented on E! Online. “She was a sweet person who adored her son, made us laugh and cry with her, and who was never afraid of what others may have thought of her. There will never be another like her, and I already miss her.” Sources: Chicago Tribune, February 9, 2007, sec. 1, p. 1, p. 8; CNN.com, http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/02/08/anna.nicole.collapses/index.html (February 8, 2007); E! Online, http://www.eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=692afa25abe423e-b051-96a001934dfb/ (February 7, 2007), http://www.eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=731d70ff-4c4f-4bbl-ab7c-17498a333134/ (February 8, 2007); Entertainment Weekly, February 23, 2007, p. 27, p. 106; Fox.com, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,261160,00.html (March 26, 2007); New York Times, February 9, 2007, p. A12; People, February 26, 2007, pp. 102-12; Times (London), February 10, 2007, p. 82; Washington Post, February 9, 2007, p. A1, p. A9.

—Alana Joli Abbott