On December 20, 2009, Murphy died suddenly after going into cardiac arrest. At the time of her death, she had several films in post-production, yet to be released.
Best Known As: Eminem's girlfriend in the 2002 film 8 Mile
Actress Brittany Murphy made a Hollywood specialty of playing rough-around-the-edges chums and lovers. After guest starring roles in TV series like Blossom and Party of Five, she made her feature film debut in Clueless (1995) as Tai, the low-rent ugly duckling befriended by Alicia Silverstone's sleek Cher. Murphy won good reviews as Daisy, Winona Ryder's suicidal fellow mental patient in Girl, Interrupted (1999). She followed that with supporting roles in a string of "chick flicks" including Sidewalks of New York (2001) and Riding In Cars With Boys (2002, with Drew Barrymore). Murphy gradually remade herself from dowdy brunette to slim and sultry blonde: she played Eminem's fame-hungry girlfriend in 8 Mile, the 2002 film inspired by the rapper's life, the waitress Shellie in the violent comic book drama Sin City (2005, with Bruce Willis) and the noodle-master-in-training of The Ramen Girl (2008). Murphy also provided the voice of Luanne in the long-running animated series King of the Hill.
Murphy married screenwriter Simon Monjack in May 2007. She had been engaged to film crew electrician Joe Macaluso in December of 2005; they had split in August of 2006. She had previously been engaged to Jeff Kwatinetz, CEO of the talent management company The Firm... She provided vocals on Paul Oakenfold's single Faster Kill Pussycat, a dance club hit in 2006.
Career Highlights: Clueless, Girl, Interrupted, Drop Dead Gorgeous
First Major Screen Credit: Clueless (1995)
Biography
Brittany Murphy first came to the attention of film audiences as Tai, one of Alicia Silverstone's airhead friends, in the 1995 comedy Clueless. Though convincing as a dim-bulb character, Murphy cuts dramatically against this grain off-camera, as a ferociously intelligent and ambitious young performer who had acting in her blood from early childhood. As a teenager and young adult, she gave expression to the scope of her talent and versatility with a series of engaging film and television roles.
Born in Atlanta on November 10, 1977, Murphy was raised by her single mother in Edison, New Jersey; she later indicated, in interviews, that her mom struggled financially - that they were forced to eat spaghetti night after night, and that on certain occasions, she had to beg her mother to buy clothes at KMart; this would later account for Murphy's marked social investment in homeless causes, as discussed in a February 2003 Glamour article.
A precocious child who began putting on shows when she was a toddler, Murphy was acting in regional theatre productions by the age of nine. Work in various commercials followed, and in 1990 she landed her first television appearance at the age of twelve, on the sitcom Blossom. She also secured a supporting role as Brenda Drexell, the fourteen-year-old daughter of Dabney Coleman's fifth grade teacher Otis Drexell, on the (mercifully) short-lived 1991 FOX sitcom Drexell's Class. The following year, Murphy took her first cinematic bow in the dysfunctional family drama Family Prayers.
Murphy's talent for portraying, dramatically, all degrees on the spectrum of behavioral dysfunction further came to light in three successive projects through 1999: the blackly comic Reese Witherspoon trailer trash odyssey Freeway (1996) (as a disfigured lesbian who befriends Witherspoon's Vanessa); a mental patient in Lloyd Kramer's made-for-TV David and Lisa (1998), and James Mangold's Girl, Interrupted (1999) (as yet another resident at a mental institution).
Meanwhile, on a less ambitious (albeit more whimsical) note, Murphy also became a fixtureon King of the Hill, Mike Judge's long-running contemporary cartoon of suburban life in the southern U.S., as Luanne Platter, the hair stylist niece who comes to live with Hank Hill's family. Murphy kept a full plate as the millennium wrapped. In addition to her work for Mangold in 1999,
Cast opposite Eminem in director Curtis Hanson's 2002 drama8 Mile, Murphy performed compellingly as an aspiring rap star's unapologetic muse; in 2004, Murphy headlined Nick Hurran's thoroughly disappointing rom-com Little Black Book. She also made a splash in Robert Rodriguez's innovative graphic novel adaptation Sin City, as the arrogant waitress who becomes the prize in a heated rivalry between Benicio del Toro and Clive Owen.
Murphy made appearances in four features in 2006. In Alex Keshishian's progressive romantic comedy Love and Other Disasters, she played a London-based American expatriate, employed at Vogue, who tries to fix up her gay roommate; in Ed Burns's sixth directorial outing, the Big Chill-like romantic comedy The Groomsmen, she played the expectant girlfriend of Burns's Paulie. She also portrayed a member of the ensemble in Karen Moncrieff's murder mystery The Dead Girl, about a group of seemingly disconnected individuals whose lives intersect as a girl's murderer comes to light, and one of the lead voices in George "Babe" Miller's Happy Feet, an animated penguin tale.
Murphy's appearance alongside Ashton Kutcher in Just Married was - to some degree - a case of art imitating life: offscreen, Murphy and Kutcher began to date as well (and became a hot tabloid item), though unlike their onscreen counterparts, they never wed.
In the several years that followed, Murphy remained active, both in front of and behind the camera; she lent her voice to the CG-animated George Miller comedy Happy Feet (2006), and starred in and produced a Robert Allan Ackerman directed comedy-drama, The Ramen Girl, that suggested tremendous promise (though it went straight to home video). Murphy also starred in a made-for-television movie on the Lifetime network, Nora Roberts' Tribute (2009). That marked the end of her career, however: the actress's life was tragically cut short when she died in December 2009 at the age of 32. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Brittany Anne Murphy[2] was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on November 10, 1977.[3] Her parents, Sharon Kathleen Murphy[4] and Angelo Bertolotti, divorced when she was two years old, and Murphy was raised by her mother in Edison, New Jersey, and later in Los Angeles, where they moved so Murphy could pursue an acting career.[5][6][7] Murphy said her mother never tried to stifle her creativity, and she considered her mother a crucial factor in her later success: "When I asked my mom to move to California, she sold everything and moved out here for me. … She always believed in me."[3] Murphy's mother is of Irish and Eastern European descent and her father is Italian American.[8][9] She was raised a Baptist and later became a non-denominationalChristian.[10][11]
Murphy had two older half-brothers, Jeff and Tony Bertolotti, and a younger half-sister, Pia Bertolotti.[12]
Murphy completed her last film, the thriller/dramaAbandoned, in June 2009. The film is scheduled for release in 2010.[16]
In November 2009, Murphy left the production of the The Caller, which was being filmed in Puerto Rico, and was replaced by Rachelle Lefevre. Murphy denied media reports that she had been fired from the project after being difficult on set, and cited "creative differences".[17]
Music and modeling
Murphy performs for the crew during a USO show aboard USS Nimitz on June 19, 2003.
In late 2002, Murphy began dating Ashton Kutcher, her co-star in Just Married.[22] Once engaged to talent manager Jeff Kwatinetz, Murphy became engaged to Joe Macaluso in December 2005, a production assistant she met while working on the film Little Black Book.[23] In August 2006, they ended their engagement.[23] In May 2007, Murphy married British screenwriter Simon Monjack in a private Jewish ceremony in Los Angeles.[24] For the last three and a half years of her life, Murphy, her mother and Monjack lived in the same house together.[25]
Death
At 08:00 (16:00 GMT) on December 20, 2009, the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to "a medical request"[26] at the Los Angeles home Murphy and Monjack shared. She apparently collapsed in a bathroom.[3] Firefighters attempted to resuscitate Murphy on the scene. She was subsequently transported to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead on arrival[27] at 10:04 after going into cardiac arrest.[3][26]
Shortly after her death, Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter told the Associated Press: "It appears to be natural."[28][29][30] An autopsy was performed on December 21, 2009. Her death certificate listed the cause of death as "deferred".[31] On February 4, 2010, the Los Angeles County coroner stated that the primary cause of Murphy's death was pneumonia, with secondary factors of iron-deficiency anemia and multiple drug intoxication. The drugs ingested were all said to be prescription medications. Further details on the drugs involved are due to be released when a full report is published.[32][33]
