HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Anna Nicole Smith, the Texas waitress who climbed into the top echelons of wealth and sexual glamour, died in Florida today, officials reported.
The former Playboy model and reality television star reportedly collapsed in her hotel room and was rushed to a hospital about 2 p.m. EST but was pronounced dead.
"I can confirm that she is deceased. It's as shocking to me as to you guys," Smith's attorney, Ronald Rale, told Reuters. "I don't know anything further. (Her lawyer and husband) Howard (K. Stern) obviously is speechless and grieving."
Smith, 39, was found unconscious in her hotel room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla., according to television reports.
"She was obviously in distress," hotel President Michael Bloom told the Associated Press.
Smith didn't have her baby with her, but was accompanied by her husband and four others, including a nurse, Bloom said. Bloom said the hotel received a call from her nurse just after 1:30 p.m. requesting assistance. Five minutes later, hotel security and emergency medical technicians responded to her room and contacted local fire and rescue teams.
No cause of death was immediately available.
It was the dramatic end to the life of the woman born Vickie Lynn Hogan in Houston on Nov. 28, 1967.
She was a woman who followed in the footsteps of Marilyn Monroe. She was a blonde bombshell who combined sexuality with tragedy to become notorious.
She gained and lost weight while serving as a spokesperson for a weight-loss company. But it was her personal life that gripped the public imagination.
Smith's son, Daniel, died last year in her hospital room in the Bahamas shortly after she gave birth to a daughter. She has been embroiled in legal fights over the girl's paternity.
She was also locked in a legal fight over the estate of oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, whom she married in 1994 when she was 26 and he was 89.
Marshall died the next year.
Smith ended up in a long-running battle with Marshall's son Pierce over her late husband's estate. Pierce died in June 2006.
She won a $474-million judgment, which was later cut to about $89 million, then to nothing.
Her case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices ruled in May that Smith could continue to pursue the inheritance in California courts.
Smith was a spokeswoman for the weight loss product TrimSpa. Last month, the Federal Trade Commission announced that TrimSpa would pay $1.5 million to settle allegations that the company's claims about weight loss were untrue.
The former Playboy model and reality television star reportedly collapsed in her hotel room and was rushed to a hospital about 2 p.m. EST but was pronounced dead.
"I can confirm that she is deceased. It's as shocking to me as to you guys," Smith's attorney, Ronald Rale, told Reuters. "I don't know anything further. (Her lawyer and husband) Howard (K. Stern) obviously is speechless and grieving."
Smith, 39, was found unconscious in her hotel room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla., according to television reports.
"She was obviously in distress," hotel President Michael Bloom told the Associated Press.
Smith didn't have her baby with her, but was accompanied by her husband and four others, including a nurse, Bloom said. Bloom said the hotel received a call from her nurse just after 1:30 p.m. requesting assistance. Five minutes later, hotel security and emergency medical technicians responded to her room and contacted local fire and rescue teams.
No cause of death was immediately available.
It was the dramatic end to the life of the woman born Vickie Lynn Hogan in Houston on Nov. 28, 1967.
She was a woman who followed in the footsteps of Marilyn Monroe. She was a blonde bombshell who combined sexuality with tragedy to become notorious.
She gained and lost weight while serving as a spokesperson for a weight-loss company. But it was her personal life that gripped the public imagination.
Smith's son, Daniel, died last year in her hospital room in the Bahamas shortly after she gave birth to a daughter. She has been embroiled in legal fights over the girl's paternity.
She was also locked in a legal fight over the estate of oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, whom she married in 1994 when she was 26 and he was 89.
Marshall died the next year.
Smith ended up in a long-running battle with Marshall's son Pierce over her late husband's estate. Pierce died in June 2006.
She won a $474-million judgment, which was later cut to about $89 million, then to nothing.
Her case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices ruled in May that Smith could continue to pursue the inheritance in California courts.
Smith was a spokeswoman for the weight loss product TrimSpa. Last month, the Federal Trade Commission announced that TrimSpa would pay $1.5 million to settle allegations that the company's claims about weight loss were untrue.
