On the cool morning of December 20, 2009, actress Brittany Murphy collapsed unconscious in the primary bathroom of her Hollywood Hills home, where she lived with her mother, Sharon Murphy, and husband of two years, Simon Monjack. “My daughter’s passed out,” her mother sobbed in the disturbing 911 call. “She was dizzy, she couldn’t walk right, she’s had a cold.” Two hours later, the bubbly star with the megawatt smile, beloved for her roles in Clueless, Girl, Interrupted and a string of popular films in the early 2000s, was pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She was 32 years old. As the shocking news spread, so did disbelief. How could a young woman of wealth and means pass away from what the coroner concluded was pneumonia? If Murphy was sick, why didn’t someone take her to the doctor? Speculation swirled: Murphy had overdosed, she’d been poisoned, she died from an eating disorder or toxic mold. When word got out that Murphy’s husband, a disreputable, 39-year-old British screenwriter and director, refused to allow an autopsy (he was later overruled), suspicions turned on him. “We all were scared and freaked out,” friend and actress Kathy Najimy revealed in the 2021 HBO Max documentary What Happened, Brittany Murphy? Things got even stranger five months later, when Monjack eerily followed his wife in death — in the same house, of similar causes. Something didn’t feel right. In the 15 years that have passed, Murphy’s life and tragic death have continued to stoke an aura of mystery. “I think that’s why people just don’t let it go,” Dr. Lisa Scheinin, retired L.A. County Deputy Medical Examiner who performed Murphy’s autopsy, shares in the latest Us Weekly cover story. “A lot of times, when a celebrity dies, there’s an initial flurry of interest and then it just fades away.” Not so in this case. Scheinin stands by her official report of February 2010, stating that Murphy’s death was accidental, caused by pneumonia, anemia and prescription drug intoxication. But Scheinin also insists the tragedy was preventable. No alcohol or illegal drugs were found in her system. However, the excessive level of medications — 90 prescription bottles were found at the couple’s bedside, some in “third party names,” according to the coroner’s investigation — indicated glaring misuse. Moreover, Murphy’s anemia, in part due to excessive blood loss from heavy periods, could have easily been controlled, says Scheinin. “All she needed was to have gone to a doctor who would probably have sent her immediately for blood transfusions. Her hematocrit [red blood cell count] was practically so low at death it was incompatible with life. I’m surprised she lasted that long.” Unfortunately, conjecture about Murphy’s death continues to hijack her legacy, overshadowing the achievements of the promising young woman whose career never reached the heights it should have. Director Alex Merkin, who helmed 2009’s Across the Hall, the last of Murphy’s films to be released in her lifetime, tells Us he places her in the same category as Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. “She was one of those stars with a bright future that never got fulfilled,” he says. “She was a bright, talented, one-of-a-kind actress who we lost way too soon.” Makeup artist Trista Jordan, who worked with Murphy on Something Wicked (released in 2014), tells Us she often wishes she could have done more to save the star: “Brittany left an impact on a lot of people’s hearts. She truly was a sweetheart, but I don’t think she surrounded herself with the right people. I think if she hadn’t met Simon Monjack, she’d probably still be alive.” Abandonment Issues While Murphy is remembered for her effervescent spirit, those close to her describe an undercurrent of sadness that may have led to her fatal trajectory. When Murphy was still a preschooler in Edison, New Jersey, her allegedly mobbed-up father, Angelo Bertolotti, was sent to prison and out of her life, leaving his young daughter with a deep-seated yearning for love and protection. Murphy filled the void left by her dad’s absence by immersing herself in dance and theater. Her teachers recall a precocious youngster obsessed with the stage and screen. As her mother told Larry King in January 2010: “She just came out of me a show person.” Brittany Murphy’s 10 Best Movie Roles, in Honor of Her 47th Birthday In the early 1990s, mother and daughter, who were as close as sisters, moved to Los Angeles so that Murphy could pursue her acting career. The pint-size teenager with the infectious giggle first landed small parts in commercials and sitcoms, including Sister, Sister and Boy Meets World, but soon moved up to substantial movie roles. “Brittany was 14 when she came into the offices,” Chris Snyder, the star’s first agent in Los Angeles, recalled in the HBO Max documentary. “TV was fun, but Brittany wanted to be a movie star with every fiber of her being. She wanted to be in films.” Making It Murphy’s big break came in 1995, playing a frumpy high school student in Clueless. She followed up with 1999’s acclaimed Girl, Interrupted, alongside Angelina Jolie and Winona Ryder, who became a close friend. With her impressive 2002 role as rapper Eminem’s love interest in 8 Mile, she graduated to an in-demand It Girl. Some 20 credits followed, including voice parts as Gloria the Penguin in Happy Feet and Luanne in the TV series King of the Hill. “Her timing was impeccable. She could be funny. She could be dramatic. She was a terrific actress,” the late Penny Marshall, who directed Murphy in 2001’s Riding in Cars with Boys, told The Hollywood Reporter. To Merkin, “her energy was bright and interesting and undeniable,” he says. “Sometimes in the industry, you meet big, successful stars and understand immediately what makes people gravitate toward them. Brittany had that quality.” Coroner: Brittany Murphy Weighed “115 Pounds” at Time of Death But insecurity secretly dogged the young actress’ path. After receiving lacerating feedback on her appearance from producers and agents, she gave herself an extreme makeover, dying her hair blond and shedding a dramatic amount of weight from her tiny 5-foot-2-inch frame. While Murphy denied rumors that she was anorexic, her friend actress Melanie Lynskey talked openly about body-shaming and the intense pressure to be thin in Hollywood. “The way [Brittany] saw herself always broke my heart,” recalled Lynskey. “The things she felt she had to change to be a successful actress.” Roger Neal, a publicist hired by Monjack after Murphy’s passing, echoes Lynskey’s reproof of Hollywood’s impossible — and sexist— beauty standards. “Her transformation made me sad,” he tells Us. “A casting director commented that Brittany was ‘pretty, but not f—able,’ and if you’re not f—kable, you won’t be a leading lady. That was advice she got [and] that’s why she lost so much weight.” Adds Merkin: “This industry is hard on a lot of young women. It causes insecurities and fear. It’s really a mean place and takes a toll, especially on an interesting and quirky young actress like Brittany.” Search for Love After meeting on the set of Just Married, Murphy began a high-profile relationship with A-lister Ashton Kutcher in 2002. “From the minute they met, they were together, they laughed all the time, they made jokes and they looked happy,” the film’s director, Shawn Levy, observed. But when the couple split six months later, Murphy’s personal life began to flounder. Seemingly lost and hungry for male support, she was engaged to Hollywood talent manager Jeff Kwatinetz for four months in 2004 and had another short betrothal to a production assistant she met while filming Little Black Book in 2005. By the time she crossed paths with Monjack in 2006, Murphy was in a vulnerable place. Not only were her relationships not working, but roles in studio films were also drying up due to reports of tardiness and being medicated on set. Oblivious to Monjack’s reputation as a con man and epic liar, the naive star, who never learned to balance a checkbook or drive a car, fell hard. In her mind, she’d finally found a father figure who would love and shield her from life’s cruelties. But Monjack soon took tight rein over Murphy’s life — including her career and bank account. Breckin Meyer Remembers Late Brittany Murphy’s During 90s Con ‘Clueless’ Reunion: She Was So ‘Talented’ “Brittany was very happy. She was in love. And as crazy as this sounds, I believe Simon really loved her,” says Neal. “But Simon decided to take control of her career, which he had no business doing.” He fired her entire team and became her agent, manager, accountant, lawyer, gatekeeper and even makeup artist. According to friends, Murphy lost access to her own phone and email address. All communication came through Monjack. Alarmed by his restrictive behavior and Murphy’s increasing frailty, her circle of friends staged an intervention before she married him in 2007. But the actress refused to heed their advice, insisting he was her soulmate. As the marriage wore on, however, Murphy slid into isolation and paranoia, Merkin notes. “I think Simon tried to keep her off balance to make her feel like he was the only one who could protect her. He created an ‘us against the world’ mentality that felt very controlling and manipulative.” Downward Spiral By April 2009, when Murphy arrived on the Oregon set of Something Wicked, makeup artist Jordan was stunned by her appearance. “Her hair was unwashed, her eyes were really sunken, and she didn’t have any sense of balance,” Jordan tells Us. “She looked like baby Bambi getting out of a chair. Her little knees just couldn’t hold her up.” Throughout filming, during which Monjack bizarrely insisted on doing his wife’s makeup, Murphy often asked for her mother, a breast cancer survivor, saying she needed “a shot,” Jordan recalls. “I don’t know what Sharon was giving her, maybe a vitamin elixir or an IV. But obviously they knew she needed more support than what she was getting. If I could do it over, I would have been more of an advocate. There should have been an intervention.” Dakota Fanning Gushes Over Brittany Murphy After ‘Uptown Girls’ Clips Go Viral: ‘I Still Miss Her’ Six months later, in November 2009, Murphy traveled with Monjack, her mother and her Maltese puppy, Clara, to Puerto Rico to shoot a low-budget thriller, The Caller. Things went south the first day, when Monjack reportedly showed up drunk and combative. After he was banned from the set, Murphy promptly parted ways with the production. The trio stayed on eight more days vacationing in San Juan — but Monjack and Sharon came down with debilitating colds while there. Upon return to Los Angeles, things unraveled at a disturbing pace. Murphy caught the bug, which became pneumonia. Six weeks later, she was dead. Curiouser and Curiouser In the months following her passing, Sharon and Monjack sparked unsavory rumors by continuing to live together in the house on Rising Glen Road, where, TMZ reported, they often slept in the same bed (Sharon vehemently denied the claims). An unfortunate TV interview with Larry King, in which they behaved like a grieving couple rather than mother and son-in-law, further raised eyebrows. Neal insists there was nothing improper going on, just two people undone by grief trying to survive. Murphy’s long-absent father became convinced that she was poisoned and said so on Good Morning America. A lab report he commissioned detected high levels of heavy metals in his daughter’s hair sample but failed to prove his suspicions of murder. The abnormality was deemed the likely result of hairspray and dye. Meanwhile, the 300-pound Monjack, often more catatonic than lucid, descended into his own ruinous health nightmare. “When I met him, a month after Brittany’s death, he was sweating and drinking a cognac,” Neal tells Us. “He would drift in and out of sleep while I talked.” When he died on May 23, 2010, at 40, the official cause was anemia and pneumonia, as it had been for his wife. Ashton Kutcher’s Dating History: Mila Kunis, Demi Moore and More Monjack’s mother, Linda, was among those who suspected toxic mold in the couple’s mansion had been a contributing factor to their deaths. But the Los Angeles County coroner’s office investigated and dismissed the claim. Later, in 2011, when the still-grieving Sharon put the house on the market, appraisers discovered substantial water leaks and, yes, significant mold in the hillside abode. The family sued the builders and sold the ill-fated house. Sharon moved to an unknown address in Los Angeles — and off the Hollywood radar. In the end, given Murphy’s severe physical deterioration, combined with a troubled husband, the soul-crushing demands of Hollywood and a possibly toxic house, the brilliant young star didn’t really stand a chance. “The whole thing was just so, so sad,” says Neal. “Simon conned her and single-handedly wiped her career away.” Merkin prefers to remember Murphy serenading the movie set of Across the Hall with her “exceptional singing voice,” belting out standards like “Making Whoopee” or “Put on a Happy Face.” “She would be trying to lighten up the crew, brightening up the space around her,” he says. “She had a timeless, classic quality; she was a true movie star. And that talent was lost.” For more on Murphy, watch the exclusive video above and pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly — on newsstands now. With reporting by Andrea Simpson
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