Brittany Murphy Biography

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Brittany Murphy first came to the attention of film audiences when she starred as Tai, one of Alicia Silverstone’s airhead friends in the 1995 comedy Clueless. After making her name as this dim bulb character, Murphy went on to prove that she was anything but clueless with a number of television and film roles that gave expression to the scope of her talent and versatility.

Born in Atlanta on November 10, 1977, Murphy was raised by her mother in Edison, New Jersey. 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 role, on the sitcom Blossom. 

She then went on to a lead on the short-lived sitcom Drexell’s Class in 1991, and the following year she made her film debut in the dysfunctional family drama Family Prayers.

Murphy’s talent for portraying all sorts of dysfunction was further exhibited in such films as Clueless; the Reese Witherspoon trailer trash odyssey Freeway (1996); and the made-for-TV David and Lisa (1998). Murphy won particular acclaim for her work in the last film; the story of two emotionally troubled teens (Murphy and Lukas Haas) who reach out to each other allowed the actress to prove herself in a purely dramatic role.

In 1999, Murphy could again be seen portraying an emotionally damaged character in Girl, Interrupted, in which she played a patient at a mental institution. That same year, she explored the collective insanity of the beauty pageant world in Drop Dead Gorgeous, playing a pageant contestant who’d rather be living it up in New York with her cross-dressing brother.

On the small screen that year, she switched to much darker fare with the Holocaust drama The Devil’s Arithmetic. With her plate increasingly full moving into the new millennium, Murphy could be seen in the both the Michael Douglas thriller Don’t Say a Word, and alongside Drew Barrymore in Riding in Cars With Boys in 2001.

Cast opposite Eminem in director Curtis Hanson’s 2002 /drama 8 Mile, Murphy provided a compelling performance as an aspiring rap star’s unapologetic muse before starting 2003 on a lighter note with the /comedy Just Married.

In addition to the praise she has received for her film portrayals, Murphy has won a different sort of acclaim for the work she has done on the animated TV series King of the Hill.

As the voice of the Hills’ beauty school sex kitten niece Luanne, the actress earned the kind of recognition that can only come from an animated character who was named one of the sexiest women on television by a major men’s magazine.

Murphy starred in several films, including Clueless (1995); Girl, Interrupted (1999); Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999); Don’t Say a Word (2001); the TV adaptation of the novel The Devil’s Arithmetic (2001); 8 Mile (2002) and Uptown Girls (2003) as well as many lesser-known films, such as Spun (2002). In 2003, she starred in the romantic comedies Just Married and Little Black Book (2004) and the critically acclaimed Sin City (2005).

She starred in two Edward Burns films: Sidewalks of New York (2001) and The Groomsmen (2006). Film critic Roger Ebert acclaimed her acting talent, giving good reviews to several of her films and comparing her to Lucille Ball.[16] In 2009, she was cast in the Lifetime TV movie, Tribute, as the main character, Cilla. She was set to appear in the Sylvester Stallone film, The Expendables, which was released in August 2010.

Murphy was also a voice actor. She voiced the character Luanne Platter on the FOX animated sitcom King of the Hill for the entirety of the show’s run from 1997 to 2009, and Joseph Gribble until season 5. She also provided the voice for Gloria the penguin in the 2006 feature Happy Feet. She was nominated for an Annie Award for voice acting in the King of the Hill episode “Movin’ On Up”.

Murphy completed her last film, the thriller/drama Abandoned, in June 2009, released in 2010. In November 2009, Murphy left the production of 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”

Death: At 08:00 (16:00 GMT) on December 20, 2009, the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to “a medical request” at the Los Angeles home Murphy and Monjack shared. She had apparently collapsed in a bathroom. Firefighters attempted to resuscitate Murphy on the scene. She was transported to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead on arrival at 10:04 after going into cardiac arrest.

Shortly after her death, Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter told the Associated Press: “It appears to be natural.” An autopsy was performed on December 21, 2009. Her death certificate listed the cause of death as “deferred”. 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.

On February 25, 2010, the coroner released a report stating that Murphy had been taking a range of over-the-counter and prescription medications, with the most likely reason being to treat a cold or respiratory infection. These included “elevated levels” of hydrocodone, acetaminophen, L-methamphetamine and chlorpheniramine. All of the drugs were legal and the death was ruled to be an accident, but the report observed: “the possible adverse physiological effects of elevated levels of these medications cannot be discounted, especially in her weakened state”. Murphy was buried at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills on December 24, 2009.

Five months after Brittany Murphy died, Monjack was found dead at the same Hollywood Hills residence. In July 2010, Los Angeles Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter stated that the cause of his death was acute pneumonia and severe anemia.

In January 2010 Murphy’s mother, Sharon, and her widower, Simon Monjack, established the Brittany Murphy Foundation, a charitable fund for children’s arts education, as well as supporting the USO and cancer research.

The Foundation was officially launched on February 4, 2010, at an event at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills where Monjack requested donations of $1,000 per person and $10,000 per corporation to attend, although records search revealed that the foundation’s not-for-profit status had not been filed.

Soon thereafter, the foundation announced it would refund any donations received and issued an official letter on the Foundation’s website. They stated that in an effort to get the foundation set up as quickly as possible, they had established it as a private foundation with plans to apply for nonprofit status down the road. However, they said that they had decided to wait until the Foundation’s nonprofit status was approved before going any further in order to truly honor Murphy and the foundation’s charitable goals.