Most people my age remember the first time they saw Brittany Murphy. She had brown hair, a weird accent, was very short, and awkward in her role as Tai in Clueless in 1995. The next movie I saw her in was the white-trash re-imagining of Little Red Riding Hood, Freeway. Murphy was a psychotic teenager in a juvenile facility with Reese Witherspoon's character, Vanessa. She was creepy and pathetic as Rhonda, who befriends Vanessa and continuously attempts to make out with her. (If you haven't watched Freeway, and you love off-kilter and raunchy humor, YOU MUST WATCH IT).
Murphy played another mentally unstable character in 1999's Girl Interrupted alongside Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie. She was also a dippy beauty pageant contestant in 1999's Drop Dead Gorgeous, another movie I highly recommend. She returned to mentally unstable in Don't Say A Word with Michael Douglas. Murphy moved into romantic comedies with Just Married, Little Black Book, Uptown Girls, and other films. She also had a small part in Robert Rodriguez's Sin City.
At this point in her career, she was very blonde and very thin. She was also doing voice work for the television series "King of the Hill" and movies like Happy Feet. She also sang, unleashing her powerful voice in an opening number for MTV's Movie Awards around 2002. She had a hit song with Paul Oakenfield with their dance song, "Faster Kill Pussycat" in 2006.
Towards the end of her life, Murphy's lip became extremely puffy, obviously plastic surgery or alteration of some kind, and she was starring in more and more direct to DVD or poor performing movies. She met and married Simon Monjack, a British screenwriter who was 7 years older and, let's be honest, a lot less attractive than his famous wife. Murphy, Monjack, and Murphy's mother all moved in together, living this way until Murphy's death. After her death, Monjack and Murphy's mother continued to live together. Until Monjack passed away from the same thing that killed Brittany.
After L.A. fire department was called to Murphy's residence on December 20th, 2009, Brittany passed away. It was found that she was suffering from pneumonia, anemia, and too many prescription and over-the-counter drugs in her system. Monjack passed away May, 2010 from pneumonia and anemia as well. It was an odd end to the career and life of a promising young actress fighting to find success in Hollywood.
Through the roles she played she seemed genuinely likable. Truth through Art. She was a real cutie pie.
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