Reported By:
| Edited By: |Source: Reuters |Updated: Nov 21, 2013, 01:44 PM IST
American actress Brittany Murphy, who starred in such films as Clueless, Girl, Interrupted, and Just Married but saw her fortunes wane in recent years, died in Los Angeles on Sunday after suffering cardiac arrest in her bathroom, officials said. She was 32.
Murphy was pronounced dead at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre at about 10am Pacific Time (1800 GMT, 10:30pm IST), two hours after her mother reportedly found her unconscious in the shower of the actress's Hollywood Hills home.
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles county coroner said there were no suspicious circumstances but that an autopsy would take place in the next few days.
Celebrity gossip website TMZ, which first broke the news, reported late on Sunday that there was "a significant amount of vomit" in the bathroom area. It said Murphy had been taking medication for "flu-like symptoms for several days, and that there were a lot of prescriptions in the house".
There was no immediate word from Murphy's publicist beyond a statement that was issued on behalf of her family: "The sudden loss of our beloved Brittany is a terrible tragedy. She was our daughter, our wife, our love, and a shining star. We ask you to respect our privacy at this time."
Murphy starred in films opposite Michael Douglas, Ashton Kutcher, Eminem, and Angelina Jolie but failed to attain their level of success. In recent years, she worked mostly in low-budget movies, while her emaciated appearance sparked concerns about her health.
"[Today] the world lost a little piece of sunshine," Kutcher, a former boyfriend, wrote on his Twitter page. "[S]ee you on the other side kid." Her publicist declined comment, saying the family wanted privacy.
Murphy was in the news earlier this month when she was reportedly fired from the Puerto Rico set of the independent thriller The Caller. Her publicist said the split resulted from creative differences.
When Murphy and her husband of two years, British screenwriter Simon Monjack, returned to Los Angeles, he lost consciousness on the plane and was rushed to hospital.
Small-screen success
Murphy was last in theatres with the low-budget thriller Across the Hall, which opened in one theatre each in New York and Los Angeles two weeks ago. She recently finished work on the Sylvester Stallone action film The Expendables.
Murphy was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on November 10, 1977, and raised in New Jersey. Accompanied by her mother, she moved to Los Angeles in the early 1990s in hopes of stardom. She made her breakthrough in the 1995 feature comedy Clueless, playing a frumpy schoolgirl who gets a makeover from Alicia Silverstone's character.
"I always felt connected to her as we shared a very special experience in our lives together," Silverstone said in a statement to People magazine. "I feel love in my heart for her — and hope she is at peace. This is truly sad."
Murphy built on her momentum with a succession of TV roles and appeared in two films in 1999 — Drop Dead Gorgeous and Girl, Interrupted, for which Jolie received an Oscar. She worked with Douglas in the 2001 thriller Don't Say a Word, and played Eminem's love interest in the 2002 hit 8 Mile.
The following year, she co-starred with Kutcher in the romantic comedy Just Married, and played Dakota Fanning's babysitter in Uptown Girls. But the movies failed to generate much commercial or critical heat. Her last major role was in the 2005 comic-book adaptation Sin City.
Murphy enjoyed more enduring success on the small screen, providing the voice of the vacuous Texan Luanne Platter in the cartoon series King of the Hill. She also gave the voice for a penguin in the 2006 box office hit Happy Feet.
