Anna Nicole Smith in photos: the story of her tragic life and death

The Netflix documentary 'You Don't Know Me' is set to reveal more about the tragic life of the famous (adult) model and actress Anna Nicole Smith. She left this world very young, at age 39, and had a life full of controversies and setbacks. Here's the story of Anna Nicole Smith in photos.

The iconic blonde was born on November 28, 1967, in Houston, Texas. What few know is that her real name was Vickie Lynn Hogan. Her parents were Virgie and Donald Hogan, but she wasn't raised by her father. Instead, her mother and aunt raised Vickie.

As a teenager, she dropped out of school and worked at a Red Lobster, Wal-Mart, and a fried chicken restaurant before starting her career at a strip club in Houston, CNN states. At the chicken restaurant, Jim's Krispy Fried Chicken, she met Billy Smith, a young man of 16.

Vickie Lynn would end up marrying the teen in 1985 and had her first child with him in January 1986. Billy Smith was 17, and the future model was only 18 years old. The relationship didn't last long. In 1987, the couple separated, and in 1993 they were officially divorced.

At the Houston strip club where she worked, Vickie met the man who would ultimately change her life. J. Howard Marshall was an oil billionaire who fell in love with her shortly after they met. He proposed to her several times, but she initially felt it was too soon to marry him.

In March 1992, the model appeared for the first time on the cover of P l a y b o y. Under the name of Vickie Smith, she became the P l a y mate of the Month. Her fame only grew after she was named P l a y mate of the Year in 1993.

1992 was an important year for Vickie. She was asked to replace Claudia Schiffer in an ad campaign for the fashion brand Guess. That's when she adopted the name, Anna Nicole Smith.

In addition to the campaign for Guess and her common appearances in P l a y b o y, Anna Nicole Smith also modeled for the Swedish brand H&M and appeared on the covers of Marie Claire and GQ magazine.

Anna Nicole Smith had declined J. Howard Marshall's marriage proposals because she wanted to have a career before remarrying. Once her national fame had taken off, in 1994, she finally married the tycoon. 

He was 89 at the time, and she was 26. It was a controversial union, even though much later, several media including the LA Times and New York Magazine would assert that Anna Nicole Smith was not a gold-digger and that she really married Marshall out of love. 

Photo: @HistoryInPics / Twitter

Barely 13 months after the marriage, the billionaire tycoon died at the age of 90. It was a sudden case of pneumonia and Marshall succumbed to it on August 4, 1995.

Anna Nicole Smith was devastated, but in the harsh media reports of the 1990s, she was often portrayed as a woman who was only after the billionaire's money. Especially when she embarked on a legal battle to inherit half of Marshall's fortune.

In a 2002 interview with Larry King, Anna Nicole said, "I loved him so much for what he did for me and my son. I've never had a love like that before."

She explained that Marshall had given her something unique that money could never buy. "No one has ever loved me, and done things for me, and respected me, and didn't care about what people said about me."

In Marshall's will, both Anna Nicole Smith and his stepson Howard III had been excluded. Another stepson, E. Pierce Marshall, did inherit from the tycoon. In the legal battle that followed, Anna Nicole and Howard III tried to invalidate the elder Marshall's will and trust.

Anna Nicole alleged that during their marriage, J. Howard Marshall had promised her half of his fortune in the event of his death. However, after years of legal battles, both Anna Nicole and stepson J. Howard Marshall III lost the fight over the inheritance in the Texas state court.

Meanwhile, the model had embarked on an acting career. In 1994, she landed what was her most famous role in the film 'N a k e d Gun 33+1⁄3: The Final Insult', alongside Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, and O.J. Simpson. She played the character of Tanya Peters, the seductive girlfriend of the bad guy.

She also participated in a few not-very-successful films such as 'To the Limit' (1995), 'Skyscraper' (1996), 'Wasabi Tuna' (2003), and 'Be Cool' (2005). 'Illegal Aliens' (2007) would be her last film appearance.

On Smith's resume were also some appearances in successful TV series such as 'Veronica's Closet' (1999), 'Ally McBeal' (1999), and 'All of Us' (2005).

In addition, she starred in two music videos in the 90s: 'You Win, I Lose' (1997) by Supertramp, and 'Jumper' (1998) by Third Eye Blind; and a famous one in 2004, 'The New Workout Plan Video' by Kanye West (photo).

On August 4, 2002, the famous model got her own reality show on E!: 'The Anna Nicole Show.' It followed Anna Nicole's day-to-day life with particular attention to her weight gain and the difficulties she had getting a job as a model and actress with a few extra pounds.

In 2006, Anna Nicole Smith became a mother for the second time. Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern was born on September 7 in Nassau, Bahamas. For a time, the identity of the father was unclear.

Howard K. Stern, Anna's attorney, claimed paternity of Dannielynn. He said he had a longtime relationship with Anna Nicole. However, photographer Larry Birkhead claimed he was the real father and filed a lawsuit.

Finally, in April 2007, DNA testing proved that Birkhead was indeed the father. Anna Nicole's daughter now goes by the name of Dannielynn Birkhead. Here you see the father and daughter together in May 2023.

At the time, Anna Nicole Smith had a much bigger problem to deal with - a devastating blow, in fact. Only three days after the birth of her daughter Dannielynn, her beloved son Daniel suddenly passed away. It was September 10, 2006, and Anna Nicole had not even left the hospital yet.

According to the autopsy, Daniel died from a combination of drugs, including methadone and antidepressants. Within two weeks after his passing, a death certificate was issued, so that Daniel could be buried. However, the cause of death remained "pending toxicology report."

Daniel died in his mother's hospital room while was visiting to meet his new half-sister. The circumstances of his death raised questions about where he got the drugs that he would die from. Only a year and a half later, in March 2008, a jury in the Bahamas determined that the cause of death was an accidental overdose and not a criminal case.

Daniel's death came as a blow to Anna Nicole, who was still recovering from the birth of her daughter. Her attorney Michael Scott would state that "Anna Nicole was so distraught at the loss of Daniel that she refused to leave his side and it was necessary to sedate her in order to check her out of the hospital."

As Stern had said before, he was indeed seeing Anna Nicole Smith. Only days after the burial of her son, the lawyer and his client decided to exchange vows and rings in a Baptist commitment ceremony in the Bahamas. A marriage certificate was never issued, however.

Less than half a year after her daughter's birth and her son's death, fate struck. Anna Nicole Smith was found unconscious in the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, and would not wake up again. It was February 8, 2007.

According to the autopsy, lots of (legal) drugs were found on her body. The forensic pathologists and toxicologists ruled the cause of death as a "combined drug intoxication". 

It was a tragic irony that her cause of death, "an accidental overdose with no other criminal element present" per the Seminole Police Department in Florida, was exactly the same as that of her son. 

Anna Nicole Smith has always remained the topic of tragic stories and speculations. In May 2023, Netflix released a documentary about the model that might clarify a lot of the mystery and controversy surrounding the adult star. 

In any case, her life was marked by tragedy as much as controversy. She was a teen mom, an adult model and actress with self-declared weight problems, and the devastated widow of an octogenarian billionaire who never got the full confidence of the press. The death of her son, and then her own at age 39, were the final blows of the Hollywood star's difficult existence.