Brittany Murphy Singer

Brittany Murphy-Monjack born Brittany Anne Bertolotti; November   – December   known professionally as Brittany Murphy was an American film and stage actress singer and voice artist. Murphy a native of Atlanta moved to Los Angeles as a teenager and pursued a career in acting. Her breakthrough role was in Amy Heckerling's Clueless  followed by supporting roles in independent films such as Freeway  and Bongwater .

She made her stage debut in a Broadway production of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge in  and then appeared in James Mangold's drama Girl Interrupted  as well as the satire Drop Dead Gorgeous .

The s saw Murphy with roles in Don't Say a Word  alongside Michael Douglas and alongside Eminem in Curtis Hanson's  Mile  for which she gained critical recognition. Her later roles included Riding in Cars with Boys  the dark comedy crime film Spun  Uptown Girls  alongside Dakota Fanning Sin City  and Happy Feet . Murphy also voiced Luanne Platter on the animated TV series King of the Hill. Her final film Something Wicked was released in April .



Early life
Brittany Anne Bertolotti was born in Atlanta Georgia to Sharon Kathleen Murphy and Angelo Joseph Bertolotti who divorced when she was two years old and Murphy was raised by her mother in Edison New Jersey. Bertolotti was not named as the father on the first death certificate. Prior to her enrolling at Edison High School the family moved to Los Angeles in  so that Murphy could pursue an acting career.

Murphy said her mother never tried to stifle her creativity and she considered her mother a crucial factor in her later success: 'When I asked my mom to move to California she sold everything and moved out here for me. She always believed in me.' Murphy's mother is of Irish and Eastern European descent and her father is of Italian ancestry. She was raised a Baptist and later became a non-denominational Christian. She had two older half-brothers and a younger half-sister.

Career

Murphy at the Australian premiere of Happy Feet December 
Acting
Murphy attended Verne Fowler School of Dance and Theatre Arts in Colonia New Jersey in . From the age of four she trained in singing dancing and acting until her move to California at thirteen. Murphy made her Broadway debut in  as Catherine in a revival of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge opposite veteran actors Anthony LaPaglia and Allison Janney.

Murphy landed her first job in Hollywood when she was thirteen starring as Brenda Drexell in the series Drexell's Class. She then went on to play Molly Morgan in the short-lived The Torkelsons spinoff Almost Home. Murphy also guest-starred on several television series including Parker Lewis Can't Lose Blossom seaQuest  Murder One and Frasier. She also had recurring roles on Sister Sister Party of Five and Boy Meets World.

Murphy's breakthrough role was in her second feature film the teen comedy Clueless  directed by Amy Heckerling which went on to receive cult status. She followed this with roles in Freeway  with Reese Witherspoon and Kiefer Sutherland and the independent comedy Bongwater . In  she landed a supporting role in James Mangold's Girl Interrupted  as a troubled psychiatric patient alongside Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie; and as an aspiring beauty queen in Drop Dead Gorgeous . She also voiced the character Luanne Platter on Fox's animated sitcom King of the Hill for the entirety of the show's run from  to  and Joseph Gribble until the fifth season. She was nominated for an Annie Award for voice acting in the King of the Hill episode 'Movin' On Up'.

She began in the s with a leading role in Don't Say a Word  alongside Michael Douglas; the TV adaptation of the novel The Devil's Arithmetic ;  Mile  for which she received critical acclaim; and Uptown Girls . In  she starred in the romantic comedies Just Married and Little Black Book  and the critically acclaimed Sin City . Film critic Roger Ebert frequently acclaimed Murphy's acting talent and comedic timing giving good reviews to several of her films and comparing her to Lucille Ball:

As for Brittany Murphy for me it goes back to the  Independent Spirit Awards where Murphy was assigned to present one of the awards. Her task was to read the names of the five nominees open an envelope and reveal the name of the winner. This she turned into an opportunity for screwball improvisational comedy by pretending she could not follow this sequence not even after the audience shouted instructions and the stage manager came to whisper in her ear not once but twice. There were those in the audience who were dumbfounded by her stupidity. I was dumbfounded by her brilliance.

Murphy followed with several independent films including as Spun  Neverwas  and Karen Moncrieff's The Dead Girl  as well as two Edward Burns films: Sidewalks of New York  and The Groomsmen . She returned to voice acting with the critically acclaimed  animated feature Happy Feet as Gloria Penguin. In  she was cast in the Lifetime TV movie Tribute as the main character Cilla. Murphy completed the thriller/drama Abandoned in June  and it was released in  after her death. In November  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'. Something Wicked her final film is scheduled to be released in .

Music
Murphy's career also included work as a singer. She commented: 'My singing voice isn't like my speaking voice...I've just always kept it a secret and never taken credit because I wanted to learn how to work behind the microphone in a recording studio and some of the singers don't even know it was me recording on their albums.'


Murphy performing for the crew during a USO show aboard USS Nimitz on June  
She was in a band called Blessed Soul with fellow actor Eric Balfour in the early s. On June   Murphy and Paul Oakenfold released the single 'Faster Kill Pussycat' from the album A Lively Mind. The song became a club hit and hit number one on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play chart. It also hit number seven in Oakenfold's native United Kingdom in June .

She dabbled in music again with the release of the film Happy Feet in which she covered Queen's 'Somebody to Love' and Earth Wind & Fire's 'Boogie Wonderland'. Murphy said about her character Gloria 'Oddly enough of all the characters I've played Gloria is the most like me. And she's a penguin! George Miller always wanted one person to do both the speaking and the singing. I said 'I can sing' and I asked him to give me a shot. I don't think he took me very seriously because most actors say they can do most things.'

Personal life
In late  Murphy began dating Ashton Kutcher her co-star in Just Married. Once engaged to talent manager Jeff Kwatinetz Murphy became engaged to Joe Macaluso in December  a production assistant she met while working on the film Little Black Book. In August  they ended their engagement. In May  Murphy married British screenwriter Simon Monjack in a private Jewish ceremony in Los Angeles. For the last three and a half years of her life Murphy her mother and Monjack lived together in the same house.

In the early s Murphy lost a large amount of weight which led to rumors of a cocaine addiction. In  Murphy disputed such claims to Jane magazine saying 'No just for the record I have never tried it in my entire life.' At this point she had recently signed as the spokesmodel for Jordache jeans.

Death
At : : GMT on December   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 died at : 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 the day after she died. Her death certificate listed the cause of death as 'deferred'. On February   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   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.'

On December   Murphy was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park – Hollywood Hills.

On May   her widower Simon Monjack was found dead at the same Hollywood Hills residence. In July  Los Angeles Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter stated that the cause of his death was acute pneumonia and severe anemia. It was reported that the Los Angeles County Department of Health had considered toxic mold in their house as a possible cause of the deaths but this was dismissed by Ed Winter who stated that there were 'no indicators' that mold was a factor. Murphy's mother Sharon described the reports of mold contributing to the deaths as 'absurd' and went on to state that inspecting the home for mold was never requested by the Health Department. In December  Sharon Murphy changed her stance announcing that toxic mold was indeed what killed her daughter and son-in-law and filed a lawsuit against the attorneys who represented her in an earlier suit against the builders of the home where her daughter and son-in-law died.

On January   her father Angelo Bertolotti applied to the Superior Court of California requesting that the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office be required to hand over samples of his daughter's hair for independent testing. The suit was dismissed on July   after Bertolotti failed to show up to two separate hearings.

In November  Angelo Bertolotti claimed that a toxicology report showed that deliberate poisoning by heavy metals including antimony and barium was a possible cause of Brittany Murphy's death. Sharon Murphy described the claim as 'a smear'.

Foundation
In January  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.citation needed

The foundation was launched on February   at a fundraising event at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills. After a records search revealed that the foundation's not-for-profit status had not been filed the foundation announced that 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 later. 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.

On November   the Brittany Murphy Foundation was officially relaunched by her father Angelo Bertolotti according to a press release posted at the foundation's website.