ANNA NICOLE SMITH: 1967-2007 ANNA NICOLE SMITH: 1967-2007 Anna Nicole Smith dies at 39 Smith autopsy set for Friday Unanswered questions Legal issues Video Timeline Share your thoughts Photos Smith: Sad end to a troubled life She came from nothing, but she lived bigger than most. A small-town girl who was determined to make something of herself, Anna Nicole Smith had the quintessential train-wreck life: intriguing, eye-popping, tragic. The high school dropout-turned-dazzler, who died Thursday at 39 in a hospital in Hollywood, Fla., was fascinating to celebrity watchers — not because she was an A-list star but because she was an unpredictable blond bombshell who was always in the middle of controversy. She married a billionaire 60 years her senior and then battled his heirs over the estate, ending with a victory at the Supreme Court. The world watched as she battled her weight, gaining, losing, then gaining again. She became a TV star, riding the reality show mania, in a series that offered a candid look at how a celebrity lived. In a span of days, she gave birth to a daughter, and her 20-year-old son was found dead in her recovery room. Now Dannielynn, 5 months, is without a mother, and her father's identity is uncertain. Smith's former lawyer Lenard Leeds told TMZ.com it's no secret that Smith "had a very troubled life" and added that she had "so many, many problems." Still, she flirted and laughed her way through life. "She was light and fluffy," Tom O'Neill of In Touch Weekly said on CNN late Thursday. Said Rob Chilton, features director of OK! magazine: "She was a great pop icon, almost like a cartoon character." Shots of her on red carpets vamping like her childhood idol Marilyn Monroe ran on cable news channels for hours after the news broke Thursday, proof that Smith had achieved her goal of finding a place in the spotlight. Smith made everyone laugh along with her — and at her — until it just wasn't funny anymore. At 17, she met Billy Smith, a co-worker at Jim's Krispy Fried Chicken, and they had baby Daniel. Two years later, they divorced. She began working at topless bars in Houston to pay the bills. Her nickname was "Sweet Cheeks." Though her body was voluptuous, her breasts weren't, and she was allowed to work only the afternoon shift. Still, she believed she was destined for greater things. The first order of business: breast implants. In 1991, at 24, she entered a Playboy contest and won. In 1992, she listed her "turn-ons" as "Men who wear braces, cowboys! I also get off on scary movies." In 1993, she was Playmate of the Year. (Founder Hugh Hefner issued a statement Thursday saying he was "saddened" by the news of Smith's death.) After that, she was offered a modeling job for Guess? jeans. "I didn't know what Guess? jeans were," she told People magazine in an interview at the time. "I just shopped at Wal-Mart and Kmart and stuff like that." In 1994 she made her big-screen debut in Naked Gun 331/3: The Final Insult. Anyone who didn't happen to see that movie had probably heard of her anyway: It was the same time she married oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, who was in a wheelchair and more than 60 years her senior. They had met years earlier when she was an exotic dancer. Though branded a gold digger, she seemed to have found happiness with her husband. When she was defending her marriage to Marshall, she told In Touch: "Nobody has ever respected me or done things for me. So when Howard came along, it was a blessing." But the blessing was short-lived. His death less than two years later, in 1995, left behind a fortune estimated at $1.6 billion. She was still fighting for a share of the money when she died. Smith battled her weight and struggled with other addictions. She acknowledged that she had a problem with prescription drugs. Her wild behavior was on display on The Anna Nicole Show, her often-bawdy reality series that aired on E! from 2002 to 2003. But it also showed her softer side. Children and dogs — she had a toy poodle named Sugar Pie — were her true loves. Her son, Daniel, whom she raised as a single mother, was often by her side. "I don't have any good memories from Christmas when I was a girl," Smith told People in 2004. "So I tried to make them special for Daniel. We never missed a trip to the mall to see Santa to take pictures." Gabriel Rotello, who directed a 2003 Showtime documentary about Smith, said in People: "Even her most vehement detractors reluctantly admitted that she was a good mother. Daniel was just a really well-adjusted, smart kid." She was devastated by his death Sept. 10. The cause, as determined by a medical examiner, was an accidental interaction of methadone and two antidepressants. Last November in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Smith said: "I'll never accept that (Daniel is) gone. I don't understand why God took him and didn't take me." Since then, Smith's troubles seemed to double. She was hospitalized for pneumonia for a week in November. She was sued, along with diet-supplement company TrimSpa — for which she has been a spokeswoman and a model client — in a class-action lawsuit that claimed the company's marketing of a weight-loss pill was false or misleading. Dannielynn is the subject of a DNA test battle with Smith's former boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, who says he is the father of the child. Smith's longtime friend and lawyer, Howard K. Stern — with whom Smith shared a commitment ceremony on Sept. 28 in the Bahamas — also says he is the girl's father. Considering her difficult life — and especially her recent past — few were surprised at Thursday's news. "I am very, very sad, but I am not shocked," Smith's former publicist, David Granoff, told MSNBC. He had seen Smith on television Wednesday, "and she had no spark any more." But Smith's star tale is far from over. "This is a massive story," OK! magazine's Chilton says. "We'll now see all the stories about how she died and loads of conspiracy stories and loads of rumors about was it drink or drugs?" And, he says, her memory will be that of someone who was a larger-than-life celebrity. "She really was a celebrity. That sums her up perfectly. She had loads of charisma, and she was always doing something crazy. There was always an Anna Nicole Smith story floating around." Contributing: Karen Thomas
Smith at the MTV awards ceremony, Sydney 2005.Credit:  Foraggio (Some rights reserved) Anna Nicole Smith, who was born as Vickie Lynn Hogan, was found unconscious in the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida in her 6th floor hotel room. One of her attorneys has confirmed that she was pronounced dead at a hospital less than an hour later. She was 39.

Paramedics are reported to have performed CPR on the actress and had to have breathing equipment inserted into her chest after a nurse found her passed out in her hotel room and witnesses say that Smith was receiving CPR while the ambulance took her to the hospital around 2:00 p.m. EST.  Smith's bodyguard is reported to have given Smith "cardiopulmonary resuscitation" before paramedics arrived.

"I can confirm that she is deceased. It's as shocking to me as to you guys. I don't know what the cause was. This is just tragic and that's all you can say right now and I don't know anything further," said one of Anna Nicole's lawyers, Ron Rale.

Smith was taken by ambulance to Memorial Regional Hospital and "checked in Monday to the hotel at 8 p.m. as a guest. She was due to check out tomorrow," said cafe spokeswoman, Danielle Giordaano.

"Our rescue crews got there, and they were escorted to a bedroom, where they found a female alone in her room and unresponsive. We then began our normal protocol for dealing with a non-breathing individual. The victim never regained consciousness and we continued with CPR and all life-support methods right up until the time we delivered her to the hospital and then the hospital takes over," said a spokesman for the responding paramedics team. Smith was pronounced dead at the hospital at 2:49 p.m. EST.

According to Broward County Medical Examiner's Office investigator, Edwina Johnson, an autopsy will be performed on Smith on Friday and that her death is currently being investigated. Authorities are not yet treating her death as a crime.

One of Smith's attorneys, Howard K. Stern, is reported to have been staying with Smith in her room, but authorities have yet to locate Mr. Stern.  Mr. Stern is identified by ''TRIMSPA'' as Smith's husband.

"He was here with her. I don't know where he's at right now," said Charlie Tiger the chief of the Seminole Police Department also adding that Smith's 5 month old baby was not with them.

Smith was a spokeswoman for the company ''TRIMSPA'' when she passed, and TrimSpa has removed all content from their site for now, shutting it down and posting only a message in response to her death.

"Today, Anna Nicole Smith’s grief stricken and tumultuous personal life came to an end. Anna came to our Company as a customer, but she departs it as a friend. While life for Anna Nicole was not easy these past few months, she held dear her husband, Howard K. Stern, her daughter, Dannielynn Hope, her most cherished friends, beloved dogs, and finally, her work with TRIMSPA. Anna knew both the joy of giving life, and the heartache of losing a child. We pray that she is granted the peace that eluded her more recent days on earth, and that she find comfort in the presence of her son, Daniel," said the statement on TRIMSPA's website posted by Alex Goen, CEO and Founder of TRIMSPA.

Smith was rushed to the hospital in November of 2006 after she was suffering from symptoms of pneumonia. Smith's son, Daniel Smith, died on September 10, 2006 shortly after Anna gave birth to a baby girl 5 months ago.

Smith was shopping for a new boat in Florida and reports say she felt ill and had a fever for at least a day.