Anna Nicole Smith was born as Vickie Lynn Marshall on November 28, 1969 in Harris County, Texas. She was an actress and a model as well as an American sex symbol. Her childhood was difficult, as her father abandoned her and her mother when she was just a couple years old. She was raised by her mother and aunt.
She quit high school during her sophomore year and managed to find work in places such as "Wall-Mart" and "Red Lobster". She went on to work as an exotic dancer in Houston's strip clubs before entering a Playboy Cover Contest in 1992, which became the turning point in her career. She was picked to be on the cover of Playboy in March, 1992. She became a regular model for Playboy was chosen as the Playmate of the Year in 1993. At about the same time she signed a modeling contract with Guess? H&M, a Swedish clothing company. She appeared in several movies of which the most notable one is "Naked Gun 33 1/3" (1994).
At age 17, in 1985, while she was still an unknown she married her first husband Billy Wayne Smith. They had a son, Daniel, in 1986 and separated in 1987. While working as an exotic dancer in 1991, Anna Nicole met J. Howard Marshall, an oil-tycoon billionaire whom she married in 1994, after officially divorcing her first husband in 1993. Marshall was 63 years her senior and died just a year later. The battle over his assets between Smith and the Marshall family lasted for over a decade and in the end Smith received a hefty sum from his estate. Smith became pregnant in 2006 and after a paternity lawsuit and DNA testing the father proved to be her ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead.
Her daughter Danielynn was born on September 7, 2006. While visiting Smith and his newborn half-sister on September 10, 2006, Anna Nicole's 20 year old son died from what was found to be a drug overdose. Only months later on February 8, 2007 Smith also died from what was named an accidental drug overdose. She was 39 when she passed.
