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Anna Nicole Smith

Anna Nicole Smith moved through modeling, film and reality television with a screen presence built on old-Hollywood glamour, broad comedy and a willingness to make herself the spectacle. Born Vickie Lynn Hogan in Houston on November 28, 1967, she was raised primarily by her mother and her mother’s family in Mexia, Texas. Her public career began to take shape while she was working as an exotic dancer and modeling for Playboy under the name Vickie Smith. After appearing as the magazine’s May 1992 centerfold, she was named Playmate of the Year in 1993. That same year, Smith replaced Claudia Schiffer as the face of Guess Jeans. The campaign’s black-and-white photographs leaned into her resemblance to Jayne Mansfield, and it was during this period that she adopted the name Anna Nicole. Further modeling work included H&M billboards in Sweden and Norway, a Marie Claire cover photographed by Peter Lindbergh, and an appearance in GQ. Smith made her film debut as Za-Za in the Coen brothers’ 1994 screwball comedy The Hudsucker Proxy. She followed it with the role of Tanya Peters in Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, choosing that part after also being offered a role in The Mask. Her later leading roles took her into action and thriller territory: she played ex-CIA agent Vickie Lynn, operating as Colette Dubois, in To the Limit, then Carrie Wink in the direct-to-video Skyscraper. For many viewers, however, Smith’s defining screen vehicle was The Anna Nicole Show. Running on E! from August 2002 to October 2004, the reality sitcom turned her everyday life and outsized persona into the main event. She returned to film with a cameo in the 2005 crime comedy Be Cool. Her final role was Lucy in the low-budget science-fiction comedy Illegal Aliens, filmed alongside her son Daniel and released posthumously in May 2007. Across those different formats, Smith remained difficult to separate from the image she created: knowingly theatrical, frequently comic and always ready for the camera.