Brittany Murphy (born Brittany Anne Bertolotti, November 10, 1977 — December 20, 2009) was an American actress, singer and voiceover artist.
She became known for playing pretty, perky, and adorably ditzy girls in films like Clueless and Uptown Girls, but also showed skill in playing damaged characters in more serious fare such as Girl, Interrupted, Sin City and The Dead Girl.
Murphy's arguable longest-lasting role was as the voice of Luanne Platter in King of the Hill (she also voiced Joseph Gribble until the season five episode "I Don't Wanna Wait..." in which Joseph goes through puberty and his pubescent voice is provided by Breckin Meyer). She also did voice work in Happy Feet and the Futurama movie The Beast with a Billion Backs.
As a singer, she collaborated with Paul Oakenfold on the 2006 single "Faster Kill Pussycat" and also sung as part of her role in the aforementioned Happy Feet.
Murphy passed away unexpectedly at the age of 32 on December 20, 2009, due to pneumonia with secondary iron-deficiency anemia and multiple drug intoxication, which caused her to go into full cardiac arrest while she was in her shower. The mold in her house was originally said to be the cause of her death, but that's since been debunked. Tragically, her widower also passed away five months after her death.
Something Wicked, her final movie, was released in April 2014, having been filmed in 2009 shortly before her death.
The Brittany Murphy Story, a Lifetime Original Movie starring Last Man Standing (2011)'s Amanda Fuller, premiered September 6, 2014. It wasn't well-received.
Not to be confused with Brittany Maynard, as a number of journalists have (sad to say) done.
Some of the works Brittany Murphy has appeared in:
- 8 Mile
- Across the Hallnote
- Cherry Falls
- Clueless
- The Dead Girl
- The Devil's Arithmetic
- Don't Say a Word
- Drop Dead Gorgeous
- Freeway
- Futurama: The Beast with a Million Backs
- Girl, Interrupted
- Happy Feet
- Just Married
- Little Black Book
- Marc Eckō's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure (voice role)
- Neverwas
- The Prophecy II
- The Ramen Girl
- Riding in Cars with Boys
- Sidewalks of New York (2001)
- Sin City
- Sister, Sister
- Something Wicked
- The Tears for Fears music video "Closest Thing to Heaven"
- Uptown Girls
Tropes associated with Brittany Murphy include:
- The Deep South: A native of Atlanta, Georgia. However, she grew up in Edison, New Jersey from the age of 2.
- Genki Girl: She was known for being very energetic, both on screen and in real life.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: A few of her roles, namely Sarah in Just Married.
- Hotter and Sexier: Her role in Sin City showed a lot more skin than she normally did.
- Joisey: She moved to Edison at age 2 and stayed through middle school (when she moved again to California to pursue acting).
- The Makeover: Was included on E!'s 100 Most Starlicious Makeovers. Early in her career she was brunette and a little chunky. She slimmed down and went blonde - which is a more recognisable image of her.
- Nice Girl: Many of her roles had her play sweet-natured, affectionate and kind young women. By all accounts, she was very much the same in real life.
- Southern Belle: Puts on the typical accent for her role in Sin City.
- Token Wholesome: Her romcom characters tended to be wholesome, with references to sex only implied. Sin City was the obvious exception, aside from Tai in Clueless making a brief reference to not being a virgin.
