Anna Nicole Smith, 39, dies after collapse

WASHINGTON - Anna Nicole Smith, 39, a postmodern pinup for a tabloid age, died yesterday after collapsing in a Florida hotel room, her sudden death delivering the same shock and uproar as the celebrity life she cultivated from the hardscrabble dust of small-town Texas.

Ms. Smith was in her sixth-floor room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla., when her private nurse called the operator for help, according to Seminole Police Chief Charlie Tiger, who said a bodyguard attempted CPR but could not revive her.

The former Playboy Playmate of the Year was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 2:49 p.m., sparking breathless live news coverage from the Indian reservation. The Broward County medical examiner planned to conduct an autopsy today.

Embroiled in an epic court feud over the hundreds of millions of dollars left behind by the octogenarian oil tycoon she married at 26 but never lived with, Ms. Smith cultivated a Marilyn Monroe image with her breathy singsong voice and va-va-va-voom figure. She pursued fame with a dignity-be-damned abandon.

Her fight over the inheritance of J. Howard Marshall II took her to the U.S. Supreme Court last May. The paparazzi were waiting as she catwalked past in a form-fitting suit.

Ms. Smith's death came just five months after her 20-year-old son, Daniel, mysteriously died at her hospital bedside in the Bahamas, where she had given birth to a daughter whose paternity immediately became a matter of a legal dispute.

Ms. Smith's attorney, Ron Rale, told reporters in Los Angeles that his client had not felt well in recent days, suffering from flulike symptoms.

It was not explained why Ms. Smith, who previously had been hospitalized for drug and alcohol use, had taken her own nurse to the Indian gaming resort, where hotel sources described her as a regular guest.

Her baby, Dannielynn Hope, was not with her in Florida, police there said, and was believed to still be in the Bahamas, where Ms. Smith had set up housekeeping pending a formal inquiry by the Bahamas magistrate next month into Daniel's death. A U.S. medical examiner hired by the family has said his death was an accident caused by the reaction of methadone and two antidepressants in his system.

A former boyfriend of Ms. Smith, Larry Birkhead, has filed a paternity suit saying he fathered Dannielynn, and a Los Angeles judge had ordered Ms. Smith to have the baby undergo a DNA test by Feb. 21. Shortly after Dannielynn's birth, Ms. Smith identified her personal attorney, Howard K. Stern, as the father.

Her life had been one of extremes ever since Ms. Smith, then known as Vickie Lynn Hogan, escaped the high school dropout life of a teen bride. First married to a fry cook named Billy Smith in Mexia, Texas, she later worked at Wal-Mart and waitressed at Red Lobster before heading to Houston to pursue her fortune as a topless dancer. It was as a stripper that she met Marshall, 63 years her senior.

While she was in Houston, a friend urged Ms. Smith to send photographs to Playboy, which featured her as 1993 Playmate of the Year.

She later became famous as a Guess jeans model, her curves and sleepy-eyed gaze conjuring the ghosts of Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield.

The unlikely pair of Marshall and Ms. Smith wed in 1994. After the ceremony, the bride told her husband: "Bye, darling, I'm off to Greece."

Ms. Smith's knack for upstaging could be both a gift and a curse. In 2005, she popped up at a Live 8 concert in Philadelphia, dressed in tight jeans and a nearly absent pink top, her Mystic Tan gleaming. She shook her implants and shimmied for the cameras as actor Will Smith began a somber speech about children starving to death in Africa.

Ms. Smith parlayed numerous Playboy videos showing her in fancy cars and bubble baths into B-movie roles, cameos in sitcoms, and, later, her own reality TV show.

When a biography segment about her on E! brought high ratings, the network gave her a program in 2002. The Anna Nicole Show, one of the first so-called celebrity reality series, was broadcast for two years, despite a beating from television reviewers.

Before the show debuted, she touted it in a news release. "People won't be able to stop watching once they tune in," she said. "My life is a roller coaster, so hold on and enjoy the ride."