Simon Mark Monjack (March 9, 1970 – May 23, 2010) was a British screenwriter, film director, film producer and make-up artist. He was the husband of American actress Brittany Murphy.[1][2]
Early life
Simon was born in Hillingdon, Middlesex, to a Jewish family.[3] He grew up in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire.[4] He attended Juniper Hill School, Flackwell Heath, then Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe.[4] When he was 15, his father, William (1949–1986), died[4] of a brain tumour[5] in Oxfordshire.[6] His mother Linda (née Hall), a hypnotherapist,[7] lives in Bourne End.[8]
Career
Monjack directed, produced, and wrote the B-movie Two Days, Nine Lives in 2000.[9] He received story credit for the 2006 biographical film Factory Girl about Warhol actress/model Edie Sedgwick.[10] Director George Hickenlooper contended that "Monjack had nothing to do with Factory Girl" and that "he filed a frivolous lawsuit against us [...] making bogus claims that we had stolen his script. He held us literally hostage and we were forced to settle with him as he held our production over a barrel." Monjack denied these claims.[11] In 2007, E! News reported that Monjack was slated to direct a film adaptation of D. M. Thomas's novel about Sigmund Freud, The White Hotel, with Brittany Murphy cast in a leading role.[12]
Personal life
Marriages
Monjack married Simone Bienne in Las Vegas in November 2001;[13][14] they separated five months later,[14] and were divorced in 2006.[13] That year,[4] he met actress Brittany Murphy (although he claimed to have met her when she was a teenager and stayed in touch[15]). In April[16] 2007, they married in a private Jewish ceremony at their Los Angeles home.[1] The couple did not announce their engagement beforehand and rarely made public appearances together before their marriage.[12] On December 20, 2009, Murphy died after collapsing in their bathroom.[2] The cause was later revealed to be pneumonia, with secondary factors of iron-deficiency anemia and multiple prescription drug intoxication. [17]
Legal issues
In 2005, warrants were issued for Monjack's arrest in Virginia on charges of credit card fraud, but the charges were later dropped.[13]
In 2006, Coutts Bank successfully sued Monjack, who had been evicted from four homes, for $470,000.[13]
In February 2007, Monjack was arrested and spent nine days in jail, facing deportation, because his visa to the United States had expired.[13]
Death
In January 2010, Monjack's mother, Linda Monjack, told People that her son was "unwell, and the doctors are carrying out tests. On whether he has a heart problem, it is not really for me to say, you must ask him, but yes, there have been health problems in the past. I believe it's common knowledge, and it's been in the press that he had a slight heart attack a week before Brittany's death."[18]
Monjack was found dead on May 23, 2010 in his house in Hollywood, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office. Law enforcement sources say the Los Angeles Fire Department was called there for a medical emergency after Murphy's mother, Sharon, found Monjack unconscious in the master bedroom around 9:20 pm, and then called 911. Paramedics arrived; Monjack was pronounced dead at 9:45 pm after suffering a fatal heart attack.[19]
The coroner's report found the cause of Monjack's death to be acute pneumonia and severe anemia, similar to the causes attributed to his wife's death five months earlier in the same house.[20] He was buried next to Murphy at Forest Lawn cemetery in the Hollywood Hills.[14][21]
References
1. Fleeman, Mike (8 May 2007). "Brittany Murphy Marries Writer-Director". People.
2. "Actress Brittany Murphy dead at 32". CNN. 20 December 2009.
3. "England and Wales, Birth Index: 1916–2005".
4. Simon Monjack, Buckinghamshire husband of tragic Hollywood star Brittany Murphy found dead
5. Simon Monjack: The short life and lonely death of a showbiz widower
6. Deaths England and Wales 1984–2006
7. Brittany Murphy's Mother-In-Law: Simon Monjack Has Lost The Love Of His Life
8. Has Mr Brittany Murphy got something to hide?
9. Thomson, Michael (22 March 2001). "Two Days, Nine Lives (2001)". BBC.
10. "Who Is Brittany Murphy's Husband?". Us Weekly. 22 December 2009.
11. "Director: Brittany Murphy was warned about husband Simon Monjack but did not listen" New York Daily News. 27 December 2009.
12. Serpe, Gina (8 May 2007). "Brittany Murphy Made a Missus". E!.
13. MacIntosh, Jeane (22 December 2009). "Debts and Arrests in Husband's Dark Past". New York Post.
14. Tragic actress Brittany Murphy's husband Simon Monjack found dead
15. Transcript of CNN Larry King Live interview with Sharon Murphy and Simon Monjack
16. Brittany Murphy and Simon Monjack: A history of their romance
17. Brittany Murphy's death ruled an accident
18. "Brittany Murphy's Husband Found Dead". people.com. 24 May 2010.
19. Shoard, Catherine (24 May 2010). "Simon Monjack, husband of Brittany Murphy, dies of heart attack". London: The Guardian.
20. "Coroner finds Simon Monjack's death was similar to Brittany Murphy's". CNN. 21 July 2010.
21. Johnson, Chris (28 May 2010). "Simon Monjack laid to rest next to wife Brittany Murphy in the Hollywood Hills.". London: Daily Mail.
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