Brittany Murphy, known for her breakout role as Tai in the 1995 movie Clueless, has died this morning of cardiac arrest in Los Angeles. She was only 32 years old. Murphy was multi-talented actress/singer who had a long standing career that started on television in the early nineties. She transitioned successfully from the small screen to the big screen with such big hits including Clueless, Just Married, Girl Interupted, and Happy Feet.
Murphy was born in Atlanta on November 10, 1977. She landed her first Hollywood role way back in 1991 when she played Brenda Drexell in the Fox Series Drexell’s Class. The series stars Dabney Coleman, as a fifth-grade elementary school teacher. The cast also features a young star who later in life gives us a whole new meaning to an American pastime. I will leave it you, my readers, to figure it out by looking at the cast photo below.
A few more years pass by when Brittany lands the role that changes her life. She will play Tai Frasier in the 1995 comedy film Clueless. Frasier is the “tragically unhip” girl that Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) decided to adopt as a way to give back to her community of Beverly Hills. With her best friend Dionne (Stacey Dash) at her side, they transform Tai from geek to chic which brought her lots of popularity. This is one of Murphy’s finest performances of her career.
In 1997, Brittany returned to her television roots – literally when she signed up to play Luanne Platter on the Fox animated series King of the Hill. Murphy played the character for the entire fourteen year run of the series.
One of my favorite of this talented actress combines both her acting and singing abilities in a family feature. She played Gloria, the love interest of Mumble (Elijah Wood) in the 2006 Academy Award Winner for Best Animated Film – Happy Feet. Her performances of Queen’s Somebody to Love and Earth, Wind & Fire’s Boogie Wonderland are not to be missed.
No matter if you know her as the naive niece Luanne or geek to chic Tai from Clueless or the young woman who was Just Married to Ashton Kutcher before Demi Moore in a movie, Brittany Murphy is a starlet whose talent has known no limits.
RIP – Brittany Murphy, 32 had a whirl-wind Hollywood career: acting, singing, high profile relationships, temper tantrums, eating disorders. Even a mobster father. Now she has the classic ‘die young – stay pretty’ thing going too.
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