Simon Monjack
Monjack in 2010
Born
Simon Mark Monjack

(1970-03-09)9 March 1970
Uxbridge, England
Died23 May 2010(2010-05-23) (aged 40)
Los Angeles, California, US
Resting placeForest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills
EducationRoyal Grammar School, High Wycombe
Occupation(s)Screenwriter, film director, producer
Years active2000–2007
Spouses
  • Simone Bienne
    ​
    ​
    (m. 2001; div. 2006)​
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 2007; died 2009)​
Children2

Simon Mark Monjack (9 March 1970 – 23 May 2010) was an English screenwriter, film director, producer and make-up artist. He was the husband of American actress Brittany Murphy.[1][2]

Early life

Monjack was born on 9 March 1970 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 16, his father, William (1949–1986), died of a brain tumour.[4][5][6] His mother Linda (née Hall) is a hypnotherapist.[7]

Career

Monjack directed, produced, and wrote the B movie Two Days, Nine Lives in 2000.[8] He received story credit for the 2006 biographical film Factory Girl about Warhol actress/model Edie Sedgwick.[9] 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.[10] 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.[11]

Personal life

Marriages

Monjack married Simone Bienne in Las Vegas in November 2001; they were divorced in 2006.[12] That year, he met actress Brittany Murphy.[13] In April 2007, they married in a private Jewish ceremony at their Los Angeles home.[14][1] The couple did not announce their engagement beforehand and rarely made public appearances together before their marriage.[11] On 20 December 2009, Murphy died after collapsing in their bathroom.[2] The cause was later revealed to be pneumonia, with secondary factors of iron-deficiency anaemia and drug intoxication from prescription and over-the-counter drugs.[15]

In the 2021 documentary What Happened, Brittany Murphy?, several of Monjack's colleagues and friends accused him of being responsible for Murphy's physical changes and also of not letting her connect with her family. According to the testimony of his ex-fiancée, Elizabeth Ragsdale, Monjack "was a disturbed individual who was used to conning people and Brittany was one of his latest victims."[16]

In 2005, warrants were issued for Monjack's arrest in Virginia on charges of credit card fraud, but the charges were later dropped.[12]

In 2006, Coutts & Co bank successfully sued Monjack, who had been evicted from four homes, for $470,000.[12]

In February 2007, Monjack was arrested and spent nine days in jail, facing deportation, because his visa to the United States had expired.[12]

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 from Brittany's death."[17]

Monjack was found dead on 23 May 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.[18]

The coroner's report found the cause of Monjack's death to be acute pneumonia and severe anaemia, similar to the causes attributed to his wife's death five months earlier in the same house.[19] He was buried next to Murphy at Forest Lawn cemetery in the Hollywood Hills.[20]

References

  1. 1 2 Fleeman, Mike (8 May 2007). "Brittany Murphy Marries Writer-Director". People.
  2. 1 2 "Actress Brittany Murphy dead at 32". CNN. 20 December 2009. Retrieved 20 December 2009.
  3. ↑ "England & Wales, Birth Index: 1916–2005". Retrieved 21 December 2009.
  4. 1 2 3 Dunhill, Lawrence (24 May 2010). "Simon Monjack, Buckinghamshire husband of tragic Hollywood star Brittany Murphy found dead". This is Local.
  5. ↑ Milmo, Cahal (24 May 2010). "Simon Monjack: The short life and lonely death of a showbiz widower". The Independent.
  6. ↑ "Deaths England and Wales 1984–2006". Archived from the original on 4 November 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2010.
  7. ↑ "Brittany Murphy's Mother-In-Law: Simon Monjack Has Lost The Love Of His Life". The Huffington Post. 23 December 2009.
  8. ↑ Thomson, Michael (22 March 2001). "Two Days, Nine Lives (2001)". BBC. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
  9. ↑ "Who Is Brittany Murphy's Husband?". Us Weekly. 22 December 2009. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
  10. ↑ "Director: Brittany Murphy was warned about husband Simon Monjack but did not listen" New York Daily News. 27 December 2009. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
  11. 1 2 Serpe, Gina (8 May 2007). "Brittany Murphy Made a Missus". E!. Retrieved 22 December 2009.
  12. 1 2 3 4 MacIntosh, Jeane (22 December 2009). "Debts and Arrests in Husband's Dark Past". New York Post. Retrieved 22 December 2009.
  13. ↑ "CNN.com – Transcripts". Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  14. ↑ Kaufman, Gil (24 May 2010). "Brittany Murphy And Simon Monjack: A History Of Their Romance". MTV. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  15. ↑ Winton, Richard (5 February 2010). "Brittany Murphy's death ruled an accident". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 5 February 2010.
  16. ↑ What Happened, Brittany Murphy? & Episode 2, 35:25-41:00.
  17. ↑ Silverman, Stephen M. (24 May 2010). "Brittany Murphy's Husband Found Dead". People. Retrieved 24 May 2010.
  18. ↑ Shoard, Catherine (24 May 2010). "Simon Monjack, husband of Brittany Murphy, dies of heart attack". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 May 2010.
  19. ↑ Duke, Alan (21 July 2010). "Coroner finds Simon Monjack's death was similar to Brittany Murphy's". CNN. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
  20. ↑ Benet, Lorenzo (27 May 2010). "Simon Monjack Laid to Rest Next to Brittany Murphy". People.
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