Brittany Murphy first came to widespread attention after appearing in Amy Heckerling's Clueless in 1995, but she soon demonstrated that she wasn't going to be typecast in chick flick roles. Appearances in movies such as the dark comedy Spun and Robert Rodriguez's ultra-stylish adaptation of the Frank Miller comic Sin City followed, hinting at a range that would propel her away from the type of roles for which she had earned Teen Choice Awards nominations. In 2009, the Los Angeles Fire Department were called to her home after she collapsed in the bathroom, and despite their best efforts to resuscitate her she was pronounced dead on arrival at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. While rumours had been circulating concerning her use of cocaine prior to her death, she herself had denied ever taking illegal drugs, saying, "I have a glass of champagne now and then. I'm generally the person dancing at a party who everyone thinks is the intoxicated one, but really I'm not." Controversy arose in the news last year when her father, Angelo Bertolotti, claimed that there was a possibility she had been deliberately poisoned by heavy metals. While this was rejected by her mother as little more than 'a smear,' the coroner's report highlighted the increasing problem faced by Hollywood stars with the use and abuse of prescription drugs, with a cocktail of over-the-counter medications found in her system.
