HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – Anna Nicole Smith, the pneumatic blonde whose life played out as an extraordinary tabloid tale: Playboy centerfold, jeans model, bride of an octogenarian oil tycoon, reality-show subject and tragic mother died Thursday after collapsing at a hotel. She was 39.

She was stricken while staying at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, and was rushed to a hospital. Edwina Johnson, chief investigator for the Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office, said the cause of death was under investigation and an autopsy would be done on Friday.

Just five months ago, Smith’s 20-year-old son died suddenly in the Bahamas in what was believed to be a drug-related death.

Seminole Police Chief Charlie Tiger said a private nurse called 911 after finding Smith unresponsive in her sixth-floor hotel room. He said Smith’s bodyguard administered CPR for about an hour before she was declared dead.

Through the ’90s and into the new century, Smith was famous for being famous, a pop-culture punch-line because of her up-and-down weight, her Marilyn Monroe looks, her exaggerated curves, her little-girl voice, her ditzy-blonde persona and her over-the-top revealing outfits.

Recently, she lost a reported 69 pounds and became a spokeswoman for TrimSpa, a weight-loss supplement. On her reality show and other recent TV appearances, her speech was often slurred and she seemed out of it. Some critics said she seemed drugged-out.

Her former lawyer Lenard Leeds told the celebrity gossip Web site TMZ that Smith “always had problems with her weight going up and down, and there’s no question she used alcohol.” Leeds said it was no secret that “she had a very troubled life” and had “so many, many problems.”

“She wanted to be like Marilyn her whole life and ironically died in a similar manner,” Leeds said. Monroe died of a drug overdose at age 36 in 1962.

Her attorney Ron Rale told The Associated Press that he had talked to Smith on Tuesday or Wednesday, and she had flu symptoms and a fever and was still grieving over her son.

“Poor Anna Nicole,” he said. “She’s been the underdog. She’s been besieged … and she’s been trying her best and nobody should have to endure what she’s endured.”