Simon Monjack
Encyclopedia
Simon Mark Monjack was an English
screenwriter
, film director
, film producer
and make-up artist. He was the widower of American actress Brittany Murphy
.
, Greater London
. He grew up in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire
. He attended Juniper Hill School, Flackwell Heath
, then Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe
. When he was 15, his father, William (1949–1986), died of a brain tumour in Oxfordshire
. His mother Linda (née Hall), a hypnotherapist, lives in Bourne End.
Two Days, Nine Lives in 2000. He received story credit for the 2006 biopic Factory Girl
about Warhol
actress/model Edie Sedgwick
. Director George Hickenlooper contends 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 to hostage and we were forced to settle with him as he held our production over a barrel." Monjack denied these claims. 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. The project never materialized.
s were issued for Monjack's arrest in Virginia
on charges of credit card fraud
, but the charges were later dropped.
In 2006, Coutts
Bank successfully sued Monjack, who had been evicted from four homes, for $470,000.
In February 2007, Monjack was arrested and spent nine days in jail, facing deportation
, because his visa
to the United States
had expired.
in November 2001; they separated five months later, and were divorced in 2006. That year, he met actress Brittany Murphy
(although he claimed to have met her when she was a teenager and stayed in touch). In April 2007, he married her in a private Jewish ceremony
at their Los Angeles home. The couple did not announce their engagement beforehand and rarely made public appearances together before their marriage.
In late November 2009, TMZ
reported that Monjack became "incoherent" during a flight from Puerto Rico
to Los Angeles
. Murphy told the responding firefighter
s at LAX Airport that she believed he was having an asthma attack and felt that the situation was not serious; however, EMTs disagreed and rushed him to a nearby hospital.
On December 20, 2009, Murphy died after collapsing in their bathroom. The cause was later revealed to be pneumonia
, with secondary factors of iron-deficiency anemia
and multiple prescription drug intoxication.
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."
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.
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 six months earlier in the same house. He was buried at the Forest Lawn
cemetery in the Hollywood Hills next to Murphy. Monjack is survived by his mother Linda and his daughter Jasmine.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
, film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, film producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
and make-up artist. He was the widower of American actress Brittany Murphy
Brittany Murphy
Brittany Anne Murphy-Monjack , known professionally as Brittany Murphy, was an American actress and singer. She starred in films such as Clueless, Just Married, Girl Interrupted, Spun, 8 Mile, Uptown Girls, Sin City, Happy Feet, and Riding in Cars with Boys...
.
Early life
Monjack was born to Jewish parents in HillingdonHillingdon
Hillingdon is a suburban area within the London Borough of Hillingdon, situated 14.2 miles west of Charing Cross.Much of Hillingdon is represented as the Hillingdon East ward within the local authority, Hillingdon Council...
, Greater London
Greater London
Greater London is the top-level administrative division of England covering London. It was created in 1965 and spans the City of London, including Middle Temple and Inner Temple, and the 32 London boroughs. This territory is coterminate with the London Government Office Region and the London...
. He grew up in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire
Bourne End, Buckinghamshire
Bourne End is a village predominantly in the parish of Wooburn and Bourne End, but also in the parish of Little Marlow, in Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated close to the border with Berkshire, near where the River Wye meets the River Thames...
. He attended Juniper Hill School, Flackwell Heath
Flackwell Heath
Flackwell Heath is a village in the civil parish of Chepping Wycombe on the outskirts of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire England. It is at an elevation of about 150m as it sits on the top of one of the Chiltern Hills. It has a population of around 6000.-History:...
, then Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe
Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe
See Royal Grammar School for the other schools with the name RGS.The Royal Grammar School High Wycombe is a selective grammar school situated in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. As a state school it does not charge fees for students to attend, but they must pass an entrance exam...
. When he was 15, his father, William (1949–1986), died of a brain tumour in Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
. His mother Linda (née Hall), a hypnotherapist, lives in Bourne End.
Career
Monjack directed, produced, and wrote the B-movieB-movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
Two Days, Nine Lives in 2000. He received story credit for the 2006 biopic Factory Girl
Factory Girl
Factory Girl is a 2006 American biographical film based on the life of 1960s underground film star, socialite, and Warhol Superstar Edie Sedgwick. The film premiered in Los Angeles on December 29, 2006.-Plot:...
about Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
actress/model Edie Sedgwick
Edie Sedgwick
Edith Minturn "Edie" Sedgwick was an American actress, socialite, model and heiress. She is best known for being one of Andy Warhol's superstars. Sedgwick became known as "The Girl of the Year" in 1965 after starring in several of Warhol's short films in the 1960s...
. Director George Hickenlooper contends that "Monjack had nothing to do with Factory Girl
Factory Girl
Factory Girl is a 2006 American biographical film based on the life of 1960s underground film star, socialite, and Warhol Superstar Edie Sedgwick. The film premiered in Los Angeles on December 29, 2006.-Plot:...
" and that "he filed a frivolous lawsuit against us [...] making bogus claims that we had stolen his script. He held us literally to hostage and we were forced to settle with him as he held our production over a barrel." Monjack denied these claims. In 2007, E! News
E! News
E! News, previously known as E! News Daily and E! News Live, is a nightly entertainment newsmagazine program airing on E!: Entertainment Television. The program debuted on September 1, 1991 and talks about Hollywood celebrities and gossip...
reported that Monjack was slated to direct a film adaptation of D. M. Thomas
D. M. Thomas
Donald Michael Thomas, known as D. M. Thomas , is a Cornish novelist, poet, and translator.Thomas was born in Redruth, Cornwall, UK. He attended Trewirgie Primary School and Redruth Grammar School before graduating with First Class Honours in English from New College, Oxford in 1959...
's novel about Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
, The White Hotel
The White Hotel
The White Hotel is a novel written by the English poet, translator and novelist D. M. Thomas. It was first published in January 1981 by Gollancz in Great Britain and in March 1981 by The Viking Press in the United States...
, with Brittany Murphy cast in a leading role. The project never materialized.
Legal troubles
In 2005, warrantArrest warrant
An arrest warrant is a warrant issued by and on behalf of the state, which authorizes the arrest and detention of an individual.-Canada:Arrest warrants are issued by a judge or justice of the peace under the Criminal Code of Canada....
s were issued for Monjack's arrest in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
on charges of credit card fraud
Credit card fraud
Credit card fraud is a wide-ranging term for theft and fraud committed using a credit card or any similar payment mechanism as a fraudulent source of funds in a transaction. The purpose may be to obtain goods without paying, or to obtain unauthorized funds from an account. Credit card fraud is also...
, but the charges were later dropped.
In 2006, Coutts
Coutts
Coutts & Co. is one of the UK's private banking houses, now wholly owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland . RBS acquired Coutts and all of its overseas subsidiaries when it bought NatWest. On 1 January 2008, Coutts' international businesses were renamed RBS Coutts, aligning them more closely with...
Bank successfully sued Monjack, who had been evicted from four homes, for $470,000.
In February 2007, Monjack was arrested and spent nine days in jail, facing deportation
Deportation
Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...
, because his visa
Visa (document)
A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
had expired.
Personal life
Monjack married British television personality Simone Bienne in Las VegasLas Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
in November 2001; they separated five months later, and were divorced in 2006. That year, he met actress Brittany Murphy
Brittany Murphy
Brittany Anne Murphy-Monjack , known professionally as Brittany Murphy, was an American actress and singer. She starred in films such as Clueless, Just Married, Girl Interrupted, Spun, 8 Mile, Uptown Girls, Sin City, Happy Feet, and Riding in Cars with Boys...
(although he claimed to have met her when she was a teenager and stayed in touch). In April 2007, he married her in a private Jewish ceremony
Jewish wedding
A Jewish wedding is a wedding ceremony that follows Jewish law and traditions.While wedding ceremonies vary, common features of a Jewish wedding include a ketuba signed by two witnesses, a wedding canopy , a ring owned by the groom that is given to the bride under the canopy, and the breaking of a...
at their Los Angeles home. The couple did not announce their engagement beforehand and rarely made public appearances together before their marriage.
In late November 2009, TMZ
TMZ.com
TMZ.com is a celebrity news website that debuted on November 8, 2005. It was a collaboration between America Online and Telepictures Productions, a division of Warner Bros., until Time Warner divested AOL in 2009. However, it is still affiliated with AOL News and has the AOL News logo affixed in...
reported that Monjack became "incoherent" during a flight from Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. Murphy told the responding firefighter
Firefighter
Firefighters are rescuers extensively trained primarily to put out hazardous fires that threaten civilian populations and property, to rescue people from car incidents, collapsed and burning buildings and other such situations...
s at LAX Airport that she believed he was having an asthma attack and felt that the situation was not serious; however, EMTs disagreed and rushed him to a nearby hospital.
On December 20, 2009, Murphy died after collapsing in their bathroom. The cause was later revealed to be pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
, with secondary factors of iron-deficiency anemia
Anemia
Anemia is a decrease in number of red blood cells or less than the normal quantity of hemoglobin in the blood. However, it can include decreased oxygen-binding ability of each hemoglobin molecule due to deformity or lack in numerical development as in some other types of hemoglobin...
and multiple prescription drug intoxication.
Death
In January 2010, Monjack's mother, Linda Monjack, told PeoplePeople (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
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."
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
9-1-1
9-1-1 is the emergency telephone number for the North American Numbering Plan .It is one of eight N11 codes.The use of this number is for emergency circumstances only, and to use it for any other purpose can be a crime.-History:In the earliest days of telephone technology, prior to the...
. Paramedics arrived; Monjack was pronounced dead at 9:45 pm.
The coroner's report found the cause of Monjack's death to be acute pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
and severe anemia
Anemia
Anemia is a decrease in number of red blood cells or less than the normal quantity of hemoglobin in the blood. However, it can include decreased oxygen-binding ability of each hemoglobin molecule due to deformity or lack in numerical development as in some other types of hemoglobin...
, similar to the causes attributed to his wife's death six months earlier in the same house. He was buried at the Forest Lawn
Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery is part of the Forest Lawn chain of Southern California cemeteries. It is at 6300 Forest Lawn Drive in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California, on the lower north slope at the far east end of the Santa Monica...
cemetery in the Hollywood Hills next to Murphy. Monjack is survived by his mother Linda and his daughter Jasmine.