A sad, sad story. Deceased at the age of 32.
Ms. Murphy was one of several zillions actresses who seemed poised for one brief second to have a really successful Hollywood career. Sadly, the movie industry is even harder on woman actors than male ones, and for every Reese Witherspoon (and what’s even she done lately?) there are a hundred Brittany Murphys.
Still, she did far better than most actresses. Her enduring legacy will be her voicing of Luanne on King of the Hill, one of TV’s all-time great sitcoms. It’s a great credit to both the show and Ms. Murphy that Luanne so transcended being just another dumb blonde. Although the characters never visibly aged on the show, Luanne grew from a silly girl to a silly but credible adult, mom and wife as the series progressed.
Ms. Murphy also had a fun role as a wild girl in the zany action flick Drive with Mark Dacascos, aka the Chairman on Iron Chef America. Sadly, that film is hard to see in this country, since the DVD is long out of print, and apparently the version released here was pretty hacked up to boot. Still, it’s a charming little film, the sort of thing you occasionally get lucky with when you return from the video store with ten genre movies and hope that one of them is actually better than your low expectations.
