Simon Monjack

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English screenwriter, film director and producer (1970–2010)

title: "Simon Monjack" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1970-births", "2010-deaths", "english-expatriates-in-the-united-states", "english-film-directors", "english-film-producers", "english-language-film-directors", "english-people-of-jewish-descent", "english-male-screenwriters", "confidence-tricksters", "jewish-english-writers", "people-educated-at-the-royal-grammar-school,-high-wycombe", "people-from-buckinghamshire", "deaths-from-pneumonia-in-california", "burials-at-forest-lawn-memorial-park-(hollywood-hills)", "deaths-from-anemia", "20th-century-english-businesspeople", "20th-century-english-screenwriters"] description: "English screenwriter, film director and producer (1970–2010)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Monjack" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary English screenwriter, film director and producer (1970–2010) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

FieldValue
nameSimon Monjack
imageSimon Monjack.jpg
captionMonjack in March 2010
birth_nameSimon Mark Monjack
birth_date
birth_placeUxbridge, Greater London, England
death_date
death_placeLos Angeles, California, U.S.
resting_placeForest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills
educationRoyal Grammar School, High Wycombe
occupationScreenwriter, film director, producer
years_active1985–2007
spouse
children2
::

| name = Simon Monjack | image = Simon Monjack.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Monjack in March 2010 | birth_name = Simon Mark Monjack | birth_date = | birth_place = Uxbridge, Greater London, England | death_date = | death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S. | resting_place = Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills | education = Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe | alma_mater = | occupation = Screenwriter, film director, producer | years_active = 1985–2007 | spouse = | children = 2

Simon Mark Monjack (9 March 1970 – 23 May 2010) was an English screenwriter, film director, producer and make-up artist. He was the husband and later widower of Brittany Murphy.{{cite news |url=https://people.com/celebrity/brittany-murphy-marries-writer-director/ |title=Brittany Murphy Marries Writer-Director |magazine=People |last=Fleeman |first=Mike |date=8 May 2007 |url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/12/20/brittany.murphy/index.html |title=Actress Brittany Murphy dead at 32 |publisher=CNN |date=20 December 2009 |access-date=20 December 2009

Early life

Monjack was born on 9 March 1970 in Hillingdon, Middlesex, to a Jewish family.{{cite web |url=http://content.ancestry.co.uk/iexec/?htx=List&dbid=8782&offerid=0%3a7858%3a0/ |title=England & Wales, Birth Index: 1916–2005 |access-date=21 December 2009

Career

Monjack directed, produced, and wrote the B movie Two Days, Nine Lives in 2000.{{cite news |first=Michael |last=Thomson |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2001/03/22/two_days_nine_lives_2001_review.shtml |title=Two Days, Nine Lives (2001) |publisher=BBC |date=22 March 2001 |access-date=10 June 2014 |url=http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/who-is-brittany-murphys-husband-20092212 |title=Who Is Brittany Murphy's Husband? |work=Us Weekly |date=22 December 2009 |access-date=10 June 2014 |url=http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b55090_Brittany_Murphy_Made_a_Missus.html |title=Brittany Murphy Made a Missus |last=Serpe |first=Gina |publisher=E! |date=8 May 2007 |access-date=22 December 2009

Personal life

Brittany Murphy marriage and controversy

Monjack married Simone Bienne in Las Vegas in November 2001; they were divorced in 2006. That year, he met actress Brittany Murphy. In April 2007, they married 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. On 20 December 2009, Murphy died after collapsing in their bathroom. 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.

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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." In the two-part miniseries, Ragsdale explained that Monjack told her that he was suffering from spinal cancer and needed shark cartilage treatments to recover. It was not until he abandoned her while Ragsdale was pregnant that she contacted Monjack's mother, Linda Monjack, and realized the story was fake. Linda, who was interviewed, defended her son in this regard, saying that he had developed extreme paranoia after the death from cancer of her own father, William Monjack: "I certainly don't think he went out and told people he had cancer. I think he believed it." Before Monjack met Murphy, he met filmmaker Allison Burnett at a dinner party publicly, where he told the assembled guests that he was a billionaire, had dated Elle Macpherson and Madonna, had a collection of Ferraris, and was dying of brain cancer until he purchased a treatment derived from shark fins that saved his life; however, these claims were later revealed to be lies. The media subsequently suspected that Murphy had been duped by a con man. Kathy Najimy recalled: "[People] were scared. Like, "Who was this man and what is happening?". "She wanted to marry him, and I said, 'Honey, that's not enough.'" Another reporter said that her friends and family tried to separate her from Monjack at one point, but their intervention failed. After that it was as if she "disappeared," according to her friend Lisa Rieffel: "Simon took her away. He made sure no one could get to her."

Legal issues

In 2005, warrants were issued for Monjack's arrest in Virginia on charges of credit card fraud, but the charges were later dropped.{{cite news |url=http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/debts_and_arrests_in_husband_dark_PNmUYInEViOpl6tmvlJqdP |title=Debts and Arrests in Husband's Dark Past |last=MacIntosh |first=Jeane |newspaper=New York Post |date=22 December 2009 |access-date=22 December 2009

In 2006, Coutts & Co 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.

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."

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 anaemia, similar to the causes attributed to his wife's death five months earlier in the same house. He was buried next to Murphy at Forest Lawn cemetery in the Hollywood Hills.

References

Cites

References

  1. Dunhill, Lawrence. (24 May 2010). "Simon Monjack, Buckinghamshire husband of tragic Hollywood star Brittany Murphy found dead".
  2. Milmo, Cahal. (24 May 2010). "Simon Monjack: The short life and lonely death of a showbiz widower". [[The Independent]].
  3. "Deaths England and Wales 1984–2006".
  4. (23 December 2009). "Brittany Murphy's Mother-In-Law: Simon Monjack Has Lost The Love Of His Life".
  5. [http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/12/26/2009-12-26_director_brittany_murphy_was_warned_about_husband_simon_monjack_but_did_not_list.html "Director: Brittany Murphy was warned about husband Simon Monjack but did not listen"] ''New York Daily News''. 27 December 2009. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
  6. "CNN.com – Transcripts".
  7. Kaufman, Gil. (24 May 2010). "Brittany Murphy And Simon Monjack: A History Of Their Romance".
  8. Winton, Richard. (5 February 2010). "Brittany Murphy's death ruled an accident". [[The Los Angeles Times]].
  9. (11 October 2021). "¿Qué pasó, Brittany Murphy? ofrece nuevos y escalofriantes detalles".
  10. Silverman, Stephen M.. (24 May 2010). "Brittany Murphy's Husband Found Dead".
  11. Shoard, Catherine. (24 May 2010). "Simon Monjack, husband of Brittany Murphy, dies of heart attack". [[The Guardian]].
  12. Duke, Alan. (21 July 2010). "Coroner finds Simon Monjack's death was similar to Brittany Murphy's".
  13. Benet, Lorenzo. (27 May 2010). "Simon Monjack Laid to Rest Next to Brittany Murphy".

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1970-births2010-deathsenglish-expatriates-in-the-united-statesenglish-film-directorsenglish-film-producersenglish-language-film-directorsenglish-people-of-jewish-descentenglish-male-screenwritersconfidence-trickstersjewish-english-writerspeople-educated-at-the-royal-grammar-school,-high-wycombepeople-from-buckinghamshiredeaths-from-pneumonia-in-californiaburials-at-forest-lawn-memorial-park-(hollywood-hills)deaths-from-anemia20th-century-english-businesspeople20th-century-english-screenwriters