Rebel Without A Cause

This is Anna Nicole Smith when she was in High School in 1985. Sometimes we forget that most people do have humble beginnings. To tell you the truth I never really cared for her, but seeing tabloid TV picking her life apart less than 24 hours after her death sickened me.

She grew up idolizing Marilyn Monroe and like Marilyn died young. Like Marilyn she began as a small town girl too. I'm not so sure 45 years from now that people will still care about the sad life of Anna Nicole Smith the way they still do for Marilyn.

I guess when I started thinking about Anna's death it reminded me of the sad ending for former Saturday Night Live comic and movie star Chris Farley. He idolized John Belushi and like Belushi died young and had the same problems with drugs and alcohol.

I enjoyed watching Chris Farley and John Belushi. They made me laugh. Animal House, The Blues Brothers I still enjoy watching. Tommy Boy is one of my guilty pleasures. Not so much a fan of Marilyn's, but she did a pretty good job holding her own in Some Like It Hot with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon.

In talking about Anna Nicole Smith with friends at KFIZ we somehow got on the subject of movies that seemed to feature casts that went on to tragic endings. Rebel Without a Cause. The three lead actors in that 1955 film all died of tragic circumstances. James Dean in a car wreck, Natalie Wood of a suspicious drowning, and Sal Mineo was stabbed to death.

Marilyn Monroe starred in one of those movies too. The Misfits cast her with Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift. All three stars would die within a few short years of its filming. Gable the same year. Marilyn gave a good performance in that too. She was a bonafide movie star. Anna Nicole Smith's best role was as Anna Nicole Smith. Hopefully some young girl out there will carefully consider wanting to grow up to be like Anna Nicole Smith.

Live hard, die young and leave a good-looking corpse! It's attributed to James Dean, but too many try to live up to the saying.