Anna Nicole Smith

Few women have ever embodied old-Hollywood glamour the way Anna Nicole Smith did. Born Vickie Lynn Hogan on 28 November 1967 in Houston, Texas, and raised in the small town of Mexia, she was a small-town girl with a big dream: to become the next Marilyn Monroe. With her platinum hair, baby-doll pout and spectacularly generous curves, she came closer than anyone.

Before the magazines found her she worked as a dancer in Houston, learning how to hold a room's attention with nothing more than a slow walk and a knowing smile. Playboy saw her photos and could not believe its luck. She appeared on the cover in March 1992 and as the centrefold in May 1992, and the readers' response was so overwhelming that she was crowned Playmate of the Year for 1993.

Her pictures are a love letter to the pin-up tradition. Anna Nicole poses like a 1950s screen siren reborn: lounging on satin sheets, arching her back, playing with feather boas and pearls, always with that sleepy, seductive look that seems to say she knows exactly what she is doing to you. Her figure was the opposite of the skinny supermodel trend of the time, all soft, voluptuous, unapologetic woman, and fans adored her for it.

Fashion followed Playboy. In 1993 she replaced Claudia Schiffer as the face of Guess Jeans, and her black-and-white campaign shots became instant classics of nineties glamour. Hollywood came next, with roles in The Hudsucker Proxy and Naked Gun 33⅓, and later her own reality series, The Anna Nicole Show, which made her a household name all over again.

Anna Nicole passed away in 2007, far too young, but her images remain as dazzling as ever. They capture a woman who knew the power of her body and wasn't afraid to celebrate it. In this gallery you will find the Texan bombshell at her most irresistible: golden, curvy and utterly unforgettable.

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