Simon Monjack

Simon Monjack was born on March 9, 1970 in Hillingdon, Middlesex, UK to a Jewish family. He spent much of his growing up years in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire. Monjack attended a couple of schools including Juniper Hill School, Flackwell Heath and later Royal Grammar School for his preliminary education. Tragedy struck young Monjack’s life when his father William died of brain tumour. His mother, a hypnotherapist, moved from Oxfordshire and relocated to Bourne End.

Simon Monjack was twice married. His first marriage was to Simone Bienna, a British media personality, in Las Vegas in November 2001. The marriage, however, did not last long and the couple separated five months later. In 2006, they were officially divorced. Same year, Monjack met actress Brittany Murphy. Though he had met her years ago when she was a teenager and was in touch with her intermittently, their relationship blossomed after his divorce. In November 2007, Monjack and Murphy took the wedding vows. Two years later, in December 2009, Murphy’s sudden death after collapsing in the bathroom left Simon Monjack distraught. An autopsy report revealed that she died due to pneumonia, with secondary factors of anaemia and multiple prescription drug intoxication. Monjack mostly remained unwell post her death.

Simon Monjack died on May 23, 2010 in his house in Hollywood. His mother who found him lying unconscious called the doctors but it was too late. He too died of acute pneumonia and severe anaemia. Both Monjack and his wife Murphy died in the same house and in the same way. He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills

Simon Monjack’s first known work as a director and producer was the movie ‘Two Days, Nine Lives’ in 2000. In 2006, for the film ‘Factory Girl’ starring actress and model Edie Sedgwick, he was given disputed story credit. Though he claimed to be the man behind the script, director George Hickenlooper stated that Monjack wasn’t at all involved in the project. They were forced to settle down after he intimidated them of coming in way of the movie release.

In 2007, E! News reported that Monjack was to direct a film adaptation of D. M. Thomas's novel about Sigmund Freud, ‘The White Hotel’. The film was supposed to have his wife Brittany Murphy in a leading role but it never took off.

Monjack had several legal cases on him during his lifetime. In 2005, he was arrested on charges of credit card fraud which was later dropped. A year later, in 2006, he was alleged for a nearly $500,000 judgement against him by Coutts Bank. In 2007, Monjack was arrested on grounds of expired visa in United States. He not only was in the prison for nine days but was deported thereafter.