By Megan Riedlinger
7:12am PST, Nov 28, 2022
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To mark what would have been Anna Nicole Smith's 55th birthday on Nov. 28, 2022, Wonderwall.com is taking a look at her and more famous former Playboy models to find out what happened to them after they moved on from their Playboy fame… Anna Nicole Smith used her legal name, Vickie Smith, when she appeared on the cover of Playboy for the first time in March 1992 and when she was named Playmate of the Month for the May 1992 issue. In 1993 (pictured), the beauty — who began using the stage name Anna Nicole Smith — was named Playmate of the Year and divorced her first husband, Billy Smith — the father of her son, Daniel — following a lengthy separation.
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After making a name for herself posing for Playboy in the early '90s, Anna Nicole Smith's fame exploded as she started working for brands including Guess, taking over for supermodel Claudia Schiffer as the face of the brand, and H&M. Her attempts to make it as an actress flopped and in 2002, she became a reality TV star with the debut of the E! series "The Anna Nicole Show."In 1994, she married 89-year-old billionaire J. Howard Marshall. Following his death barely a year later, she pursued a share of his estate — a legal battle that took her all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court (she's seen here leaving court with her devoted attorney and sometime romantic partner, Howard K. Stern, in early 2006). In September 2006, three days after Anna Nicole gave birth to daughter Dannielynn — whose father was later confirmed to be photographer Larry Birkhead, not Howard, who was named on the birth certificate — the model's 20-year-old son, Daniel, died from an accidental drug overdose while visiting her and his new baby sister in a hospital in the Bahamas. Five months later in February 2007, Anna Nicole tragically passed away at 39 from an accidental prescription drug overdose in her room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
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Carmen Electra was a singer who had a recording contract with Prince's Paisley Park Records shortly before she scored a spread in Playboy in May 1996 — her first of five appearances in the magazine. She landed a role on "Baywatch" a year later in 1997.
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Aside from starting an OnlyFans account, Carmen Electra has been focused on the reality television landscape in recent years. The beauty served as a guest judge on "Britain's Got Talent" in 2021 and appeared as a guest host on "Domino Masters" in 2022. Carmen famously wed basketball star Dennis Rodman in Las Vegas in 1998, though the union only lasted nine days. She married rocker Dave Navarro in 2003 and invited cameras to document their romance for MTV's "'Til Death Do Us Part: Carmen and Dave," but the two split a few years later in 2006.
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Way back in 1993, a then-unknown Jenny McCarthy posed for Playboy. She went on to start hosting the MTV dating show "Singled Out" two years later then got into acting and hosting, eventually landing a spot on "The View" 20 years after she first bared all. So what does the blonde beauty look like these days?
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Nearly three decades after her Playboy debut, Jenny McCarthy wears many hats in the entertainment world. She's served as a judge on FOX's wildly popular reality competition series "The Masked Singer" since 2019. She's hosted her own show Sirius XM show since 2014 — originally titled "Dirty, Sexy, Funny with Jenny McCarthy," it was retitled "The Jenny McCarthy Show" in 2016. The beauty has been married to actor and New Kids on the Block singer Donnie Wahlberg since 2014.
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Long before she was a star on the inaugural season of "The Real Housewives of Orange County," Jeana Keough — then known as Jeana Tomasino — was Playboy's Playmate of the Month in November 1980. That helped launch her career as a music video model for rock band ZZ Top in the '80s.
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Jeana Keough starred on "The Real Housewives of Orange County" for five seasons, leaving the show in 2010, and has stopped by for guest appearances since then. She now works as a real estate agent in Orange County, California. Jeana has been very transparent about her plastic surgeries over the years. The star, whose rocky marriage with late ex-husband Matt Keough played out on Bravo, is currently single.
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Julie McCullough, best known for her role as Julie Costello on "Growing Pains," actually got her big break in Playboy. She made her first appearance as a cover girl in February 1985 and was Playmate of the Month a year later in February 1986.
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Julie McCullough transitioned to stand-up comedy later in her career. Her most recent TV credit was a part in 2013's "Sharknado," and she also had a small role in the 2018 independent film "Untogether." The model-turned-actress was married to Canadian actor David Sutcliffe from 2001 until 2003. You can keep up with the latest from the star on her active Instagram account.
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Pamela Anderson launched a prolific career thanks to Playboy, appearing on the cover of the magazine for the first time in October 1989. She parlayed that into a famous run on "Baywatch."
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These days, Pamela Anderson is primed for a comeback. In 2022, she appeared as Roxie Hart on Broadway in the iconic musical "Chicago." Prior to that, she mainly popped up on reality competition series including two seasons of "Dancing With the Stars" in 2010 and 2012 and the ITV series "Dancing on Ice" in 2013. The blonde bombshell has been married quite a few times, notably to rockers Tommy Lee and Kid Rock as well as professional poker player Rick Salomon. In more recent years, she had two short-lived marriages to producer Jon Peters and bodyguard Dan Hayhurst.
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Though she technically wasn't a Playmate, Kendra Wilkinson can credit her fame to Playboy, in which she posed nude multiple times. From 2005 to 2009, she starred on "Girls Next Door," an E! reality series that documented the lives of some of Hugh Hefner's live-in girlfriends.
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Kendra Wilkinson parlayed her time on E! into more reality shows — E!'s "Kendra," WE tv's "Kendra on Top" and Discovery+'s "Kendra Sells Hollywood." Her marriage to football player Hank Baskett provided fodder for many of her reality shows. The two also appeared on WE tv's "Marriage Bootcamp: Family Edition" in 2017 — a year before they split.
