Sad life and death of a showbiz widower ; Screenwriter Simon Monjack was inconsolable after actress Brittany Murphy's death. Now he has followed his wife to an early grave, writes Cahal Milmo

Within hours of the death of his Hollywood actress wife BrittanyMurphy, her British husband of three years, Simon Monjack, a little-known screenwriter, told one of Tinseltown's proliferation ofshowbusiness websites: "My world was destroyed yesterday."

The extent to which an all-consuming grief went on to hasten thedeath of the 39-year-old Briton will perhaps never be known, butshortly before 10pm on Sunday his mother-in-law Sharon entered thebedroom of his sprawling home in the Hollywood Hills and found himunconscious.

Paramedics could do nothing to revive Mr Monjack and he waspronounced dead. Sergeant Louie Lozano said there were no suspiciouscircumstances and added that the preliminary cause of death was asuspected heart attack.

It was the final drama of an improbable and tortured life whichbegan in Buckinghamshire's affluent stockbroker belt and ended witha man best-known as the portly consort of a pretty Hollywood actressand a scandal-prone also-ran in the ruthless world of movies whosedealings had -- rightly or wrongly -- earned him the nickname 'Con-Jack'.

For Sharon Murphy, whose daughter was the result of her short-lived marriage to an Italian mobster, Sunday night was full ofunbearably grim repetition. On December 20, 2009, she entered thesame bedroom in the house to find Brittany unconscious in the en-suite shower room, lying in a pool of her own vomit.

An inquest found that Brittany (32), who joined the rota ofHollywood's leading ladies after her appearance in the 1995 hitClueless, died from a cardiac arrest brought on by pneumonia.

Investigators found large quantities of prescription drugsbelonging to her, but her husband insisted they were mostly out-of-date medications.

The coroner's verdict that the actress, whose film appearanceshad grossed Pounds 62m for Hollywood's studios, had diedaccidentally did little to diminish what followed.

Rumours were rife in cyberspace that Mr Monjack was implicated inhis wife's death. He angrily denied the claims and there was neverany evidence that the death of the actress was the result ofanything other than her constitution, weakened by a dependency onmedications and an apparent eating disorder.

But Mr Monjack, by his own admission, had enough question marksover his past to sustain the suspicion that he was a silver-tonguedchancer. His 'Con-Jack' nickname came from a series of financialscrapes, including his eviction from four homes; a lawsuit byCoutts, the Queen's bank, successfully suing him for Pounds 326,000,and a divorce settlement dating back to 2001 that was only settledin 2009.

Mr Monjack answered the allegations with the classic weapons ofthe wronged rogue -- candid admission and a claim that he was thevictim of a shadowy elite.

Raised in London, Mr Monjack hailed from the upper echelons ofthe English middle class.

As a filmmaker, he was not without talent. He directed an advertfor Nike's shoe range featuring the basketball player MichaelJordan. In 2006 he appeared to be on the threshold of a majorbreakthrough, announcing that he had secured funding to make TheWhite Hotel, an adaptation of the acclaimed novel by DM Thomas.

After initially offering the lead role to Nicola Kidman, MerylStreep and Barbara Streisand, the film's backers announced they hadsecured the services of another star -- Brittany Murphy. While theproject ultimately foundered, romance blossomed.

Amid claims, fiercely contested, that he was facing deportationfrom America because of visa irregularities, the couple married in2007 at a private Jewish ceremony in their home.

Miss Murphy said in a magazine interview: "We first met when Iwas 17. We checked in with each other throughout the years andremained friends. The easiest decision I ever had in my life wasgetting married. He's flown around the world to make sure we spendevery single night together."

Not all friends of the actress shared her joy. GeorgeHickenlooper, the director of Factory Girl, a biopic about AndyWarhol's muse Edie Sedgwick, said he had tried to warn Miss Murphyoff her relationship with the Briton after the two men fell out overMr Monjack's claim to have written an earlier script for the film.

It was amid such warfare that Mr Monjack entered what turned outto be the final months of his life, feeling obliged to launch hisown PR counter-offensive at a time when others might have expectedhim to maintain the silence of a grief-stricken widower.

Shortly before his own death, he invited a camera crew from acelebrity website to film a tour of his home. As reports began toemerge that the Briton had died of a drug overdose as much as abroken heart, an interview filmed with Mr Monjack earlier this monthwas posted on the internet.

He told the cameraman: "We have got to the point in this culturewhere facts and fiction no longer matter.

"It is what you can get the average person to read. I think I hadbetter stop there."

CAPTION: Tragic couple: Simon Monjack with his wife BrittanyMurphy in New York in 2008 and (from left) Brittany with DrewBarrymore in Riding in Cars with Boys; Monjack's Hollywood homewhere he was found dead on Sunday night, and; rising star Brittanyin the movie Spun