EW lists Brittany Murphy's Tribute performance among '11 Roles We'll Remember'

One of the last roles played by Brittany Murphy, the young Hollywood actress who died suddenly on December 20, 2009 of cardiac arrest, was that of Cilla McGowan in the 2009 Lifetime Movie Network's adaptation of Nora Roberts' novel Tribute. A December 23, 2009 Entertainment Weekly article by Archana Ram includes that performance among eleven of the most memorable ones of Murphy's regrettably short career.

This Dec. 1, 2009 photo provided by PictureGroup
shows Brittany Murphy arriving at the "Across the Hall"
Premiere in Beverly Hills, Calif.  (AP Photo/PictureGroup,
Gregg DeGuire)

Among Murphy's other significant roles cited in Ram's article were those of Tai in Clueless (1995), Luanne in King of the Hill (1997-2009), Daisy Randone in Girl, Interrupted (1999), Elisabeth in Don't Say a Word  (2001), Fay Forrester in Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), Alex in 8 Mile (2002), Sarah in Just Married (2003),  Molly in Uptown Girls (2003),  Stacy in Little Black Book (2004), and Shellie in Sin City (2005).

Murphy's role as Tribute's Cilla McGowan was that of  a former child star who begins a second and happier career renovating old houses. Cilla moves into the Shenandoah Valley home of her late grandmother, movie legend Janet Hardy.  With help of her neighbor, graphic novelist Ford Sawyer – played by Jason Lewis – Cilla begins an investigation into 30-year-old mystery surrounding Janet Hardy's death and presumed suicide.

As director Curtis Hanson told Entertainment Weekly, “Brittany had a unique and electric talent. She was also a very special person…a gentle and vulnerable soul, whose emotions were very near the surface.” The following Lifetime video in which Murphy and her fellow actors discuss the filming of Tribute contains scenes that  demonstrate the validity of Hanson's comment.

December 26, 2009 Update:
Lifetime Movie Network will be showing Tribute online through January 21, 2010.