Brittany Murphy was reportedly vomiting and extremely ill in the hours before she died of a cardiac arrest.
PHOTOS: Life and times of Brittany Murphy
The entertainment website TMZ claims the 32-year-old actress was taking prescription medication in the lead up to her death.
The drugs may have contributed to Murphy's heart attack but it was too early to say, unnamed sources told the website.
A large number of prescriptions made out to Murphy, her husband Simon Monjack and her mother Sharon Murphy were found in her house, the site reports, quoting law enforcement sources.
After falling ill earlier in the day, Murphy reportedly collapsed in the bathroom and ended up in the shower area where her mother found her surrounded by vomit.
UK tabloid The Sun reports Murphy was taking Vicodin, a drug the late Michael Jackson was known to have been hooked on.
Murphy, who starred in Clueless and 8 Mile, had become addicted to painkillers after undergoing several plastic surgery procedures, The Sun claims.
The revelations come as a neighbour told how she saw Murphy's husband Simon Monjack "staggering" around a different part of the property as paramedics tried to save her life.
Clare Staples told RadarOnline.com she watched the dramatic scene unfold at Murphy's house after she noticed two fire trucks and paramedics outside.
"I saw five firemen bringing down the gurney and take her down to the firetruck, trying to resuscitate her by the fire truck," she said.
"She had tubes down her throat … I think she was dead already."
Murphy's husband Simon Monjack, who has reportedly attempted to block an autopsy on the late 32-year-old actress, was seen "wandering around in his pyjama bottoms with no shoes on".
"He wasn’t even near the gurney, he was just staggering around," Ms Staples said.
Although the Los Angeles County coroner's office says it appears actress Brittany Murphy died of natural causes, speculation has raged in the media over the cause of her death.
TMZ reported that Monjack had attempted to block a forensic examination of the actress's body but added that the Los Angeles coroner will go ahead with the procedure.
The site also claims Murphy's mother has told paramedics her daughter suffered from diabetes.
Murphy was photographed looking underweight at an LA premiere earlier this month, with her prominent collarbones and sunken eyes prompting speculation about her lifestyle.
Examiner.com reports her troubles began around three years ago when her spate of high-profile roles slowed after her final starring role in Sin City.
Acting jobs she had been slated for — such as the voice of Tinkerbell in a proposed Disney production — were withdrawn, allegedly due to her erratic behaviour.
Murphy died at 10.04am on Sunday in LA (3am AEDT), Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre Spokeswoman Sally Stewart said.
She would not provide a cause of death, or any other information.
Hollywood gossip tsar Perez Hilton predicted Murphy's death earlier this month during an interview on a San Diego radio show, according to NBC.
Radio host AJ Machado reportedly asked Perez if there was another celebrity heading the same way as Michael Jackson.
"Brittany Murphy maybe," Hilton said.
After Murphy's death Perez tweeted "Drugs Kill" and then warned celebrities Lindsay Lohan and Courtney Love that unless they went to rehab, they would be next.
According to a report in the UK Times, Murphy had been the subject of controversy when in 2005 she fought off rumours that she regularly took cocaine.
"Just for the record I have never tried it in my entire life, I've never even seen it, and I don't leave the house too much, except to go to work," she told Knight Ridder Newspapers.
"My worst vice is caffeine ... [the rumour is] really pretty darn far-fetched I have known people over the course of my life that have bad problems with drugs, and it's something really serious."
Three years ago, Murphy told an American health magazine that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer but had the cancerous lumps removed and was given a clean bill of health.
In recent interviews, she had said 2010 was the year she and her husband British screenwriter Simon Monjack hoped to start a family.
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