Former supermodel Shelley Smith also had a successful acting career from the late 1970s until the early 1990s. She’s best known for TV series such as “For Love and Honor,” “Simon & Simon,” “Magnum, P.I.,” and the TV movie “Scruples.”
On August 8, 2023, at around 2:20pm, Smith passed away at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital. Her cause of death was cardiac arrest, which she had experienced a few days before breathing her last breath. She was 70 years old.
Smith’s husband, Michael Maguire, shared the sad news of his wife’s death on Facebook. He shared that at the time of her death “Her children, Nicky and Miranda Nathan and I were at her side and holding her hand and kissing her head and singing to her and telling her how much we loved her. Also, with us was Grant Stevens, my great great friend, who gave up himself to help us, understand the process of dying, and guided us through it with so much class and dignity! We owe him a tremendous debt!”
In a video he posted to Facebook, Maguire emphasized that Smith “had an incredible life.” He described her as “so quick and witty and funny.”
After leaving acting, Smith devoted her life to helping others, in particular, helping other women who struggled to have children. She had her own personal struggles having children, so in response, Maguire shared that his wife “started a company, The Egg Donor Program, that also added later The Surrogacy Program. And she helped thousands and thousands of people have babies. It was so sweet, and she loved every time she got to relive her own struggles and help other people avoid those struggles.” He added that she “loved helping people.”
Maguire praised his wife for making him “a much better person.” He said, “We were so in love, and it just got stronger and stronger right up until the moment she passed.” He described himself as “devastated and broken” without his wife, but he added, “Shelley had a wonderful life. I know she loved it. She lived it every day to the fullest. That’s all we can do.”
Maguire shared that the plan is to have two memorial services for Smith, one in California “sometime after Labor Day” and a second one online “for all people around the world who she’s helped.”
