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Denise Lee Richards (born February 17, 1971) is an American actress and former fashion model. She became famous in the late 1990s, after a string of films that highlighted her sex appeal, including Starship Troopers, Wild Things, and The World Is Not Enough. Model and actress Denise Richards experienced a modicum of notoriety in broad comedies and B-movies that utilized mainly her swimsuit figure and her cliché “dumb model” persona. She was part of a few moderate box office successes, but was more steadily seen in guest appearances on TV sitcoms and melodramatic nighttime soaps where her limited acting range was not considered a detriment. The average entertainment consumer might not have been able to list more than a few of Richards credits, but most were familiar with the tabloid-topper’s ill-fated marriage to lothario Charlie Sheen, which included a restraining order and denied accusations of drug and pornography addictions. The pair butted heads after their divorce and Richards successfully won the right to feature the couple’s toddlers in her own reality TV show. Richards was born in Downers Grove, Illinois, the daughter of Joni, a coffee shop owner, and Irv Richards, a telephone engineer. She has one sister, Michelle, and grew up in both Mokena, Illinois and Downers Grove, Illinois. She graduated from El Camino High School in 1989, Oceanside, California, where she was a cheerleader. she was a 'tomboy' when little, the only 'girl on baseball.' She and her younger sister spent their early years in the area before her parents moved the family to San Diego when Richards was in her early teens. The future swimsuit model thrived in Southern California, where she was a high school cheerleader and encouraged to pursue modeling. Following her graduation in 1989, Richards moved straight to New York City, where she shared an apartment with half a dozen other aspiring models and began finding work. Her fresh-faced look eventually landed a deal with Bonne Bell cosmetics, but she also traveled around the world on mainly swimsuit shoots. Her 5’6” height was short by modeling standards and runway work was not in the cards, so Richards decided to branch out into acting. Before she was an actress, Richards was a fashion model. Richards spent the majority of the 1990s appearing in lower-budget films and TV shows like Saved by the Bell, television movies, and guest starring in episodes of several television shows. Her first starring role in a wide theatrical release was Starship Troopers in 1997, which was followed by her role in the moderately successful cult film Wild Things in 1998. She returned to Southern California and began capitalizing on her sex appeal in film and TV projects where acting skills were not a necessity, appearing on such shows as “Saved by the Bell” (NBC, 1989-1993) and "Beverly Hills, 90210" (Fox, 1990-2000). She received a bit of a profile boost for an appearance on an episode of “Seinfeld” (NBC, 1989-1998), where her distracting cleavage led to the end of a potential TV deal for Jerry and George. Richards made her feature debut with a cameo in "National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon I" (1993) and resumed a busy schedule of forgettable guest spots on “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” (ABC, 1993-97) and short-lived nighttime soaps like “One West Waikiki” (1995) and “High Tide” (1995) before landing the recurring role of beauty contestant Brandy Carson on Fox's "Melrose Place" (Fox, 1992-99). At this point in her career, Richards had served as little more than set-dressing or a stock “dumb model” type, but it was enough of a pedigree for director Paul Verhoeven, who decided to cast relative unknowns in the leading roles of his sci-fi actioner "Starship Troopers" (1997). Richards’ saving grace was the fact that Verhoeven was apparently going for a cheap, B-movie look where wooden acting was part of the package. The film was a surprising box office hit that even charmed a moderate number of critics, giving Richards the street cred for another leading role in John McNaughton's sexy cult thriller "Wild Things" (1998), alongside established actors Kevin Bacon, Neve Campbell and Matt Dillon. It was really this role, in fact, that – with a little help from her topless threesome scene – put Richards on the map as a sex symbol to be reckoned with. After “Wild Things” – which despite its tawdry subject matter still impressed critics – Richards landed a shot at cheesecake infamy when she was tapped to be the next Bond girl, essaying munitions expert Dr. Christmas Jones in "The World Is Not Enough" (1999). Richards was cast as the nuclear scientist Christmas Jones in the 1999 James Bond film The World Is Not Enough (1999), which had a high box office gross. Though she considered her role "brainy", "athletic", and having depth of character, she was criticised as not credible in it. However, she proved to one of the least convincing doctoral candidates in film history, and her performance inspired Entertainment Weekly to declare her the “Worst Bond Girl of All Time.” Richards retreated to the comfortable territory of low-acting expectations, playing a beauty pageant contestant in the flop "Drop Dead Gorgeous" (1999), and skipping theaters and heading straight to video with the lame horror thriller "Valentine" (2001). Her outfit comprising a tank top and shorts also elicited similar opinions. She was ranked as the worst Bond girl of all time by Entertainment Weekly in 2008. In addition to her film work, Richards made regular appearances in the situation comedies Spin City, Two and a Half Men, Friends and Seinfeld. She also starred in the short-lived UPN series Sex, Love & Secrets in 2005. Throughout the early 2000s, Richards appeared in several film roles which both parodied and utilized her image as a sex symbol, including Valentine, Undercover Brother, Scary Movie 3 and Love Actually. Richards might have been all but disappeared from the public eye, were it not for her romance and subsequent marriage to notorious playboy Charlie Sheen after the two co-starred in the straight-to-cable film, "Good Advice" (2001). Richards returned to theaters as the White She-Devil of the modest hit comedy "Undercover Brother" (2002) and she and Sheen appeared together again in the broad comedy hit "Scary Movie 3" (2003). After making a brief cameo in the well-received romantic comedy “Love Actually” (2003), Richards appeared in a best-selling nude pictorial in the pages of Playboy magazine. In December 2004, she posed for a nude pictorial in Playboy magazine. Richards also posed semi-nude for the July 2006 issue of Jane magazine to raise money for the Clothes Off Our Back Foundation. In 1999 she ranked 9 in Maxim's 50 Sexiest Women and in 2001 she was voted 2nd in FHM's USA 100 Sexiest Women, 5th in FHM 100 Sexiest Women and 19 in AskMen.com 50 Most Beautiful Women. She snared the lead in the lightweight Lifetime telepic "I Do (But I Don't)" (2004) opposite Dean Cain and tackled still more dramatic fare with a starring role as a broke grad student tempted into prostitution by a hooker (Daryl Hannah) in the low-budget “Whore” (2004). Her straight-to-video romantic comedy “The Third Wheel” (2004) turned far fewer heads than her highly publicized, dirty-laundry airing split with Sheen in 2005 while Richards was several months pregnant with their second child. The couple would go on to reconcile, but later break up for good in 2006 when Richards hit Sheen with accusations of emotional abuse and threatening behavior toward her, as well as an ongoing addiction to porn and hookers. Only days after the scandalous filing appeared online on thesmokinggun.com – initially making her the sympathetic figure – she appeared in public with Richie Sambora, lead guitarist of the arena rock band, Bon Jovi. It was this openly affectionate outing with the musician – who was still married to but separated from actress Heather Locklear, Richard’s former best friend and neighbor – that caused an overnight shift in public perception. Suddenly, Richards was painted as the villain, even tipping the scales of sympathy toward her notoriously troubled husband after the Sambora relationship leaked. Incredibly, the limited actress was handed a starring role in the road comedy, “Elvis Has Left the Building” (2005), and cast in the short-lived UPN soap drama, “Sex, Love and Secrets” (2005- ). She also was half responsible for the dismal Canadian comedy “Blonde and Blonder” (2008), for which the teaming of Richards and Pamela Anderson was a box office draw to the tune of $42,000 dollars on an $8 million dollar budget. Unbowed by this very clear message from moviegoers, Richards was anxious to get in front of the camera again in 2008 as the star of her own reality show. She found herself in a court battle with ex-husband Sheen, who objected to the idea of his two and three year-old children being forced into the spotlight. Richards defended that the toddlers had already expressed an interest in show business. In 2002, she married actor Charlie Sheen, with whom she appeared in Scary Movie 3, in which she played his character's dying wife. The couple has two daughters: Sam J and Lola. Richards was named the Sexiest Mom of 2005 by In Touch Weekly magazine. In March 2005, Richards filed for divorce from Sheen. The couple briefly reconciled and were seeking marriage counseling to mend their relationship. However, on January 4, 2006, Richards' representative announced that she was continuing with the divorce, and she later sought a restraining order against Sheen, citing his alleged death threats against her. Richards briefly dated Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora shortly after their respective separations from Sheen and Heather Locklear, ending what Locklear had considered to be a close friendship. Richards once dated actor Patrick Muldoon; she has also been linked to actor John Stamos, whom she dated during her teenage years. On April 19, 2006, Richards filed formal legal papers asking for divorce from Sheen under the laws of the state of California. In her 17-page court filing (not counting additional supporting evidentiary documents), Richards alleged that Sheen's behavior was increasingly erratic, making their marriage impossible, and that she feared for her safety and the safety of their daughters. Richards claimed that Sheen was physically and verbally abusive and threatened to kill her or have her killed, and that despite having accidentally shot his previous fiancée, Kelly Preston, he wanted to place firearms under their coffee table to protect them. Richards claimed that Sheen had become paranoid and obsessive, citing his belief in 9/11 conspiracy theories, a belief that baby formula caused brain damage, a desire to purchase gas masks, and an "abnormal fascination" with Nicole Simpson's death. Further, Richards alleged that Sheen visited prostitutes and was addicted to gambling, prescription drugs (which he bought over the Internet), and pornography. Richards also alleged that Sheen posted a picture of his erect penis on his online profile of a "sex-search type" website and that he frequently viewed pornography featuring "very young girls," and websites "involving gay pornography also involving very young men who also did not look like adults." Based on these allegations, Richards sought and received a restraining order against Sheen. Sheen denied the allegations. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, he described Richards' actions as a "smear campaign" and insisted that he was a responsible father who would "give his life for his children." He added that Richards is "the only one entirely culpable for putting these radical allegations out for public consumption... my children included." On December 1, 2007, it was announced that Richards's mother, Joni, died from cancer. On November 8, 2006, officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) were called to the River Rock Casino in Richmond, B.C., where Richards was making a movie. After seeing two photographers taking her picture from a nearby balcony, she confronted them, and threw their two laptop computers over the balcony. One laptop struck an 80-year-old woman in a wheelchair. The other laptop grazed the arm of a 91-year-old woman. Neither woman suffered serious injury, and no charges were pressed against Richards. In 2008, Richards decided to include her two daughters with Charlie Sheen in a her own upcoming reality television show. He deemed her plans "greedy, vain and exploitative". On January 25, 2008, Richards won a court case against Sheen so that she can include her daughters in the show. When a judge rejected Sheen's request to block it, the latter urged fans to boycott it. An agreement was reached between Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards regarding the custody of the children. |
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