Biography of Denise Richards
Denise Richards is an American actress and former model. She made her film debut with a small role in the comedy "Loaded Weapon 1" (1993). Richards found success in the late '90s with roles in "Starship Troopers" (1997) and "Wild Things" (1998). She is also known for her role as Dr. Christmas Jones, a Bond girl, in "The World Is Not Enough" (1999).
Childhood, Youth, Family
Denise Lee Richards was born in February 1971 in Downers Grove, Illinois. She's the older of two daughters born to Joni Lee, a coffee shop owner, and Irv Richards, a telephone engineer. Her younger sister's name is Michelle. The actress has mixed German, French-Canadian, Irish, English, and Welsh heritage.Denise spent her childhood in Chicago, and when she turned 15, the family moved to Oceanside, California, where Irv opened a chain of coffee shops on the coast.
As a kid, she was the only girl on the baseball team—awkward and shy. Classmates teased her about her "fish lips"—what we'd call full, sensuous lips today. Secretly dreaming of her idol John Travolta, she decided to become an actress despite all the mockery.
This dream grew stronger after she and her sister got lost in the forest and accidentally encountered a Native American shaman. He predicted that she would become a famous artist. Later, Denise admitted in an interview:
In 1989, she graduated from El Camino High School in Oceanside, earning the title of prom queen. Richards then signed with the Judith Fontaine Modeling & Talent Agency. After modeling in Tokyo and Paris, she returned home to do ads for swimwear, pool accessories, and cosmetics.I realized early on that I could earn more money modeling than waiting tables and selling ice cream. I'm spontaneous. I like moving from one thing to another and not knowing what I'll do next. But I always wanted to be an actress.
Film Career
When modeling didn't work out due to her height, she packed up and headed to Los Angeles to chase her Hollywood dreams.After taking acting classes, she spent most of the nineties hustling through auditions and landing roles in low-budget films. She also had guest roles in popular TV series: "Married... with Children," "Beverly Hills, 90210," "Seinfeld," "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman."
Richards made her feature film debut in the police action parody "Loaded Weapon 1." She worked on set with well-known actors such as Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Whoopi Goldberg.
Richards landed her first major leading role as Carmen Ibanez in Paul Verhoeven's "Starship Troopers," which hit screens in 1997. Critics took notice and gave her positive reviews.
This was followed by the role of Kelly Van Ryan in the successful erotic thriller "Wild Things." In 1998, she appeared in the music video for Blues Traveler's song "Canadian Rose."
Her wardrobe choices – often low-cut tank tops and tight shorts – drew plenty of sarcastic commentary. In 1999, at the Golden Raspberry Awards, she was voted "Worst Supporting Actress" for this role. Still, that same year she landed at number nine on Maxim magazine's list of the 50 sexiest women.
Apart from film work, Richards appeared in sitcoms "Spin City," "Two and a Half Men," and "Friends." In the early 2000s, Richards took on roles that both spoofed and capitalized on her sex symbol status, including "Valentine" (Paige Prescott), "Undercover Brother" (White She-Devil), and "Scary Movie 3" (Annie).
Denise also appeared in more serious films, such as the drama "Empire" (2001) with John Leguizamo. But she stuck with comedy: audiences loved her chemistry with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in "The Third Wheel" (2002), and she teamed up with Milla Jovovich and William Baldwin for the rom-com "You Stupid Man" (2002).
Denise played Carla in the Christmas film "Love Actually" (2003). The film featured many top-tier stars, including Colin Firth, Keira Knightley, Liam Neeson, and quickly became a Christmas classic.
In December 2004, Richards posed nude for Playboy magazine, five months after giving birth. She also posed semi-nude for the July 2006 issue of Jane magazine to raise money for the Clothes Off Our Back Foundation.
In 2009, the actress participated in the eighth season of "Dancing with the Stars," partnered with Ukrainian Latin dance champion Maksim Chmerkovskiy. They were eliminated early, finishing in 12th place.
The 2010s brought Richards new roles across TV and film, though mostly in smaller-budget productions. She appeared in "Madea's Witness Protection" (Debra), "Twisted" (Karen Desai), "American Violence" (Amanda Tyler). She also appeared in the supernatural thriller "American Satan" (2017), playing the mother of the main character, the leader of the band The Relentless (Andy Biersack).
2023 proved to be Denise's breakout year for leading roles. She starred as maid Kit Ash in the thriller "The Housekeeper," investigating a deadly secret within a wealthy mansion. Richards then took on the role of Deborah in the action film "Angels Fallen: Warriors of Peace" and played morning radio host Brooke Walkins in the melodrama "A Christmas Frequency."
Personal Life of Denise Richards
In 1993, the actress had a brief romance with actor Paul Walker. The whirlwind romance burned out just as fast, and a few years later, Denise met the controversial Charlie Sheen.At the time of their meeting, the actor had been sober for several years and made a very favorable impression on Richards. In 2002, the couple got married. Their daughters, Sam Jay and Lola Rose, were born in 2004 and 2005.
By the time their second daughter arrived, Denise had already experienced Charlie's violent behavior when he was drinking. A year later, their messy divorce became constant tabloid fodder and impacted the actress's career—she disappeared from screens for several years:
The divorce from Sheen, finalized in 2006, was painful for Denise. During their split, her now ex-husband spiraled deeper into alcohol and drug abuse, resulting in several scandals that also tarnished Richards's reputation.It was hard for me to figure out what was happening—I made a lot of mistakes. My divorce went public, and I didn't realize it would hurt my career. I thought: this is my personal life. But it definitely affected my work. I had to become really private and stay quiet about a lot of things in interviews. The kids don't know much about their father, but maybe that's for the best. Even though he's Charlie Sheen, he's still their dad. I never bad-mouth him and want him to stay in their lives.
In 2007, the actress was negotiating the creation of a reality show dedicated to her. Reality shows about stars like "The Osbournes" or "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" were becoming popular, and she wanted to clean up her reputation and share her perspective on what happened in her family with Sheen.
But the criticism kept coming at Denise: Charlie Sheen called her intention to feature their daughters in the show "greedy and exploitative." When Richards took her ex to court, the media coverage was heavily biased in Sheen's favor.
Finally, all disputes were settled, custody of the children was shared, and in May 2008, the first season of the reality show "Denise Richards: It's Complicated" aired. For two seasons, people watched the personal life of the actress and her two little daughters, along with other family members. Despite scathing reviews from critics ("Denise Richards's life is a complete train wreck... Literally," sharp-tongued columnists wrote), a second season aired, but not a third.
Regarding new relationships, around the same time as Denise's divorce, her friend Heather Locklear divorced Richie Sambora, guitarist and songwriter of Bon Jovi. Right after Heather's split, Richards swooped in. Rumors spread that she was the reason for Locklear and Sambora's divorce, but the actress categorically denied such claims.
Still, her romance with Richie—a welcome distraction from her troubles—didn't last long. After they split, Denise threw herself into raising her daughters and taking whatever acting roles came her way—though offers were getting scarce.
In 2011, the actress adopted a girl, Eloise Joni Richards, whom her biological mother abandoned at the hospital. Denise named her adopted daughter after her own mother, who passed away from cancer four years earlier. During this time, she came out on Howard Stern's show, admitting to a lesbian experience with a well-known figure she did not name.
At that time, Denise was working on a book titled "The Real Girl Next Door" and only mysteriously stated, "I'm going to name everyone in Hollywood," "You would know who she is. I just met her through friends, work, and stuff. I was just curious. We were curious." However, no bombshell revelations ever materialized.
In 2017, just two days after their engagement, Richards married actor Aaron Phypers, whom she'd been dating for about a year. The ceremony took place in Malibu, where the bride invited not only relatives and friends but also the film crew of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills," the reality show she was starring in at the time.
Aaron adopted Eloise, who'd recently been diagnosed with a severe chromosomal disorder (San Luis Valley syndrome, which causes intellectual disability and organ issues). Denise called her husband "a wonderful father" who gets along well with her daughters, and she opened up about the challenge Phypers took on by adopting the girl:
She knows only a few words. I don't know if she'll ever speak like a regular child. Sometimes she matches the emotional development of her peers, but then she regresses to the level of a three-year-old. It's challenging. I'm learning to interact with her every day. Unfortunately, doctors have no prognosis for her future.
Denise Richards Now
In 2024, it was announced that the "Starship Troopers" star would return to television screens 15 years after her reality show "Denise Richards: It's Complicated" ended. The actress, along with her husband and three daughters, will star in a project tentatively titled "Denise Richards and the Wild Things," set to launch on E!. The show will be in a 30-minute format, and Denise will not only appear but also serve as a producer for the new project. The premiere is scheduled for 2025.Also in 2024, Denise Richards appeared as the lead in the family adventure film "Back to Vicksburg," was announced for the cast of a new medieval TV series "Glitter and Darkness," and will play one of the central roles in the action movie "Paper Empire."My family and I are thrilled to be returning home to E! channel. Sami and Lola were little—they were 3 and 4 years old when we first shared our story with the world. Now we're coming full circle. For our family, this project is the perfect fit because our life is filled with joy, love, and surprises. We can't wait to share our adventures with the audience.
Interesting Facts
- In 2001, Denise was ranked second on FHM's list of the 100 Sexiest Women in the USA and nineteenth on AskMen.com's list of the 50 Most Beautiful Women.
- In 2009, she starred in the reality show "Denise Richards: It's Complicated," where she showed how she raises pigs as pets. This caused quite a stir among the public, given her glamorous image.
- In her youth, Denise was an avid baseball player and played on her high school's women's baseball team in Illinois. She often mentioned that she could have chosen a sports career if she hadn't become an actress.
- During the filming of "Wild Things" (1998), Denise insisted on shooting the scene with her topless appearance before she had her planned breast augmentation surgery. She wanted her natural appearance to be preserved in the film.