Biography of Denise Richards
Denise Richards is an American actress and former model. She made her film debut with a minor role in the comedy "Loaded Weapon 1" (1993). Richards gained success in the late nineties 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 is the elder of two daughters of Joni Lee, a coffee shop owner, and Irv Richards, a telephone engineer. Her younger sister's name is Michelle. The actress has a mixed ancestry of German, French-Canadian, Irish, English, and Welsh roots.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 child, she was the only girl on the baseball team, awkward and shy. Classmates teased her as "fish lips" for their, as we would say today, sensuous plumpness. Secretly dreaming of her idol John Travolta, she decided to become an actress despite all the mockery.
This desire became especially strong after she and her sister accidentally encountered a Native American shaman, getting lost in the forest. 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. Then Richards signed a contract with the Judith Fontaine Modeling & Talent Agency. After working as a model in Tokyo and Paris, she returned home to advertise swimsuits, swimming and bathing 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
To become a runway star, the girl lacked height, so she decided to move to Los Angeles and pursue a film career.After enrolling in acting courses, she spent most of the nineties regularly appearing at auditions and acting 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."
Denise Richards' first feature film appearance was 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.
Denise's first leading role in a widely released film was Carmen Ibanez in Paul Verhoeven's "Starship Troopers," which hit screens in 1997. Critics noticed her performance and gave 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 outfits, often consisting of a low-cut tank top and tight shorts, elicited sarcastic comments. In 1999, at the Golden Raspberry Awards, she was voted "Worst Supporting Actress" for this role. Nonetheless, the same year she ranked ninth in 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 appeared in several roles in films that both parodied and utilized her image as a sex symbol, 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. However, she remained committed to the comedy genre: audiences found her charming alongside Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in the comedy "The Third Wheel" (2002), and she worked with Milla Jovovich and William Baldwin on 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 in both TV series and films, although mostly in low-budget films. 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 was a fruitful year for Denise in terms of leading roles. She played the main character, maid Kit Ash, in the thriller "The Housekeeper," where she investigates a deadly secret in a wealthy mansion. Richards then transformed into Deborah in the action film "Angels Fallen: Warriors of Peace" and appeared as morning radio host Brooke Walkins in the melodrama "A Christmas Frequency."
Personal Life of Denise Richards
In 1993, the unparalleled blonde had a brief romance with actor Paul Walker. The swiftly kindled passion faded just as quickly, 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 was born, Denise had already encountered Charlie's aggression while he was intoxicated. A year later, their loud divorce became a ceaseless source of tabloid news and impacted the actress's career—she disappeared from screens for several years:
The divorce from Sheen, finalized in 2006, was painful for Denise. Amid the breakup, her now ex-husband increased his abuse of alcohol and substances, resulting in several scandals that also tarnished Richards's reputation.It was difficult for me to navigate what was happening, I made many mistakes. My divorce became public. And it was hard for me to understand that it would affect my work. I thought: this is my personal life. But it did affect it. I had to become very private, in interviews I remained silent about many things. The children don't know much about their father, but let it be that way. Even though he is Charlie Sheen, for them, he is still their father. I never speak ill of him and want him to remain a part of 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.
However, criticism rained down on Denise as if by inertia: Charlie Sheen called her intention to feature their daughters in the show "greedy and exploitative." When Richards sued her former husband, the court case was covered in the press in a very biased manner, with clear sympathy for Sheen.
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 steaming pile of pig poop... 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. As soon as Heather split from her husband, Richards "took up the baton." Rumors spread that she was the reason for Locklear and Sambora's divorce, but the actress categorically denied such claims.
Nevertheless, the romance with Richie, which distracted her from her problems, did not last long. After the breakup, Denise fully focused on raising her daughters and acting in films, which were becoming less frequent offers.
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 loud revelations followed.
In 2017, just two days after getting engaged, Richards married actor Aaron Phypers, whom she had been dating for about a year. The ceremony took place in Malibu, where, besides relatives and friends, the bride invited the film crew of the reality show "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills," in which she was starring at the time.
Aaron adopted Eloise, who had recently been diagnosed with a severe chromosomal disorder (San Luis Valley syndrome, which causes intellectual disability and organ pathology). Denise called her husband "a wonderful father" who gets along well with her daughters and shared 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. There are times when she matches the emotional development level 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 star of "Starship Troopers" would return to television screens 15 years after the end of the reality show "Denise Richards: It's Complicated." The actress, along with her husband and three daughters, will participate in a project tentatively titled "Denise Richards and the Wild Things," which is set to launch on the American channel 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 character in the family adventure film "Back to Vicksburg," was announced in 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 everything comes full circle. For our family, this project is the perfect partnership 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.
- IIn 2009, she starred in the reality show "Denise Richards: It's Complicated," where she showed how she raises pigs as pets on her own. 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.