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.Denise Richards was born outside of Chicago in suburban Downer’s Grove, IL, on Feb. 17, 1971. 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.
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). 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).
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.
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.
