Denise Lee Richards was born on 17th February, 1971 in Downers Grove, Illinois, USA and is the eldest daughter of parents Irv and Joni Richards, a telephone engineer. She grew up in the Chicago area but finally the family moved to Oceanside, California when Denise was 15. As a child, she was shy and quite in nature, she is fond of animals and has lots of dogs and cats at home.
Denise attended Downers GroveNorthHigh School in Illinois for her freshman year, then attended HerrickJunior High School in Illinois and completed eight standards. She then moved to El Camino High School in Oceanside, California to do her high school and ultimately graduated from high school in Oceanside in 1989.
Career in Movies
Denise started her early career in modeling and went on to that job in Paris, Tokyo and New York, however she was well determined over her goal of becoming an actress, hence to realize her dreams she took audition for various TV shows and movies.
Denise was soon picked up for guest appearance roles in different television shows like Life Goes On, Saved by the Bell,Married with Children, Eerie, Indiana, Beverly Hills, 90210, and Seinfeld. It was her role in Seinfeld in 1993 that brought her to the limelight. She was then seen doing a cameo opposite Emilio Estevez and Samuel L. Jackson in Loaded Weapon 1, three years later, she again rose to fame with her role in Aaron Spelling's prime-time soap Melrose Place.
In 1997, she was starred in Nowhere which turn out to be a big flop, but her role in Starship Troopers was remarkable and it was accepted well at box office. Even though the movie was in controversies due to expanded budget and poor release date, Denise as Ms. Ibanez won the heart of audience and announced she is there to rule the silver screen.
Wild Things with sexy roles came up next year along with actors Neve Campbell and Matt Dillon. Her highly alluring roles made her the most desired actress in the Hollywood. Her 1999 movies include Drop Dead Gorgeous and indie flick Tail Lights Fade but these movies failed to hit box office in a manner does by her previous films.
Again the lady luck shine over her and she got the opportunity of playing a Bond Girl Pierce Brosnan in The World Is Not Enough. Though criticized by the critiques, movie fared well at box office.
In 2001, she did a horror flick Valentine, Good Advice and a popular television series Friends and Spin City. While shooting for Good Advice, she developed a romantic liaison with actor Charlie Sheen whom she married a year later in June 2002.
Denise’s 2002 movies include Empire and starred opposite to John Leguizamo, Undercover Brother which was most acclaimed comedy film of the year, The Third Wheel with Luke Wilson and Ben Affleck and You Stupid Man opposite Milla Jovovich
Next year, she did romantic comedy Love Actually with Keira Knightley and Hugh Grant, and a horror comedy Scary Movie 3.
Year 2004 added new joy in their married life as she gave birth to daughter Sam. But motherhood did not put a break in her career, instead she was seen more active that year and even proved her form and fitness at the end of the year by posing nude for Playboy. Her movies that year include Yo puta appeared alongside Daryl Hannah, Elvis Has Left the Building starred opposite to Kim Basinger and appeared in her husband’s sitcom Two and a Half Men.
But their marriage turn sour on early 2005, the time when she was due to gave birth to their next child. Denise filed for divorce a month before her delivery and gave birth to second daughter Lola Rose on 1 June, 2005. The couple briefly reconciled but Denise announced their divorced proceeding on early 2006 and said her husband was verbally and physically abusive to her and even threatened to kill her and in November 2006, she finally obtained her divorce from husband Charlie Sheen.
Immediately after her split with husband, she made the headlines in tabloid again by dating her best friend Heather Locklear's ex-husband, Richie Sambora and again cooked the gossip by throwing a photographer's laptop over a balcony when he tried to take pictures of her.
After all such turmoil, she finally could stabilize herself in 2007 and appeared in a comedy film Blonde and Blonder opposite to Pamela Anderson and in the drama Jolene.
She was voted the "Worst Bond Girl of All Time" by the readers of British newspaper Daily Mail for her performance in The World Is Not Enough (1999) (February 2008).
