Hot Properties Live TV Show with viewer Q & A calls 1985' with comedian/actor Richard BelzerThis video depicts how beautiful Denise really w
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Hot Properties: Live TV Show with viewer Q & A calls in 1985.
Denise Katherine Matthews was born and raised in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and is the daughter of Helga Senyk and Levia James Matthews.
Her mother was of German and Polish Jewish descent, and was born in Germany, while her father was of African-American descent and was born in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Matthews had two sisters, Patricia and Renay.
She revealed to Jet in 1993 that her father physically and verbally abused her for years.
The abuse caused her to have a negative self-image.
"For 15 years, he beat me badly... I wish I could see my father in heaven, but I won't. He's in hell," she said.
Denise began entering local beauty pageants before moving to Toronto, where she modeled.
She won the Miss Niagara Hospitality title in 1977 and went on to compete for Miss Canada in 1978.
At age 17, she moved to New York City to further her career.
She signed with Zoli Model Agency.
However, because she was short in stature, her modeling career was limited to commercials and photo shoots and included no runway work.
Vanity appeared in ads for Pearl Drops toothpaste, before completing a modeling stint in Japan.
In 1980, she had a role in "Terror Train," which was filmed in Montreal then went to Toronto to film the lead role in "Tanya's Island."
At the time of both film roles, she was billed as D. D. Winters.
She met Prince when she was Rick James' date at the AMA's.
Prince renamed her Vanity, as he considered her to be the female form of himself.
After learning that Vanity could sing, Prince asked her to become the lead singer of the girl group Vanity 6.
"Prince created the whole Vanity 6 image. It bothered me at the time. I lied and said it was the image I wanted. I did it because he told me I had to do it. If I didn’t do it, I wouldn’t get paid. I got into it. I wanted the old Diana Ross image," she said.
She was Prince's girlfriend during the early 1980's in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Vanity 6 recorded one album, and had some success internationally with the single "Nasty Girl".
Vanity then left the group (and Prince's organization), and signed with Motown Records as a solo artist in 1984.
Matthews left the Prince fold before the release of Purple Rain.
She released two albums for Motown in the mid-1980s, and had mild success on the US pop and R&B charts with a handful of singles.
Vanity starred in "The Last Dragon" (1985), which featured "7th Heaven." In 1986 she starred in "Never Too Young to Die."
She played a villain in the 1990 TV movie Memories of Murder, guest-starred in an episode of Miami Vice's third season, and in 1992 appeared in an episode of Highlander: The Series.
She also appeared in Friday the 13th: The Series in the episode entitled "Mesmer's Bauble".
She appeared nude in Playboy in April 1988.
She later to moved the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area and eventually turned away from her music and acting career to concentrate on evangelism and become a born again Christian.
