Denise Lee Richards (born on February 17, 1971[1]) is an American actress and former fashion model. She became famous in the late 1990s, after a string of films that highlighted her sex appeal, including Starship Troopers, Wild Things, and The World Is Not Enough. She also has her own TV show, Denise Richards: It's Complicated which airs on E!
Richards was born in Downers Grove, Illinois,[2] the daughter of Joni, a coffee shop owner, and Irv Richards, a telephone engineer. She has one sister, Michelle, and grew up in both Mokena, Illinois and Downers Grove, Illinois. She graduated from El Camino High School in 1989, Oceanside, California. As a child, she was a 'tomboy', the only 'girl on the baseball team.'[3]
Before she was an actress, Richards was a fashion model. Richards spent the majority of the 1990s appearing in lower-budget films and TV shows like Saved by the Bell, television movies, and guest starring in episodes of several television shows. Her first starring role in a wide theatrical release was Starship Troopers in 1997, which was followed by her role in the moderately successful cult film Wild Things in 1998.
Richards was cast as the geo-physicist Christmas Jones in the 1999 James Bond film The World Is Not Enough (1999), which had a high box office gross. Though she considered her role "brainy", "athletic", and having depth of character,[4] she was criticised as not credible in it.[5][6] Her outfit, which often comprised a tank top and shorts, elicited comments.[7] She was ranked as the worst Bond girl of all time by Entertainment Weekly in 2008,[8] and was chosen as "Worst Supporting Actress" at the 1999 Razzie Awards for the role.[9] In addition to her film work, Richards made regular appearances in the situation comedies Spin City, Two and a Half Men, Friends and Seinfeld. She also starred in the short-lived UPN series Sex, Love & Secrets in 2005. Throughout the early 2000s, Richards appeared in several film roles which both parodied and utilized her image as a sex symbol, including Valentine, Undercover Brother and Scary Movie 3. In December 2004, she posed for a nude pictorial in Playboy magazine. Richards also posed semi-nude for the July 2006 issue of Jane magazine to raise money for the Clothes Off Our Back Foundation. In 1999 she ranked 9 in Maxim's 50 Sexiest Women and in 2001 she was voted 2nd in FHM's USA 100 Sexiest Women, 5th in FHM 100 Sexiest Women and 19 in AskMen.com 50 Most Beautiful Women.