Vanity (singer)


Denise Katrina Matthews, better known as Vanity, was a Canadian singer, songwriter, dancer, model, and actress who turned away from her music and acting career to concentrate on evangelism. Her career lasted from the early 1980s until the early/mid-1990s. She was the lead singer of the female trio Vanity 6 from 1981 until it disbanded in 1983. They are known for their 1982 R&B/funk hit "Nasty Girl". Vanity's music career also included two solo albums on the Motown Records label, Wild Animal and Skin on Skin, as well as the minor hit singles "Pretty Mess", "Mechanical Emotion", "Undress", and "Under the Influence". She also had a successful film career, starring in the movies The Last Dragon, 52 Pick-Up, and Action Jackson. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Vanity appeared in many magazines around the world. She died on February 15, 2016, at the age of 57, due to kidney failure.

Early life

Vanity was born on January 4, 1959 as Denise Katrina Matthews in Niagara Falls, Ontario, the daughter of Helga Senyk and Levia James Matthews. Her mother was of Polish and German 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.

Career

1977–1980

Vanity 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.

1980–1992

In 1980, she had a small role in the horror movie Terror Train, which was filmed in Montreal a year earlier. She then went to Toronto to film the lead role in the B-movie 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 American Music Awards. 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 Six 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. Vanity 6 recorded one album, and had some success internationally with the single "Nasty Girl". Vanity then left the group, and signed with Motown Records as a solo artist in 1984. 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.
After her music career started, as Vanity she starred in a number of movies, including The Last Dragon, which featured her underground hit "7th Heaven." In 1986 she starred in Never Too Young to Die opposite John Stamos. The film also featured Gene Simmons. She went on to appear in 52 Pick-Up and 1988's Action Jackson, her highest profile role, in which she starred opposite Carl Weathers, Craig T. Nelson, and Sharon Stone. From the mid–1980s to the early–1990s, Vanity guest–starred on numerous TV shows. She played a villain who tortured Nancy Allen's character in the 1990 TV movie Memories of Murder, guest-starred in an episode of Miami Vices third season, and in 1992 appeared in an episode of '. She also appeared in ' in the episode entitled "Mesmer's Bauble".
She appeared nude in Playboy in 1988.

Personal life

In 1980, Matthews attended the American Music Awards with Rick James where she met Prince. Matthews and Prince then became an item. Vanity was linked romantically to Adam Ant and Billy Idol. On The Late Show in 1987, Matthews announced that she and Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx were engaged. She joked to host Arsenio Hall that she would become Vanity 6 again. They never married. In his memoir, , Nikki Sixx details their volatile relationship and drug use. Matthews was addicted to crack cocaine at the time.
On her first anniversary of sobriety, Matthews married football player Anthony Smith of the Oakland Raiders in 1995. Matthews was working as an evangelist in San Jose when she read about Smith's philanthropic activities in Los Angeles. "The Lord told me that I would go down to L.A. and minister him," she told Ebony. Three days after they met she proposed to him. They married after a one-month whirlwind romance. The wedding took place at Smith's home in Playa de Rey. Smith revealed that they often argued because of her kind nature. Matthews had a habit of inviting homeless people into their home for food and offering them showers, she would also give out her number. Smith was volatile and the marriage ended in 1996. After they separated, Smith was arrested for domestic violence involving another woman and he was later convicted of three murders.

Christian conversion

In early 1992, Vanity became a born-again Christian, and explained in several interviews that she would not take any more sexualized roles. Her roles in 1992's Lady Boss and had Matthews play different kinds of characters. Simultaneously, she renounced her stage name Vanity and reverted to Denise once again. She traveled extensively throughout the South with her friend/agent Benjamin Jimerson-Phillips, giving her testimony of conversion to Jesus Christ. In 1994, Matthews was hospitalized for three months for near-fatal kidney failure from a drug overdose. She recalled later that after being rushed to the hospital, doctors said she had three days to live while on life support. Her friend Benjamin Jimerson-Phillips was by her hospital bedside. Later it was revealed, he was the one who notified Prince by Western Union Telegram that she had been hospitalized. She stated that Jesus appeared to her at this time and spoke to her, saying that if she promised to abandon her Vanity persona, he would save her. Upon her recovery, she fully ended her performing career and devoted herself to being a born-again Christian. In 1995, she said, "When I came to the Lord Jesus Christ, I threw out about 1,000 tapes of mine— every interview, every tape, every video, everything." Jimerson-Phillips stated: "I was there at her apartment at The Grand in Sherman Oaks, when she just started dumping things down the incinerator. I grabbed some of the items including a painting titled Tailspin, by famed artist Olivia; a cassette hand painted by Prince of unreleased music; and an assortment of other items I didn’t want to see go into the trash. I even had to go down to the office and ask them to retrieve her gold album she had thrown away." She stated that she had chosen not to receive any further revenue from her work as Vanity, and cut off all ties with Hollywood and her former life in show business. After a kidney transplant in 1997, she dedicated the rest of her life full-time to Christ. She made speaking engagements at churches across the United States and worldwide. In 2010, she released her autobiography, Blame It On Vanity: Hollywood, Hell and Heaven, in which she thanks Jimerson.

Illness and death

Due to kidney problems from her 10-year crack cocaine addiction, Matthews had to undergo peritoneal dialysis five times a day. Matthews underwent a kidney transplant in 1997, but her health worsened in 2015 after she was diagnosed with sclerosing encapsulating peritonitis, an inflammatory condition of the peritoneum-a membrane which lines the inner abdomen and the abdominal organs. Matthews died in a Fremont, California, hospital on February 15, 2016, from kidney failure, aged 57. In April 2016, Prince died also at the age of 57. Matthews left much of her estate to her church. A dying wish of hers was to have her ashes scattered over the coast of Hawaii, and for her loved ones to celebrate her life with festivities and "no tears".

Discography

Studio albums

Guest vocals

Vanity appeared in seven released music videos:

Film

YearTitleRoleNotes
1980Klondike FeverUncredited
Background Dancer		Adventure, based on the writings of Jack London. Vanity plays a background dancer
near the beginning of the film.
1980Terror TrainMerryHorror
1980Tanya's IslandTanyaFantasy
1985The Last DragonLaura CharlesMartial arts musical
1986Never Too Young to DieDanja Deering
198652 Pick-UpDoreenCrime thriller
1987Deadly IllusionRinaAction/crime thriller
1988Action JacksonSydney Ash
1991Neon CityRenoPost-apocalyptic science fiction
1993South BeachJennifer DerringerDirected by Fred Williamson
1993Da Vinci's WarLupeDirected and co-written by Raymond Martino
1997Kiss of DeathBlairFilmed in April/May 1993, Vanity's last role.

Television