Denise Richards

Carving her niche in entertainment industry with a diverse array of various roles onscreen, Denise Lee Richards certainly is another fine major example ever found in the growing list of model-turned-actress success stories. Involved in modeling since her teens, she was born on February 17, 1972 in a suburb of Chicago called Downers Groove and spent her early life there completing her eighth grade at Herrick Junior High School before relocated to San Diego, California where her parents, Irving and Joni Richards, ran a chain of coffeehouses called Jitters while the girl herself continued her study at Oceanside's El Camino. It was not until this blue-eyed beauty earned her graduation from the institution in 1989 that she ultimately took full force to flourish her modeling career, going around the cities of Paris, Tokyo, and New York besides becoming a make-up girl for Bonne Bell cosmetics also a model in numerous swimsuit magazines.

Though her future in the field seemingly looked promising, Denise instead decided to make a turn in her life and thus set her eyes on acting upon landed her feet in Los Angeles. Fortunately, the first step was not really difficult to be commenced as she quickly earned a one-time appearance in an episode of ABC's drama series "Life Goes On" in 1990 followed by a handful of others in "Saved by the Bell" by 1991, "Beverly Hills, 90210" in 1992, and "Seinfeld" by 1993, the year which also saw her carrying out her film debut in "Loaded Weapon 1." Kept undergoing such roles as well as showing up on several TV-movies, the striking brunette's status suddenly rose quite increasingly in 1997 when her sci-fi flick entitled "Starship Troopers" surprisingly scored over 54 million U.S dollar in the box-office to subsequently bring her more public notice for sure along with another feature lead in "Wild Things" (1998).

Noticed for her resoluteness to carry out some bold scenes in the erotic crime movie alongside Neve Campbell and Matt Dillon, Denise unmistakably generated such tremendous buzz which truly catapulted her to widespread attention around the country, particularly after she wonderfully shared Best Kiss nomination with those two stars at the MTV Movie Awards held in 1999. Already shone under the spotlight following this success, her profile again received huge boost when she was chosen to be the Bond girl in the box-office hit of "The World Is Not Enough" (1999), thereby elevated her completely from the obscurity of TV guest spots to screen stardom. No doubt facing much larger opportunity to move further in film industry afterwards, the actress confidently walked on her path, taking parts in a number of movies along the way, like "Valentine" (2001), "Undercover Brother" (2002), and "Elvis Has Left the Building" (2004).

Entering the year 2005, Denise gravely seemed to make a slight drawback in her career for she was only spotted in indie picture of "Edmond" and TV series of "Sex, Love & Secrets" yet the star still gained vast publicity during this time, none other because of her shocking decision to file for divorce from Charlie Sheen whom she had married with since June 15, 2002. Managed to reconcile for a while, the fact that she has already borne two children named Sam J. in 2004 and Lola Rose by June 2005 apparently could not change her mind as she persistently continued heading for the split in the beginning of 2006, even asking for a restraining order against Sheen due to the death threats he addressed frequently toward her.

While this unexpected separation was in the process, Denise again became the tabloid headlines in late April 2006 when she was spotted romancing the husband of her best friend Heather Locklear, Bon Jovi's guitarist Richie Sambora, who at that time has just announced his break-up with the actress before then had her divorce to Charlie finalized on November 30th that same year. Sad to say, Denise apparently has a bad luck in case of love life as her romance with Sambora came to end end by the year 2007 though they both remained friends.