Born in Canada with sultry good looks, Vanity had a brief acting career as well, appearing in movies like “52 Pick-Up” and “Action Jackson” before being selected by Prince to head up a girl group he wanted to launch.
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Denise was the lead singer of the 1980’s female trio pop band Vanity 6 from 1981 until it disbanded in 1984. She stated she was additionally recognized with sclerosis encapsulating peritonitis, a uncommon benign reason for small bowel obstruction. He helped her form the group Vanity 6, who had a hit in 1982 with “Nasty Girl”.
Matthews died from kidney failure, the result of years of crack cocaine abuse, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
She spent her final years as a born-again Christian.
She told Jet that drug use had almost killed her: She had had renal failure a few years earlier and was told by doctors that she had only three days to live.
Vanity, a Prince protege who renounced her attractive stage persona to develop into a Christian minister, has died. “I put the sexual image of me in my music”, she told The Associated Press in 1985. During the mid-90s, she was briefly married to former Los Angeles Raiders defensive end Anthony Smith, who was sentenced to life in prison last month for murder.
Unusually conversational and candid, Prince shared with the crowd of 2,000 a fond and amusing memory: “Can I tell you a story about Vanity? She felt she needed to turn to God more to overcome those addictions she had”, Fink said.
But Fink said he lost touch with Vanity after she left Prince’s camp before filming started on “Purple Rain” because she couldn’t come to terms with with the movie’s producers over what she should be paid to play Prince’s love interest, a role eventually filled by Apollonia.
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On her blameitonvanity.com website, where she promoted her autobiography of the same name, she wrote, “All I had become was thus painted on my face – vanity”. “He said everyone in the world would know me”. “I apologize profusely to those I have offended deeply a million times over”. “I can’t promise I’ll try, but I’ll try to try”.
