Denise Katherine Matthews (January 4, 1959 – February 15, 2016), known professionally as Vanity, was a Canadian singer, model, and actress.

She had minor hit singles with "Pretty Mess", "Mechanical Emotion", "Under the Influence", and "Undress" from the 1988 film Action Jackson.

[10] However, because she was short in stature, her modeling career was limited to commercials and photoshoots and excluded runway work.

Vanity appeared in commercials for Pearl Drops toothpaste before completing a modeling stint in Japan.

[18] In August 1983, she abruptly left the group and turned down a role in the 1984 film Purple Rain, which went to her replacement, Apollonia Kotero.

[22] She went on to co-star in the 1988 film Action Jackson, her highest profile role, in which she starred opposite Carl Weathers, Craig T. Nelson, and Sharon Stone.

[24] Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times gave a negative review to Action Jackson, but praised Vanity's performance as "the movie’s one redeeming merit".

She played a villain who tortured Nancy Allen's character in the 1990 TV movie Memories of Murder and appeared in an episode of Highlander: The Series in 1992.

Matthews attended the American Music Awards where she met Prince in January 1982;[22][26] they then began dating shortly after.

[14] She was also linked romantically to Adam Ant, who wrote the track "Vanity" about her on his 1983 Strip album, and Billy Idol.

[27] During an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show in 1987, Matthews announced that she and Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx were engaged.

[24] In his memoir, The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star, Sixx detailed their volatile relationship and drug use.

[30] On her first anniversary of sobriety, Matthews married football player Anthony Smith of the Oakland Raiders in 1995.

[citation needed] In 1994, Matthews was hospitalized for three months for near-fatal kidney failure from a drug overdose.

She explained 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.

[citation needed] Upon her recovery, Matthews ended her performing career by cutting off all ties with Hollywood and shunning her former life in show business.

"[citation needed] After a kidney transplant in 1997, Matthews dedicated the rest of her life full-time to Christ.

She made speaking engagements at churches worldwide and she headed Pure Hearts Ministries in Fremont, California.

[38] Due to kidney problems resulting from her decade-long cocaine addiction,[32] Matthews had to undergo 20 minutes of peritoneal dialysis five times a day.