Denise Richards
American actress
Denise Lee Richards (born February 17, 1971) is an American actress, model and television personality. She rose to prominence with roles in the science fiction film Starship Troopers (1997), the erotic thriller film Wild Things (1998) and the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough (1999). Her performance as the Bond girl Christmas Jones gave Richards her mainstream breakthrough.
Richards has appeared in films such as the comedies Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), Undercover Brother (2002), Scary Movie 3 (2003), Love Actually (2003) and Madea's Witness Protection (2012), the slasher Valentine (2001), the dramas Edmond (2005) and Jolene (2008) and the musical thriller American Satan (2017). Her television roles include the sitcom Blue Mountain State (2010–2011), the mystery thriller series Twisted (2013–2014) and the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful (2019–2022). She returned to the soap in May of 2026.
Richards has starred on reality series such as Denise Richards: It's Complicated (2008–2009), The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (2019–2020, 2023–2024, 2026) and Denise Richards & Her Wild Things (2025). In 2011, she published a memoir, The Real Girl Next Door, which became a New York Times Best Seller.
Early life
Richards was born in Downers Grove, Illinois, to Joni (née Braden), a coffee shop owner, and Irv Richards, a telephone engineer. Her mother died of cancer in November 2007.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Denise Richards” as american actress. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american actress. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q206833. VIAF identifies the subject as 71598534. The Library of Congress control number is no98094907. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1971, 1997, 1998 and 1999.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Denise Richards” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.