Starting out as a model, she acted in a couple of low-budget films as "D.D. Winters" before a fateful meeting with Prince in early 1982. He invited her to front a Girl Group he was putting together called the Hookers, and tried to give her the stage name Vagina (pronounced va-GEE-na). When she objected, he called her Vanity instead – because she looked so much like himself – and renamed the band Vanity 6.
Vanity 6 made one album – or more accurately, Prince made the album and the ladies sang on it. Songs such as "Nasty Girl" got some play on R&B stations and in dance clubs, while Vanity and Prince had a public romance. The following year, however, they broke up and Vanity quit the band, sacrificing a lead role in Purple Rain in the process. She went on to play the female lead in several other movies such as The Last Dragon and Action Jackson and became a frequent TV guest star while releasing two solo albums, and also got engaged to Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe.
A worsening cocaine addiction took a toll on her health, however, eventually necessitating a kidney transplant. In the early 1990s, she became a born-again Christian, reassumed her birth name, quit drugs, and left show business to become a full-time evangelist, which she remained for the rest of her life. In 2010 she released a Memoir called Blame It on Vanity: Hollywood, Hell, and Heaven.
Discography:
- Vanity 6 (1982)
- Wild Animal (1984)
- Skin on Skin (1986)
Filmography:
- Terror Train (1980)
- Tanya's Island (1980)
- The Last Dragon (1985)
- Never Too Young to Die (1986)
- 52 Pick-Up (1986)
- Deadly Illusion (1987)
- Action Jackson (1988)
- Memories of Murder (1990)
- Neon City (1991)
- South Beach (1993)
- Da Vinci's War (1993)
- Kiss of Death (filmed 1993, released 1997)
- The New Mike Hammer (1987)
- Miami Vice (1987)
- T. and T. (1988)
- Friday the 13th: The Series (1989)
- Booker (1989)
- Tropical Heat (1991)
- Tales from the Crypt (1991)
- Silk Stalkings (1992)
- Lady Boss (1992)
- Highlander: The Series (1992)
- Counterstrike (1993)
Associated Tropes:
- '80s Hair: As can be seen on the page image, she took the decade's teased look to impressive heights.
- Bad Girl Song: "Nasty Girl" is this combined with a Seduction Lyric. The chorus ends with the line "Do you think I'm a nasty girl?" but it's clearly a rhetorical question.
- Chart Displacement: Although Vanity 6's "Nasty Girl" has gained an afterlife due to radio play and cover versions, it didn't actually crack the Billboard Hot 100. Her most successful single was her solo "Under the Influence," which peaked at No. 56.
- Creator Backlash: When she quit show business, she rejected her former works so hard that she refused to even take royalties from her music.
- I Am Not Spock: Her Vanity persona was more a creation of Prince than it was an expression of herself, and when she converted to Christianity she did a complete 180 from it. But of course, since that's what she was known for she continued to be Vanity in the minds of the general public.
- Intercourse with You: Many examples, both with Vanity 6 and solo. "Pretty Mess" starts with the line "Here we go again falling on my bed."
- Love Is a Drug: The theme of "Under the Influence": "Why don't you come close? I need an overdose"
- Meta Casting: She frequently played singers in her acting roles.
- Ms. Fanservice: This was the idea that Prince had by dressing her in lingerie and having her sing explicit lyrics, and she continued the image until her conversion.
- Only One Name: Between being "D.D. Winters" and reverting to her birth name, she was just Vanity with no surname.
