Denise Katrina Matthews

 Denise Katrina Matthews, known as Vanity (January 4, 1959 – February 15, 2016)

Vanity was a Canadian singer, songwriter, dancer, model, and actress. Her career lasted from the early 1980's until the 1990's. She was the lead singer of the female trio Vanity 6 from 1981 until it disbanded in 1983. They are known for their 1982 R&B/funk hit "Nasty Girl". Vanity's music career also included two solo albums on the Motown Records label, Wild Animal and Skin on Skin, as well as the minor hit singles "Pretty Mess", "Mechanical Emotion", "Undress" (from the movie Action Jackson), and "Under the Influence". She also had a successful film career, starring in the movies The Last Dragon, 52 Pick-Up, and Action Jackson. Throughout the 1980's and early 1990's, Vanity appeared in many magazines around the world. In early 1992, Vanity became a born-again Christian, and explained in several interviews that she would not take any more sexualized roles. Simultaneously, she renounced her stage name Vanity and reverted to Denise once again. In 1994, she went into near fatal kidney failure, due to years of drug abuse. Matthews received a kidney transplant in 1997. Her health worsened in 2015 after she was diagnosed with sclerosing encapsulating peritonitis, a severely painful kidney condition. Matthews died in a Fremont, California, hospital on February 15, 2016, from kidney failure, aged 57. She was cremated, and her ashes scattered.