Deaths 2022

Deaths 2021

Deaths 2020

Deaths 2019

Deaths 2018

Deaths 2017

Deaths 2016

Deaths 2015

Deaths 2014

Deaths 2013

Deaths 2012

Deaths 2011

Deaths 2010

Deaths 2009


Full list by date of death

Vanity

Singer/actress

Born - 4 January 1959, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
Died - 15 February 2016

Dark-haired glamour model, singer and actress, of mixed-race parentage, whose wild private life underwent a sea change in the mid 1990s, when she became a born-again Christian. Born Denise Matthews, and initially billed as D D Winters, she came under the influence of the singer Prince, who helped her further her career. She had already entered films, often playing sultry sirens on the wrong side of the law: Klondike Fever (1979), Terror Train (1980) and Tanya's Island (1980). After heading the band Vanity 6, a deal to play opposite Prince in Purple Rain (1984) fell through, and she resumed her acting career, mostly in dark thrillers: The Last Dragon (1985), 52 Pick-Up (1986), Never Too Young to Die (1986), Deadly Illusion (1987), Action Jackson (1988), Neon City (1991), Da Vinci's War (1993), South Beach (1993) and Kiss of Death (1997), her last. She died from peritonitis and kidney failure.