15 Must-See Photos Of A Young Denise Richards

Denise Richards is among the hottest of the hot and she’s proved this decade after decade. She’s known for her striking blue eyes, envied hair and full, plump lips. Interesting features like her pointed, turned-up nose and dark, thick eyebrows somehow slap down your typical beauty standards.

Starting out as a small town girl from Illinois, her aspirations of modelling and acting seemed totally out of reach. Fortunately, when she was just a teen her family moved to California and that’s when her dreams really took flight. She landed a modelling contract and took acting lessons. She landed small parts on popular television shows and grew her portfolio. In 1997, we were officially introduced to Richards when she played Captain Carmen Ibanez in Starship Troopers. From then on, she worked as a professional actress, soaking up the lime light and being the hottie of every man’s dream.

Today, Richards is a 45-year-old mother of three girls. She’s still got her gorgeous face and banging bikini bod. However, we certainly cannot forget, and will not forget the 90’s and 2000’s version of her. This collection of photos reminds us of a more youthful Richards and her days of playing the eye-candy in films and posing on the beach for sexy photoshoots. Take a look at the 15 hottest photos of Denise Richards in her prime.

15. Sweet And Innocent

Here is a young Richards looking sweet in pigtails. Although she may have pulled off the innocent look when she was younger, the Richards we know today did have a highly publicized run-in with the law.

She was in the spotlight back in 2006 when police were called to a casino in British Colombia where she was shooting a movie. It turns out, she caught two paparazzi taking her photo on a nearby balcony. When she decided to confront them, she totally lost her s**t— she threw two of the paparazzi’s laptops over the balcony. Unluckily for her, there just happened to be two elderly women beneath. One of the women was 91 years old and the other was 80 years old and in a wheelchair. The women only suffered minor bumps and bruises and chose not to press charges.

14. Starship Troopers – 1997

This is a still from 1997’s Starship Troopers, which was Richards’ big acting break. She was around 25 years old when she played Captain Carmen Ibanez. In the plot, she and her military team went to war with a planet of alien insects in order to save humanity. The sci-fi flick brought in over $120 million worldwide and Richards was even nominated for a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favourite Female Newcomer.

Although her character may have kicked total ass against fictional alien bugs, Richards is actually a devoted animal lover. She has worked with Best Friends Animal Society on many projects including saving dogs from high-kill animal shelters and appearing on television programs showcasing shelter dogs for adoption. She even built a “dog room” at her house since she fosters a countless amount of pups. She loves being surrounded by furry friends she can care for.

13. The World Is Not Enough – 1999

Richards played Doctor Christmas Jones in the 1999 James Bond film The World Is Not Enough. Despite looking smokin’ in her hot pants and cropped vest, critics weren’t so lenient when it came to her acting. Nearly 10 years after her performance, fans voted her the worst Bond Girl ever back in 2008. They dubbed her performance a “disaster”.

Back in 1999 Richards was known as the new hottie on scene, but in 2008 when this vote took place, she was known as the crazy Charlie Sheen’s ex-wife. She’d filed for divorce from the actor when she was pregnant with their second child. She also sought a restraining order against him after he allegedly threatened her life. 2008 was also the year of her widely criticized reality show on E!, Denise Richards: It’s Complicated, when audiences accused her of exploiting her kids. Perhaps all of the negative media attention could have been the reasoning behind the opposed vote.

12. Dripping In Pearls

This photo was shot back in 2002 when Richards was around 31 years old. She definitely looks more mature than in her teens and 20s, but still youthful and sexy as ever. She was very well known in Hollywood at this point and was embarking on the journey of a lifetime as 2002 was the year she married Charlie Sheen.

The two met on the set of Loaded Weapon 1 in 1991 when Richards was basically a nobody. They married on June 15th, 2002 and later welcomed two daughters. Their relationship after their divorce in 2008 was extremely turbulent. Restraining orders were filed, court cases were held and custody battles were ongoing. Fast forward to 2012 and the two were suddenly on good terms. They spent time together with their children and she even appeared on Sheen’s television series, Anger Management. Richards was even awarded custody of the twins Sheen shared with his next wife, Brooke Muller. Muller lost custody of them after allegations of her drug use. It’s been a rocky road for Richards and Sheen, but the two continue to remain on good terms for their children. She’s even gone so far as to call him the “greatest ex ever”. Do those even exist?

11. Hot In The Desert

This shot was made to be hanging as a poster in teenage boys’ rooms all over the world. The photoshoot took place in a desert setting using old war planes and army vehicles as props. Richards looks smoking on top army green equipment with the sun peaking over and an apparent wind machine not far away.

This rough and tough inspired photoshoot shows off more of Richards’ tomboy side which is how she was described as a child. In an interview, Richards revealed she was the only girl on a baseball team when she was a kid. Although she has totally embraced her womanly side since then, she still doesn’t seem to identify as a girly-girl. She recently uploaded a photo to Instagram with some onset guy friends, “Behind the scenes… love all these guys #Tomboy”.

10. FMH Magazine October – 1998

Showing off her shape in a little black dress, leather and lace is the perfect combination for Richards. This photoshoot was done for the cover of UK’s FHM magazine in 1998 when she was 27 years old. The magazine was known for features such as “FMH 100 Sexiest Women in the World”. Although she wasn’t ranked on the list back in 1998, she did make the list in 2005 as #82 and in 2006 as #89. Definitely not the most impressive numbers, but when you’re being compared to billions of other women around the world, it’s still worth bragging about.

During this time, Richards was just coming off of her big acting break in Starship Troopers and embracing her newest hit Wild Things. She has never been critically acclaimed for her acting skills. In fact, a lot of people actually think she’s a terrible actress. But hey, who doesn’t love a little eye-candy in movies?

9. Subtly Sexy

Here we have a cheeky young Richards playing coy in some modest black underwear. Judging by this shoot, you probably wouldn’t have guessed that there once was a time she wasn’t so cool with posing in underwear. In the beginning of her modelling career she would downright refuse to which infuriated the agency she was working with. In her memoir, Real Girl Next Door, Richards revealed that when she was younger she worried about her physique. “I wasn’t altogether uncomfortable with my body, but I didn’t have a figure that allowed me to brim with self-confidence in all departments and being photographed in my underwear bothered me,” she wrote.

Some years later, clearly after becoming more confident in her skin, she did this alluring photoshoot. Fast forward to the 2000s and she posed nude for Playboy. Isn’t it funny how things change?

8. Casual

Here’s a twentysomething Richards during the prime of her acting career. Looking as gorgeous as ever with her distinct beauty on display, it’s hard to believe she was one bullied for her looks as a child.

Prior to getting breast implants, Richards was teased for being flat-chested. Her full lips were also criticized by school kids who would call her “fish lips”. Clearly, her unique looks were not appreciated in small town Illinois where she grew up. She claims the bullying was never her reasoning behind getting breast enlargements when she was only 19 years old. “That was the time of puberty and peer pressure. So whether I was in Illinois or L.A. I probably would’ve bought boobs,” she said in an interview. As for those kids who called her “fish lips”, Richards says,”Now I’m sure all those same girls are getting collagen injections, so I’m having the last laugh”.

7. Smokin’ (Hot) In The Girls Room

Richards almost looks unrecognizable in this photo. She’s certainly very young in the photo and missing one of her trademarks— her large breasts. She’s always been super open about the fact she does have breast implants, and in her memoir she revealed how crazy the journey was to get them.

Early on in her career, she’s revealed she was very insecure about her breast size and jealous of her sister’s C-cups. After a few modelling gigs she finally had enough money saved to go under the knife. She didn’t want anything major, just a little bit of fullness and so she asked her doctor for B-cups. To Richards’ surprise, when she woke up from her surgery she had much bigger breasts than what she had asked for. When her implants needed to be replaced several years later, she once again asked a doctor for B-cups, and woke up with D-cups. Richards went through a total of four surgeries before finally getting the breasts she had wanted. ”I wish I’d felt confident enough with my body to have never had surgery in the first place. It would’ve saved me a lot of pain and money,” she wrote in her book.

6. Sport Magazine – 1993

Here we have a baby-faced 21-year-old Richards when Sport magazine featured her in a sultry bikini spread. This was likely one of her first major adult-style photoshoots. At this age and younger, she often found herself modelling for teen magazine’s like Seventeen. She was lucky enough to travel all over the world with her modelling contract.

Richards shared a horror story about the beginning of her modelling career in her memoir. Sent to work in Tokyo, her agency had her residing in a cockroach-infested apartment.“It got worse when I turned on the lights. I saw hundreds of cockroaches run across the floor and the kitchen counters,” she recalled. Luckily, living in insect plagued apartments wouldn’t be her fate. Back then, this particular magazine spread probably didn’t mean much to readers, just another pretty girl in a magazine. But now, that pretty young girl in the magazine grew up to be the Denise Richards and copies of this vintage magazine are being sold and bid on all over eBay.

5. Wild Thing – December 2004

In this photo we see a smouldering 33-year-old Richards. In the Playboy spread entitled “Wild Thing”, she showed everything from her behind to full-frontal. The most amazing part? The photos were shot only three months following the birth of her and Charlie Sheen’s daughter, Sam, who is now a spunky 12-year-old. Richards credited Sheen, her then husband for convincing her to pose for the racy magazine. “He’s been a fan of the magazine for years and thought it would be pretty cool to have his wife in it,” she said.

The editorial clearly came out in a time Richards and Sheen were on good terms. She claimed the two were best friends and lovers who really complemented each other. She also said he straightened out and was sober for three years before he had met her, “He was definitely in the right place to meet someone and settle down”. Little did she know she would later she be filing for divorce due to his abuse of drugs and alcohol.

4. Bikini Babe

This is another shot from Sport magazine early on in Richard’s career. She’s rocking some very natural looking, thick eyebrows and some not-so-natural looking D-cups. Either way, this 20-something beauty looks like she was made for the beach.

This photo was likely taken as Richards was making a major career shift from modelling to acting. She landed bit parts in some of the most popular 90s television shows. Some being, Saved by the Bell, Married… With Children, Beverly Hills 90201, Seinfeld and Melrose Place. These television shows were low-budget and therefore low-paying. However, it wouldn’t be long before Denise Richards became a household name. Her pretty face definitely helped her land roles, and she was inching closer and closer to her big break.

3. Wild Things – 1998

This still is taken from the 1998 film, Wild Things in which Richards starred alongside Neve Cambell, Kevin Bacon and Matt Dillon. The film has been one of her most memorable to date and definitely highlighted what she’s known for— her hotness. The film gained notoriety for featuring several steamy sex scenes. One of the most unforgettable scenes in the film is the threesome between Richards’, Campbell’s and Dillon’s characters.

Richards and Campbell were both inexperienced in the field of girl-on-girl prior to filming Wild Things. But, they were going to have to improvise when producers approached them with a french-kissing proposition. They didn’t want a peck, they didn’t want a pretend movie kiss, they wanted a hot lesbian make-out session. “Neve and I went into her trailer and shared a pitcher of margaritas before we did the scene. Neither of us had ever kissed another girl… Everyone has a first time,” she wrote in her memoir.

2. Beach Babe

This is another photo Richards shot for Sport magazine. She hadn’t been labeled at this point in her career, but today she is known as a total sex symbol. Her rocking body and pretty face have gotten her ranked as one of the most beautiful women alive.

She works hard to look as good as at 45 as she did when this photo was taken. She eats right and credits Pilates for her toned body. Unfortunately, her mother died in 2007 from cancer. As a result of grief, Richards gained around 15 pounds which entertainment news website, TMZ jumped on and scrutinized her for. “I had never experienced such scrutiny and cruelty about my body. The tabloids had no idea everything that was going on in my life, and it was really mean, and very hurtful,” Richards shared in an interview. She teaches her three young daughters to always have a healthy body image.

1. Nude Spread – December 2004

Last but certainly not least, is a shot from Richards’ December 2004 Playboy feature that proves she looks hottest on the beach. She bared all in the 10-page nude spread, total full-frontal. This is the least racy photo we could reveal, but nothing’s stopping you from Googling more! The then 33-year-old new mother who once upon a time used to refuse to pose in undergarments even, was showing everything off to the world!

It was her then husband, Charlie Sheen who convinced her to pose nude in the Bahamas for the mag, however he didn’t even go with her! She revealed in her memoir that her entourage strangely included her infant daughter as well as her mother and father. Inconveniently, Richards’ luggage got lost on the way to the shoot. Her mother made light of the situation noting her daughter “was going to be naked the whole trip anyway and didn’t need clothes”. Very, very true.