Singer, Actress Vanity, a Prince Protégé, Dies at a Fremont Hospital

Vanity starred in several movies, including Action Jackson and The Last Dragon, and appeared in Playboy twice. She wrote a memoir – “Blame It On Vanity” (2004) – that’s now out of print. Her GoFundMe page sought $50,000 – she raised less than $7,000.

She spent her final years as a born-again Christian. “I apologize profusely to those I have offended deeply a million times over”, she said at the time.

Following a serious crack cocaine overdose, Matthews turned to Christianity having previously admitted that she thought she had been possessed.

“Miss you dearly. D are in his arms now, no ache”, tweeted drummer Sheila D., who additionally labored with Prince. She renounced her sexy persona and became a born again Christian.

By her own later admission, Ms. Matthews led a fast life, and it took its toll.

“I will endure until He comes for my soul…Tho my testimonies, some hard and some dangerously painful are all unto the glory of the Lord”, she maintained. “I sing to Jesus for Jesus now”.

MC Hammer was among the artists to pay tribute to Matthews.

Prince later used the sound of Vanity moaning, which he’d recorded in the Eighties, for his Come track “Orgasm” in 1994.

Model-actress Devin DeVasquez, who was also managed by Prince’s people at the start of her career, told The Canadian Press she and Matthews “were all in that circle of Prince’s girls, so to speak”. The Washington Post’s Courtland Milloy found her preaching at a church in Prince George’s County, Md., in 1997. Originally called “The Hookers” (per Wikipedia), the group would be renamed Vanity 6, and the only hit off their eponymous single album in 1982 would be “Nasty Girl”, which was featured on the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack. Within a year, she left Niagara Falls for Toronto, and then California.

“When I was Vanity, it was all about me”, she said in 1999.

Prince then offered her a major role as the female lead in his biographical musical Purple Rain at age 24.