Music and acting career: 1982–1993
Matthews appeared on the cover of the funk band Cameo's album Alligator Woman (1982).
In 1982, she met musician Prince at the American Music Awards. After learning she could sing, Prince invited her to front a girl group he had formed called The Hookers. He initially wanted to name her "Vagina," pronounced "va-geen-na," which Matthews refused. They settled on Vanity, as he considered her the female form of himself. The group was renamed Vanity 6.
The group recorded one album and had international success with the single "Nasty Girl". They wore lingerie and Vanity's image became that of an erotic "nasty girl". She stated in a 1993 interview that she was uncomfortable with the image, saying "Prince created the whole Vanity 6 image. It bothered me at the time. I lied and said it was the image I wanted. I did it because he told me I had to do it. If I didn't do it, I wouldn't get paid. I got into it. I wanted the old Diana Ross image."
Vanity and Prince appeared together on the cover of the April 28, 1983, issue of Rolling Stone magazine. In August 1983, she abruptly left the group and dropped out of the 1984 film Purple Rain; her role went to Apollonia Kotero. Vanity later said, "Basically, I wanted to let 'Wild Animal' come out, and I needed to write my own songs. I needed to see if I could do something without the help of others. Now 'Purple Rain' was his really big dream. So I had to decide: Do I do his, or do I do mine?"
In 1984, Vanity signed with Motown Records as a solo artist and recorded the funk-pop album Wild Animal. She had mild success on the US pop and R&B charts with the singles "Pretty Mess" and "Mechanical Emotion."
In 1985, Vanity made her mainstream film debut in The Last Dragon, which featured her song, "7th Heaven." She wanted a role in the 1985 film The Color Purple, but Steven Spielberg thought she looked too young.
In 1986, she released her second, final album, Skin on Skin, which produced the top 10 R&B hit "Under the Influence". She starred that year in the action film Never Too Young to Die opposite John Stamos, and in the Neo-noir crime film 52 Pick-Up.
Her highest profile role was co-starring with Carl Weathers, Craig T. Nelson, and Sharon Stone in the 1988 film Action Jackson. Film critic Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times praised Vanity's performance as "the movie's one redeeming merit". In the film, she portrays a heroin addict, and during production, she was using cocaine heavily. After filming wrapped, she entered a rehabilitation program at a Los Angeles hospital.
She appeared nude in the April 1988 issue of Playboy magazine.
Vanity had roles on numerous TV programs. She guest-starred in a 1987 episode of Miami Vice's third season. She appeared in the Friday the 13th: The Series episode "Mesmer's Bauble" in 1989. She played a villain who tortured Nancy Allen's character in the 1990 TV movie Memories of Murder, and appeared in an episode of Highlander: The Series in 1992. Her last role was in the 1993 film Kiss of Death.
