Denise DuBarry

Denise DuBarry
Denise DuBarry (in 1989)
Born	(1956-03-06) March 6, 1956 (age 61) Killeen, Texas
Nationality	American
Occupation	actress, businesswoman, film producer, and philanthropist

Denise DuBarry (born March 6, 1956) is an American actress, businesswoman, film producer, and philanthropist. She co-founded Thane International, Inc., a global leader in the direct response industry along with her husband, Bill Hay, in 1990. She served as its Chief Creative Officer for 15 years, from 1990–2005. As an actress, she is best known for her role as nurse Lieutenant Samantha Green, on the television series Black Sheep Squadron, and as Johanna Franklin in the film Being There. She was a pioneer in the infomercial industry as producer of Play the Piano Overnight in 1988, which won the Billboard Music Award for Best Music Instruction Video that year and then Play the Guitar Overnight which won the 1991 Billboard Music Award for Best Music Instruction.

DuBarry was born in Killeen, Texas at the Fort Hood Army Base to Adrian Pierre DuBarry and his wife, Betty Louise (née King). Her parents moved back to Louisiana where they were from so that her father could finish his master's degree at LSU in Baton Rouge. The family later moved to Honduras, Mexico, Guatemala and Costa Rica, where DuBarry grew up from ages 2 to 10, and learned to speak fluent Spanish. The family moved throughout California, eventually settling in Granada Hills, California where Denise attended middle school and high school. A child of divorce and the eldest of five children, at 14 she watched after her siblings while her mother worked.

DuBarry has been practicing yoga since 1979. She founded and owned Malibu Yoga in 1986 which catered to a celebrity clientele. She gave the studio to a friend in 1990 when she relocated. She is a partner in Palm Desert, California's Bikram Yoga University Village Studio.

At age 18, she went to work for her father in his paper export business, DuBarry International, and took acting lessons at night with Milton Katselas and Charles E. Conrad. She landed commercials for Michelob Beer, Chevrolet Camaro and worked as an extra in the kid's shows, Magic Mongo, Wonder Woman and she made an appearance on The Gong Show as beauty contestant, "Ms. Hold the Mayo". She competed in several real beauty contests including Ms. Malibu where she won "Most Photogenic". She was hired to co-star in a CBS Movie of the Week, Deadman's Curve. She landed a regular role on the last season of the NBC World War II television series, Black Sheep Squadron, and guest-starred on popular television shows, including Charlie's Angels. Trapper John, M.D. and Match Game '78. Director Hal Ashby cast her in a featured role in the 1979 film Being There.