Denise Perrier was born and grew up in the French town Ambérieu-en-Bugey. Her father was a gendarme. Her family moved to French Indochina and returned to France before the 1954 Geneva Conference. When she was 18 years old, the director of the casino of Saint-Raphaël invited her to compete in the Miss Saint-Raphaël beauty pageant contest that was taking place the same night. She won the contest and moved on to participate to the Miss France contest.

Denise Perrier was crowned Miss France World 1953 by Miss France World 1952, Nicole Drouin. She represented France in the Miss World 1953 pageant. Perrier was the chosen as Miss World during that year's pageant,[4][5] representing France, the same year that Christiane Martel of France also won the Miss Universe pageant. She was the first French woman to win this title. She met Julia Morley and they became close friends.

Perrier has also acted in films. Her most memorable scene is an uncredited appearance in the 1971 James Bond movie, Diamonds Are Forever. In the scene, after a little persuasion from James Bond, who starts throttling her with the top of her bikini, she gives up and reveals the location of the villain of the film. She said that she asked Sean Connery to go a little rough on the strangling act to make sure she would look attacked, and that he did.