Biography for
Melanie Griffith More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

9 August 1957, New York City, New York, USA

Height

5' 9¼" (1.76 m)

Mini Biography

Melanie Griffith was born on August 9, 1957, in New York City to model Tippi Hedren and advertising executive and sometime actor Peter Griffith. Her parents' marriage ended in 1961 and Tippi came to Los Angeles to get a new start. Tippi caught the eye of the great director Alfred Hitchcock, who gave her starring roles in The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964). Tippi married her second husband, agent Noel Marshall, in 1964, and Melanie grew up with three stepbrothers.

Melanie also grew up with tigers and lions, as Tippi and Noel were raising them for the movie Roar (1981), in which the family later starred. Her career began as a model at just nine months old and she later appeared as an extra in Smith! (1969) and The Harrad Experiment (1973), where she fell in love with her mother's co-star, Don Johnson. She was only fourteen years old, while he was a twice-divorced 22-year-old. Tippi took a very liberal approach and allowed Melanie to move in with Don at a tender age. As precocious in academics as she was in life, she skipped a grade and graduated from Hollywood Professional School when she was just sixteen. Even though Melanie didn't like modeling, she continued to do so to pay the bills. One day, she went to meet with director Arthur Penn for what she thought was a modeling assignment. It was actually an audition for his film Night Moves (1975), and Penn gave her the role of a runaway nymphet. She didn't really want to be an actress, but Johnson encouraged her to do it. She agreed but was terrified of performing in front of the camera. Penn took a paternal interest in her, and she felt confident and gave a riveting performance, doing racy nude scenes. The film got her attention, and it immediately typecast her and led to more nymphet roles, with her beautiful nude body a permanent fixture in most of these films. She married Don Johnson, but it ended shortly afterwards, possibly because her early movie success outshone his.

Unfortunately, as her career progressed, she became increasingly dependent on drugs and alcohol, a fact well known to studio executives, who stopped considering her for film roles. Melanie then turned to doing television roles, where she met her second husband, Steven Bauer, on the set of the TV movie She's in the Army Now (1981) (TV). He helped her to overcome her drug and alcohol problems and got her to take acting classes with Stella Adler in New York. The classes paid off, as director Brian De Palma cast her as a porno actress in his murder mystery Body Double (1984) and her sexy, funny performance won her rave reviews and the Best Supporting Actress Award by the National Society of Film Critics. Jonathan Demme was so impressed with her performance that he gave her the title role in Something Wild (1986) without even auditioning her. The film became a cult favorite, with Melanie again getting critical plaudits. The birth of her first child, Alexander, in 1985, didn't help to save her struggling marriage, and she and Bauer divorced shortly thereafter. Melanie reconciled briefly with first husband Don Johnson, and he directed her in a guest appearance on his hit TV series "Miami Vice" (1984) in 1987, before they again went their separate ways. Melanie's career skyrocketed when Mike Nichols cast her in the title role of Working Girl (1988), a box-office hit for which she received an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress and won the Golden Globe Award as Best Actress in a Comedy. However, her ongoing substance abuse problems almost destroyed her career yet again, and Nichols pushed her into a rehabilitation clinic. En route to the clinic, she called ex-husband Johnson for support, and they reconciled after her release from the clinic. She got pregnant and they remarried in 1989, and soon thereafter their daughter Dakota Johnson was born. Now sober, Melanie concentrated on her film career, but the films she chose often flopped badly, especially The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990). Even though she gave heartfelt performances in all her films, she was often miscast, with her breathy little-girl voice not helping matters in her role as a spy in Shining Through (1992) and as a homicide detective going undercover in the Hassidic Jewish community in New York City in A Stranger Among Us (1992).

Melanie made a minor comeback with her supporting role as a desperate housewife in Nobody's Fool (1994), reuniting her with Bruce Willis, her co-star in "Bonfire", and Paul Newman, her co-star from The Drowning Pool (1975). Her personal life was making headlines again, though, as she left Johnson because of his own substance-abuse problems, reconciled with him briefly when he became sober, only to leave him again, this time for Antonio Banderas, her married co-star from Two Much (1995). Both she and Banderas created a scandal in 1995 with their torrid romance, and the tabloids followed their every move, including her divorce from Johnson and his divorce from wife Ana Leza. Melanie became pregnant with her third child, and she and Banderas married in 1996. Their daughter Stella was born, and the notorious couple were forgiven by the public and the media. Melanie gave what is arguable her best performance to date as a ditsy heroin addict in Another Day in Paradise (1998). She then starred in the made-for-cable TV movie RKO 281 (1999) (TV), in which she played actress Marion Davies, a part that garnered her Golden Globe and Emmy nominations. Melanie became dependent to pain killers, however, and wrote about her struggle and recovery in her journal on her official website. Greenmoon Productions, the production company that she formed with Banderas, produced several flops, such as her starring vehicle Crazy in Alabama (1999), directed by Banderas. Her career took another blow when her TV series, "Me & George" (1998), never even aired. As a result, film and television offers dried up.

In 2003, Melanie turned to the Broadway stage and emerged with a rave review from the New York Times theater critic and also packed houses for her turn as the murderess "Roxie" in the musical "Chicago". It renewed her confidence, as she had never sang, danced or been on the Broadway stage before. In 2005, she surprised viewers by playing a sexy mom to two grown women in the TV series "Twins" (2005). However, the series was canceled after one season. Since 1996, she has been married to Antonio Banderas, and the couple has one daughter, Stella Banderas. Banderas and Griffith are involved in many charities, including raising funds for her mother Tippi Hedren's Shambala preserve, a refuge for wild animals.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Stepheninny@hotmail.com

Spouse

Antonio Banderas	(14 May 1996 - present) 1 child
Don Johnson	(26 June 1989 - February 1996) (divorced) 1 child
Steven Bauer	(8 September 1981 - 1987) (divorced) 1 child
Don Johnson	(8 January 1976 - July 1976) (divorced)

Trade Mark

Little girl voice

Trivia

Her mother, Tippi Hedren, recently stated that the miniature doll of Hedren given to Melanie by Alfred Hitchcock was not intended to be a prank by the director. He merely wanted to give Melanie a beautiful doll with her mother's image, but it happened that the doll was in a wooden box. When Melanie received the gift, she freaked out and became upset thinking that it was indeed meant to be her mother in a coffin.

Born at 11:49pm-EDT

She three children, one with each of her three husbands - Alexander Bauer (b. 1985) with Steven Bauer, Dakota Johnson (b. 1989) with Don Johnson and Stella Banderas (b. 1996) with Antonio Banderas.

Half-sister of Tracy Griffith and Clay A. Griffith.

Daughter of Peter Griffith and Tippi Hedren.

14 November 2000 - checked into a Marina Del Rey, California hospital to help her scale back on the use of painkillers she had been prescribed for a neck injury.

Auditioned for the title role in Carrie (1976) that eventually went to Sissy Spacek.

In 1978, she went to a movie and dinner with Ricci Martin (son of Dean Martin). Upon leaving La Dome, a restaurant on Sunset Boulevard, a car ran through the crosswalk and hit Melanie. The front of the car struck her hip in mid-stride, whiplashing her head back into the windshield. As the car screeched to a stop, Melanie catapulted more than a dozen feet forward to the curbside, hitting with great force. Melanie was rushed to a hospital. To this day, Melanie still experiences pain from that accident.

Real-life daughters Dakota Johnson and Stella Banderas appear as her character's daughters in the 1999 film Crazy in Alabama (1999) directed by her husband Antonio Banderas.

Claims that it was love at first sight when she met her husband Antonio Banderas on the set of Two Much (1995) in 1995.

She was unable to star in The Sheltering Sky (1990) and As Good as It Gets (1997) because of pregnancies.

She has three homes: Los Angeles, Aspen and Marbella, Spain.

Coincidentally, she bears the same first name as her mother Tippi Hedren's most well-known role, Melanie Daniels, from the 1963 Hitchcock film, The Birds (1963).

Measurements: 34B-25-34 1/2 (filming Pacific Heights (1990)), 36C-25- 35 (during The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) after implants, (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine).

Was eighteen when she married Don Johnson for the first time. He was eight years older than she, and they met on the set of her mother's film The Harrad Experiment (1973).

In 2002, she told Larry King that her best films are: Night Moves (1975), Something Wild (1986), Working Girl (1988) and Nobody's Fool (1994).

She turned down femme-fatale roles in hit films that went to Anjelica Huston in The Grifters (1990), Geena Davis in Thelma & Louise (1991) and Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct (1992), because they were dark and edgy, and instead accepted the femme fatale role in the comedy misfire The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990).

Her son, Alexander Bauer, is the godson of Warren Beatty.

Her father is English and her mother is half Swedish, 1/4 German and 1/4 Norwegian.

Goes through two boyfriends in Working Girl (1988). As the film begins, she is in a relationship with Alec Baldwin, but at the end, she is in a relationship with Harrison Ford. Both Baldwin and Ford have played Jack Ryan in adaptations of the Tom Clancy novels.

First "Miss Golden Globe" to win a Golden Globe herself

Joanne Woodward told a 17-year-old Melanie on the set of The Drowning Pool (1975) that her goals were to marry a movie star (Paul Newman); have beautiful babies (she had three); and win an Oscar (which she did in 1958). Melanie said that she adopted the goals for herself by marrying a movie star (Antonio Banderas); have beautiful babies (she also had 3); but has expressed frustration that she hasn't won an Oscar even though she was nominated in 1989.

She and her daughter Dakota Johnson are the only mother-daughter- couple to be "Miss Golden Globe"

While in Washington, D.C. addressing the senate on Arts funding, she fell asleep twice during a speech by her host Michigan Senator Spencer Abraham. She apologized citing jet-lag as her reason for snoozing.

Her French dubbing voice Dorothée Jemma is also the French dubbing voice of Sheryl Lee and Jennifer Aniston.

Turned down the role of "Iris" in Taxi Driver (1976) because she thought she was too old to play a 12-year old. The film was released two years later and the role was played by Jodie Foster.

Was considered to play Emmeline in The Blue Lagoon (1980), but she was too old for the character. Brooke Shields got the part.

Turned down the role of Sarah Connor in The Terminator (1984). The role went to Linda Hamilton.

Was offered the role of Lynn Bracken in L.A. Confidential (1997), that eventually went to Kim Basinger.

Melanie said that fans sometimes confuse her with actress Meg Ryan, whom she admires. She would sign Meg Ryan's name so as not to disappoint the fans. Ryan said the same thing happened to her where fans thought she was Melanie.

Checked into the Cirque Lodge in Utah for rehab treatments [August 24, 2009]. Same place where Kirsten Dunst and Lindsay Lohan spent time in recent years.

Was offered the part of Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction (1987), but turned it down. As a result Glenn Close, who received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her performance, was cast instead.

Personal Quotes

[about her work with James Woods] It's kind of like being pregnant. You know, you go through the initial joy of it. Then you go through wanting it to be over. And then you're finished with it and you forget how bad it was.

There's a bit of a stripper in every woman.

I don't walk around with fear. I walk around with strength. I believe in cause and effect.

I don't think I'm beautiful. When I look in the mirror, I just see me - and, I'm pretty used to me.

Antonio [husband Antonio Banderas] is the best. He is compassionate and humble.

Angelina Jolie may get him [husband Antonio Banderas] in bed for eight hours on a movie set, but I get him in bed every day.

[on being typed as a sex symbol] I hope not! I don't want to be -- I've done enough parts like that. I can't say I won't do more, but I really want to do a variety of roles.

I would just like to be able to give to people through acting. If I can entertain people by being somebody else and allow somebody to feel something, then that makes me feel good.

Salary

Milk Money (1994)	$2,000,000
The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990)	$1,000,000

Where Are They Now

Will make her Broadway debut this summer (2003) playing the role of Roxie Hart in Chicago at The Ambassador theatre in New York City.

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