Melanie Griffith (born August 9, 1957) is an Academy Award nominated Golden Globe winning American film actress. She is the daughter of actress Tippi Hedren and the wife of actor Antonio Banderas.

Early life

Griffith was born in New York City, the daughter of actress Tippi Hedren and producer and former actor/advertising executive Peter Griffith. Her parents divorced when she was four years old, after which her father remarried to model/actress Nanita Greene and had two more children, actress Tracy Griffith and set designer Clay A. Griffith. Her mother married agent and producer Noel Marshall, and Melanie grew up with three stepbrothers. During her childhood and adolescent years, she divided her time between living in New York with her father and in Antelope Valley, California, where her mother formed the animal preservation Shambala.

Film career

Griffith began work at just nine months old in a commercial and later became an extra on Smith! (1969) and The Harrad Experiment (1973). Her first major role was in Arthur Penn's Night Moves (1975), in which she did several racy nude scenes at the age of 17. This drew attention to her and typecast her as a sexy nymphet in films such as Smile, The Drowning Pool (both also 1975), and One on One (1977).

Griffith made a career comeback in 1984 when she starred in the Brian De Palma thriller Body Double (1984). The film won her the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress, and also led to her starring role in Jonathan Demme's Something Wild (1986), which became a cult favorite. She achieved mainstream success when she played the character of Tess McGill in Mike Nichols' 1988 film Working Girl, which won Griffith the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

Griffith's later films were The Bonfire of the Vanities, reuniting her with her Body Double director Brian de Palma. She co-starred with then-husband Don Johnson in the films Paradise and Born Yesterday. She received good reviews for her supporting role as a desperate housewife in Nobody's Fool (1994). It was on the set of the 1996 film Two Much where Griffith met future husband Antonio Banderas. In 1997, she formed Greenmoon Productions with Banderas, which produced her starring vehicle Crazy in Alabama (1999), which was directed by Banderas and featured Griffith's real-life daughters Dakota Johnson and Stella Banderas played her daughters. Griffith later won strong reviews in independent films like Another Day in Paradise (1998). In 2002, Griffith voiced the character of Margalo in Stuart Little 2 (2002).

Television

Griffith's television work includes playing actress Marion Davies in the HBO television movie RKO 281 (1999), for which she received an Emmy nomination as "Best Supporting Actress". She was also seen on The WB sitcom Twins (2005-2006), in which she played Lee, the mother of the show's main characters, played by Sara Gilbert and Molly Stanton.

Broadway career

Later in her career, Griffith made her stage debut at the Old Vic in London, England, where she acted with Cate Blanchett in the Vagina Monologues in February 1999. Four years later, she made her Broadway debut playing Roxie in the musical "Chicago". An untrained performer in song and dance, Griffith still managed to get a rave review from "The New York Times" theatre critic Ben Brantley, who wrote: "Ms. Griffith is a sensational Roxie, possibly the most convincing I have seen" and "[the] vultures who were expecting to see Ms. Griffith stumble...will have to look elsewhere". Griffith's celebratory reviews made it a box office success. At the same time Griffith was performing in "Chicago", her husband Antonio Banderas was appearing across the street in another musical, "Nine".

Personal life

At age 14, Griffith began dating 22-year old actor Don Johnson who co-starred with her mother in the 1973 film, The Harrad Experiment, where Griffith was an extra. Griffith was 18 years old when she married him in Las Vegas in January 1976. However, they divorced six months later.

Former best friend Tatum O'Neal claims she caught her father, Ryan O'Neal having sex with Griffith when he took them on a trip to Europe in 1976. O'Neal also claims that Griffith dragged her into an opium-filled orgy with their hairdresser during that same trip. It was during this time that Griffith began a cocaine addiction. When she was hit by a car on Sunset Boulevard in 1980, she was unconscious for a week. Griffith describes the experience as "God's way of telling me to slow down."

On September 18, 1981, Griffith married Steven Bauer, her co-star in the TV film She's in the Army Now. They had a son, Alexander, in 1985, but divorced in 1987. Following her divorce from Bauer, Griffith's drug problems re-emerged and she was checked into rehab. During this time, she reconciled with Don Johnson. She quickly became pregnant and they remarried each other in June 1989. Their daughter, Dakota Johnson, was born on October 4, 1989.

Several years later, her personal life was making headlines again, 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 the 1996 film Two Much. Both she and Banderas created a scandal with their torrid romance, with Banderas leaving his wife, Ana Leza. Griffith finalized her divorce from Johnson in February 1996. She married Banderas on May 14, 1996. Their daughter, Stella Banderas, was born on September 24, 1996. Griffith has Banderas' first name tattooed on her right shoulder.

Griffith's daughter Dakota Johnson followed in her mother's footsteps and served as Miss Golden Globe at the 2006 Golden Globes awards ceremony. Griffith herself was Miss Golden Globe in 1975, a title given as a launching pad to celebrities' off-spring breaking into show business.

Awards & nominations

• Golden Globe Nomination as Best Supporting Actress for Body Double (1984)
• National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress for Body Double (1984)
• Named "Star of Tomorrow" by the Motion Picture Booker's Club (1984)
• Golden Globe Nomination as Best Actress in a comedy or musical for Something Wild (1986)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Working Girl (1988)
• Academy Award Nomination as Best Actress for Working Girl (1988)
• British Academy of Film and Television Arts Nomination as Best Actress for Working Girl (1988)
• Golden Globe Nomination as Best Supporting Actress in a TV Movie for Buffalo Girls (1995)
• Golden Globe Nomination as Best Supporting Actress in a TV Movie for RKO 281 (1999)
• Emmy Nomination as Best Supporting Actress in a TV Movie for RKO 281 (1999)
• Sant Jordi Award for Best Foreign Actress for Another Day in Paradise (1998) and Crazy in Alabama (1999)
• Taormina International Film Festival--Diamond Award (2000)
• Cannes Film Festival--Lifetime Achievement Award (2001)
• Stella Adler Angel Award (2002) - shared with her husband Antonio Banderas for their extensive charity work
• Australian Film Institute Nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for The Night we called it a Day (2003)

Filmography