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Melanie Richards Griffith [1] [2] (born August 9, 1957) is an American actress. Born in Manhattan to future actress Tippi Hedren, she was raised mainly in Los Angeles, where she graduated from the Hollywood Professional School at age 16.
IMDb provides an extensive overview of Melanie Griffith's life and career, from her childhood as the daughter of Tippi Hedren to her recent roles in The Pirates of Somalia and other films. Learn about her marriages, substance abuse, Oscar nomination, and more.
- January 1, 1
- 1.77 m
- New York City, New York, USA
Nov 5, 2022 · The actress, 65, surprised fans with a short, dark wig and a glamorous outfit to celebrate Kris Jenner's birthday. She shared photos on Instagram and revealed her fitness secrets at a health resort in Austria.
- 13 sec
- Hannah Hargrave
- Overview
- Early life
- Body Double, Something Wild, and Working Girl
- Later work
Melanie Griffith (born August 9, 1957, New York, New York, U.S.) American actress whose best-known characters were noted for their strength and sex appeal. Her most memorable role was in the movie Working Girl (1988), for which she received an Academy Award nomination for best actress.
Griffith is the daughter of actress Tippi Hedren—who starred in director Alfred Hitchcock’s thrillers The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964)—and Peter Griffith, a businessman. Her parents divorced when she was four years old, and she moved to Los Angeles with her mother. As a child and teenager, Griffith occasionally modeled and appeared in commercials. In 1969 she made her feature-film debut, appearing as an uncredited extra in Smith!, a western.
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At age 14, while working as an extra on The Harrad Experiment (1973), Griffith met a 22-year-old actor named Don Johnson. The two began dating and eventually moved in together. When she was 16, Griffith graduated from the Hollywood Professional School. In 1976 Griffith and Johnson married, but they divorced later that year.
During the filming of the TV movie She’s in the Army Now (1981), Griffith met actor Steven Bauer, and the two later married (1981–89). The relationship brought stability to Griffith, and, at Bauer’s encouragement, she started taking acting lessons with Stella Adler. Griffith began to gain fame in the mid-1980s. She notably appeared in Brian de Palma’s mystery Body Double (1984), in which she played an adult-film star; Jonathan Demme’s romantic comedy Something Wild (1986), which became a cult classic; and Mike Figgis’s Stormy Monday (1988), a drama that starred Tommy Lee Jones as a Texas politician and Griffith as his mistress.
Griffith’s breakthrough came in director Mike Nichols’s romantic comedy Working Girl (1988). She starred as Tess McGill, an executive secretary who uses her charm and brains to take over her injured boss’s job. The film, which also starred Harrison Ford and Sigourney Weaver, was a critical and commercial success. It garnered a number of Oscar nominations, and Griffith received a nod for best actress. She also won a Golden Globe Award for her performance.
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Although Griffith continued to act, her subsequent movies were less successful. During the first half of the 1990s, the actress struggled with addiction as well as the demise of her second marriage to Johnson (1989–96). Her films from this period include The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990), Pacific Heights (1990), A Stranger Among Us (1992), Born Yesterday (1993), and Mulholland Falls (1996).
While filming Two Much (1995), Griffith began a relationship with Spanish actor Antonio Banderas, and they wed in 1996 (divorced 2015). The marriage proved beneficial for Griffith. Her subsequent films include Crazy in Alabama (1999), a comedy directed by Banderas; Forever Lulu (2000), which costarred Patrick Swayze; and the thriller Dark Tourist (2012). In 2003 she made her Broadway debut, starring in the musical Chicago. Griffith later had a recurring role (2014–16) on the TV series Hawaii Five-0. In 2020 she had a cameo in The High Note, a music drama that starred her daughter Dakota Johnson, a noted actress.
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- Jesse Johnson, 41. Don and his then-partner Patti D'Arbanville welcomed their son Jesse on Dec. 7, 1982. When Don remarried Melanie in 1989 (they were previously married for six months in 1976), she became Jesse's stepmom.
- Alexander Bauer, 38. Alexander Griffith Bauer was born to Melanie and her second husband, Steven, on Aug. 22, 1985. The parents met on set before marrying in 1981.
- Dakota Johnson, 34. After her split from Steven, Melanie reunited with her first husband, Don, and the pair welcomed their daughter Dakota on Oct. 4, 1989.
- Stella Banderas, 27. On Sept. 24, 1996, Melanie welcomed her third child, Stella del Carmen Banderas, with her then-husband Antonio. Like her father, Stella was born in Spain and speaks both English and Spanish.
Jan 20, 2024 · The actress shared photos of her mom, the Alfred Hitchcock muse, on Instagram, praising her as "always up for a party". Hedren, who turned 94 on Jan. 19, 2024, is the grandmother of Dakota Johnson and Stella Banderas.
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May 12, 2023 · Learn how the actresses share a close bond, despite their age difference and different lifestyles. See photos, videos and stories of their family, careers and animal passion.
