Melanie Griffith


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Melanie Griffith

Melanie at Cannes Film Festival in 2000
Born August 9, 1957 (1957-08-09) (age 51)
New York City, United States
Spouse(s) Don Johnson (1976; 1989 - 1996)
Steven Bauer (1981-1987)
Antonio Banderas (1996-present)

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

Contents

Early life

Griffith was born in New York City, to Tippi Hedren and producer and former actor/advertising executive Peter Griffith.[1][2][3] 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 Griffith 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 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 the Mike Nichols 1988 film Working Girl, which won Griffith the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Many of her later films were poorly received, especially The Bonfire of the Vanities, which reunited her with 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), directed by Banderas and featuring Griffith's real-life daughters Dakota Johnson and Stella Banderas playing her daughters. Griffith later received 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), on which she played Lee, the mother of the show's main characters, played by Sara Gilbert and Molly Stanton. Her television career took a blow when her 2007 series Viva Laughlin was canceled after two episodes.

Broadway career

In 1999, Griffith made her stage debut at the Old Vic in London, England, where she acted with Cate Blanchett in the Vagina Monologues.[4] 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 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".[5] Griffith's celebratory reviews made it a box office success.[6][7] At the same time Griffith was performing in Chicago, husband 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, in which Griffith was an extra. Griffith was 18 years old when she married him in Las Vegas in January 1976. They divorced just six months later.

A very negative view of Griffith is given in former best friend Tatum O'Neal's autogiography, A Paper Life, in which O'Neal claims Griffith had once dragged her into an opium-filled orgy and that she had caught her father Ryan O'Neal having sex with a teenage Griffith in the 1970s.[8][9]

In September 1981, Griffith married Steven Bauer, her co-star in the TV film She's in the Army Now. Their son, Alexander, was born in 1985. They divorced in 1987. Griffith later admitted to having problems with cocaine and liquor after her divorce from Bauer. "What I did was drink myself to sleep at night," she said. "If I wasn't with someone, I was an unhappy girl."[10] While on the set of Working Girl, she reconciled with first husband Don Johnson. At Johnson's insistence, Griffith checked into rehab and became sober.[11] They remarried in 1989 and had a daughter, Dakota Johnson, on October 4, 1989. Six years later, she left him because of his own substance-abuse problems. She later reconciled with him, only to leave him again, this time for her leading man Antonio Banderas from the film Two Much. She finalized her divorce from Johnson in February 1996, and married Banderas on May 14, 1996. Their daughter, Stella Banderas, was born on September 24, 1996. In 2000, Griffith had 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 Globe Awards ceremony. Griffith herself was Miss Golden Globe in 1975, a title given as a launching pad to celebrity off-spring breaking into show business.

In 2002, Griffith and Banderas received the Stella Adler Angel Award for their extensive charity work[12]

Awards and nominations

Filmography

Year Film Role Other notes
1969 Smith! Extra uncredited
1973 The Harrad Experiment Extra uncredited
1975 Night Moves Delly Grastner
The Drowning Pool Schuyler Devereaux
Smile Karen Love
1977 The Garden Young Girl
One on One The Hitchhiker
Joyride Susie
1978 Daddy, I Don't Like it Like This Girl in Hotel
Steel Cowboy Johnnie
1981 Roar Melanie
Underground Acres Lucy
The Star Maker Dawn Barnett Youngblood
She's in the Army Now Pvt. Sylvie Knoll
Golden Gate Karen
1984 Fear City Loretta
Body Double Holly Body Golden Globe nomination - Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
1985 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Girl
1986 Something Wild Audrey Hankel aka Lulu Golden Globe nomination - Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical/Comedy
1987 Cherry 2000 Edith 'E' Johnson
1988 The Milagro Beanfield War Flossie Devine
Stormy Monday Kate
Working Girl Tess McGill Academy Award nomination - Best Actress, BAFTA nomination - Best Actress, Golden Globe win - Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical/Comedy
1990 Women and Men: Stories of Seduction Hadley
In the Spirit Lureen
Pacific Heights Patty Palmer
The Bonfire of the Vanities Maria Ruskin
1991 Paradise Lily Reed
1992 Shining Through Linda Voss
A Stranger Among Us Emily Eden
1993 Born Yesterday Billie Dawn
1994 Milk Money V
Nobody's Fool Toby Roebuck
1995 Buffalo Girls Dora DuFran Golden Globe nomination - Best Supporting Actress - Miniseries
Now and Then Tina 'Teeny' Tercell
Two Much Betty Kerner
1996 Mulholland Falls Katherine Hoover
1997 Another Day in Paradise Sid
Lolita Charlotte Haze
1998 Shadow of Doubt Kitt Devereux
Celebrity Nicole Oliver
1999 Crazy in Alabama Lucille Vinson
RKO 281 Marion Davies Emmy nomination - Best Supporting Actress, Golden Globe nomination - Best Supporting Actress - Miniseries
2000 Cecil B. Demented Honey Whitlock
Forever Lulu Lulu McAfee
2001 Tart Diane Milford
2002 Searching for Debra Winger Herself
Stuart Little 2 Margalo the Bird voice
2003 The Night We Called It a Day Barbara Marx AFI nomination - Best Supporting Actress
Shade Eve
Tempo (film) Sarah
2005 Heartless (film) Miranda Wells

References

  1. ^ Melanie Griffith Biography (1957-)
  2. ^ Tracy Griffith Biography (1965-)
  3. ^ Ancestry of Melanie Griffith
  4. ^ TRANSCRIPT (Melanie's Romance Chat, February 10, 2000, 9PM EST)
  5. ^ http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?id=1077011419481&html_title=&tols_title=CHICAGO+(PLAY)&byline=%20By+BEN+BRANTLEY+&pdate=20030804
  6. ^ B.O. rises; 'Chi' SRO Broadway Grosses
  7. ^ Bubbly B.O. perf. (Analysis).(Melanie Griffith stars in "Chicago")(Brief Article)
  8. ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6254330/
  9. ^ http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/tatum%20o.neal%20corrupted%20by%20griffith
  10. ^ http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20108381,00.html
  11. ^ http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20108381,00.html
  12. ^ Antonio And Melanie Receive Hollywood Charity Award

External links

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Persondata
NAME Griffith, Melanie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Actress
DATE OF BIRTH August 9, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City, New York
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH






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