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Melanie Griffith extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Melanie Griffith
Melanie Griffith at Cannes in 2000
Born	August 9, 1957 (1957-08-09) (age 52) New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1969–present
Spouse(s)	Don Johnson (1976; 1989-1996) Steven Bauer (1981-1987) Antonio Banderas (1996-present)

Melanie Griffith (born August 9, 1957) is an American actress. She is an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner for her performance in the 1988 film Working Girl. She is the daughter of actress Tippi Hedren, and the wife of actor Antonio Banderas.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Film career 3 Television 4 Broadway career 5 Personal life 6 Honors 7 Filmography 8 References 9 External links

Early life

Griffith was born in New York City, to Tippi Hedren and producer and former actor/advertising executive Peter Griffith.¹²³ 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 preserve Shambala. She also skipped a grade and graduated from Hollywood Professional School when she was 16 years old.⁴⁵⁶

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 Night Moves (1975) in which she did several racy 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 reportedly turned down parts in some very popular movies, including the role of Iris in Taxi Driver, the lead role in Carrie, Princess Leia Organa in Star Wars, Emmeline in The Blue Lagoon and Sarah Connor in The Terminator. Griffith's career gained momentum in 1984 when she played a porn star in the Brian De Palma thriller Body Double. 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 Mike Nichols cast her as a spunky secretary named Tess McGill in the hit 1988 film Working Girl, with Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Alec Baldwin and Joan Cusack. Griffith's performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress and won her the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy.

Griffith's next role was starring in the well-received thriller Pacific Heights (1990) with Michael Keaton and Matthew Modine. Despite her success, many of Griffith's following films were poorly received, especially The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990), which also starred Bruce Willis and Tom Hanks and reunited her with Body Double director Brian de Palma. Other less-notable films were Paradise (1991) and Born Yesterday (1993) (both of which co-starred Griffith's then husband Don Johnson), Shining Through (1992) and A Stranger Among Us (1992). Griffith made a minor comeback when she received good reviews for her role as a desperate housewife in the Oscar-nominated film Nobody's Fool (1994), which reunited her with Bruce Willis and Paul Newman. It was on the set of the 1996 comedy Two Much where Griffith met future husband Antonio Banderas.

Griffith appeared in the Woody Allen film Celebrity in 1998 with Winona Ryder, Leonardo DiCaprio and Charlize Theron. Later that same year, she delivered what is arguably her finest screen performance to date⁷ as a ditzy heroin user in Another Day in Paradise (1998). She formed Greenmoon Productions with Antonio Banderas in 1997, 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's most recent mainstream film was Stuart Little 2 (2002) in which she voiced the character of Margalo. Since then, she has acted in several independent films.

Griffith currently has two feature films in production.

Television

Griffith's most notable television work includes her Golden Globe nominated performances in the TV miniseries Buffalo Girls and the HBO film RKO 281 (1999), where she played actress Marion Davies. Her portrayal of Davies also earned her an Emmy nomination. She was also seen on the short-lived 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.

Griffith appeared on television in Nip/Tuck during its seventh and final season. She played porn-star Kimber Henry's mother who, along with Les, her boyfriend of 6 years, went to see if Kimber survived her fall off a boat. Griffith gets involved sexually with Kimber's husband Christian Troy, who is her grandchild's step-father (and grandfather).⁸

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.⁹ Four years later, in 2003, she made her Broadway debut playing Roxie in the musical Chicago. Untrained in song and dance, Griffith still impressed 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".¹⁰ Griffith's celebratory reviews made it a box office success.¹¹¹²¹³ 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.

In September 1981, Griffith married Steven Bauer, her co-star in the TV film She's in the Army Now. They have a son, Alexander, born in August 1985. The couple 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."¹⁴ 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.¹⁴ She became pregnant, and they remarried in June 1989. Their daughter, Dakota Johnson, was born 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 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 offspring breaking into show business.

In 2002, Griffith and Banderas received the Stella Adler Angel Award for their extensive charity work.¹⁵

Griffith has struggled with drugs and alcohol through much of her life. In 2000, she sought treatment for addiction to painkillers. She returned to rehab in August 2009.¹⁶

In December 2009 she underwent surgery for skin cancer.¹⁷

Honors

• Named "Star of Tomorrow" by the Motion Picture Booker's Club (1984)
• Taormina International Film Festival — Diamond Award (2000)
• Cannes Film Festival — Lifetime Achievement Award (2001)

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	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	National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
1985	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Girl
1986	Something Wild	Audrey Hankel aka Lulu	Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1987	Cherry 2000	Edith 'E' Johnson
1988	The Milagro Beanfield War	Flossie Devine
	Stormy Monday	Kate
	Working Girl	Tess McGill	Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
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	Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film
	Now and Then	Tina 'Teeny' Tercell
	Two Much	Betty Kerner
1996	Mulholland Falls	Katherine Hoover
1997	Lolita	Charlotte Haze
1998	Another Day in Paradise	Sid	Sant Jordi Award for Best Foreign Actress also for Crazy in Alabama
	Shadow of Doubt	Kitt Devereux
	Celebrity	Nicole Oliver
1999	Crazy in Alabama	Lucille Vinson	Sant Jordi Award for Best Foreign Actress also for Another Day in Paradise
	RKO 281	Marion Davies	Nominated — Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Miniseries or a Movie Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film
2000	Cecil B. Demented	Honey Whitlock
	Forever Lulu	Lulu McAfee	Released on DVD as Along for the Ride (2000)
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	Nominated — Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
	Shade	Eve
	Tempo	Sarah
2005	Heartless	Miranda Wells
2007	Viva Laughlin	Bunny Baxter	Supporting role, TV series
2010	Nip/Tuck	Brandie Henry	Recurring role, TV series

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Melanie Griffith

• Melanie Griffith at the Internet Movie Database
• Melanie Griffith at the Internet Broadway Database
• Melanie Griffith at Allmovie
• Melanie Griffith at Yahoo! Movies
• Griffin's weblog
• Melanie Griffith cast bio on The WB

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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