Melanie Griffith (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

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.

Early life

Griffith was born in New York City to actress Tippi Hedren and producer, former actor, and advertising executive Peter Griffith. Her parents divorced when she was four years old, after which her father married 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.

Career

Griffith began work at just nine months old in a commercial and made her film debut as an extra in Smith! (1969). Her first credited roles were in Smile, The Drowning Pool, and Night Moves (all 1975), in which she did racy nude scenes at age 17.

Griffith's career gained momentum in 1984 when she played a porn actress 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 spunky secretary Tess McGill in the hit 1988 film Working Girl. 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 starring role was in the urban thriller Pacific Heights (1990) with Matthew Modine. She worked continuously throughout the 1990s, starring in many films including The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990), A Stranger Among Us (1992), Born Yesterday (1993), Milk Money (1994), Now and Then (1995), and Two Much (1996), where she co-starred with future husband Antonio Banderas.

Griffith received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in the successful TV movie Buffalo Girls (1995), alongside Anjelica Huston. In 1998 she appeared in Woody Allen's Celebrity with Kenneth Branagh and Leonardo DiCaprio. Later that year, she starred as a free-spirited heroin user in Another Day in Paradise (1998), a performance that some critics wrote was the best of her career.

In 1999, Griffith starred in Crazy in Alabama, a film that was directed by Banderas and produced by Greenmoon Productions, the company that she and Banderas formed together. In the film, Griffith played an eccentric woman who kills her husband and heads to Hollywood to become a movie star. Also in 1999, Griffith made her stage debut at the Old Vic in London, England, where she acted with Cate Blanchett in The Vagina Monologues. In the HBO film RKO 281, she played actress Marion Davies, and received an Emmy nomination for her portrayal.

Griffith's career cooled down in the early 2000s following her last major roles to date in the independent films Cecil B. Demented and Forever Lulu (aka Along for the Ride). In 2002, she voiced the character of Margalo the bird in Stuart Little 2. Since then, her appearances in films have been very infrequent and low-profile.

In 2003, Griffith made her Broadway debut playing Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago. Untrained in song and dance, she 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". Griffith's celebratory reviews made it a box office success. She returned to the stage in 2012 in a play that Scott Caan wrote titled "No Way Around but Through."

Griffith starred on the short-lived WB sitcom Twins (2005-06). Her career continued to suffer when her 2007 series Viva Laughlin was canceled after two episodes, and her 2012 television pilot This American Housewife (produced by Banderas) was not picked up by Lifetime. In the interim, Griffith guest-starred on Nip/Tuck and Hot in Cleveland.

In January 2012, Griffith was cast in the comedy film The Hot Flashes with her real-life friends Daryl Hannah (who also appeared with her in Two Much) and Brooke Shields. Filming began on February 23, but just five days later, Griffith pulled out of the production due to "creative differences."

Personal life

At age 14, Griffith began dating her mother's 22-year-old Harrad Experiment co-star, Don Johnson. The relationship culminated in a six-month marriage in 1976. Tatum O'Neal has alleged in her 2004 autobiography that around that time, she (then 12) and Griffith (then 18) had a sexual encounter in a Paris hotel room while high on opium and hashish.

In May 1982, Griffith married Steven Bauer, her co-star from the TV film She's in the Army Now. They have a son, Alexander, born on August 22, 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."

She checked into rehab in 1988. After becoming sober, she reunited with Johnson and remarried him in June 1989 when she was already five months pregnant. Their daughter, Dakota Johnson, was born on October 4, 1989. They separated in March 1994, reconciled later that year, but separated again in May 1995.

Griffith and Antonio Banderas began a relationship in May 1995 when they started filming Two Much. At that time, Banderas was married to Ana Leza. After their respective divorces were finalized, the couple married on May 14, 1996. Their daughter, Stella del Carmen Banderas Griffith, was born on September 24, 1996. In 2000, Griffith had her husband's first name "Antonio" encircled in a heart tattooed on her right shoulder. In 2002, the couple received the Stella Adler Angel Award for their extensive charity work.

Her father, Peter Griffith, died at age 67 on May 14, 2001.

Griffith returned to rehab in 2000 for a painkiller addiction. In August 2009, she returned to rehab again for what her publicist called "part of a routine plan." She emerged after a three-month stay and underwent surgery for skin cancer in December of that year.

Discussing Griffith"s treatment in rehab, Banderas said in April 2010, "The whole family took part, Stella included. I was there three times a week at a stretch, and we participated in group therapy with our daughter. It strengthened our relationship in many ways. We participated very directly, all of us." Griffith"s son Alexander and daughter Dakota were there, as was her former stepson, Jesse Johnson, and Griffith's mother, Tippi Hedren.

Filmography

Year	Title	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
1976	Once an Eagle	Jinny Massengale	TV mini-series
1977	The Garden	Young Girl
	One on One	The Hitchhiker
	Joyride	Susie
1978	Daddy, I Don't Like it Like This	Girl in Hotel	TV movie
1978	Steel Cowboy	Johnnie	TV movie
1981	Roar	Melanie
	Underground Aces	Lucy
	The Star Maker	Dawn Barnett Youngblood	TV movie
	She's in the Army Now	Pvt. Sylvie Knoll	TV movie
	Golden Gate	Karen	TV movie
1984	Body Double	Holly Body	National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated " Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture Nominated " New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress (2nd place)
1985	Fear City	Loretta
1985	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Girl	TV series (1 episode)
1986	Something Wild	Audrey Hankel aka Lulu	Nominated " Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1988	Cherry 2000	Edith 'E' Johnson	Straight to video
	The Milagro Beanfield War	Flossie Devine
	Stormy Monday	Kate
	Working Girl	Tess McGill	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress 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 Nominated " National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress (3rd place)
1990	Women and Men: Stories of Seduction	Lureen	TV movie
	In the Spirit	Hadley
	Pacific Heights	Patty Palmer
	The Bonfire of the Vanities	Maria Ruskin
1991	Paradise	Lily Reed
1992	Shining Through	Linda Voss
1992	A Stranger Among Us	Emily Eden
1993	Born Yesterday	Billie Dawn
1994	Milk Money	V
1994	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
	Shadow of Doubt	Kitt Devereux
	Celebrity	Nicole Oliver
1999	Crazy in Alabama	Lucille Vinson	Sant Jordi Award for Best Foreign Actress
1999	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
2000	Forever Lulu	Lulu McAfee	Released on DVD as Along for the Ride (2000)
2001	Tart	Diane Milford
2002	Searching for Debra Winger	Herself
2002	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	TV movie
2007	Viva Laughlin	Bunny Baxter	TV series (2 episodes)
2010	Nip/Tuck	Brandie Henry	TV series (1 episode)
2011	Hot in Cleveland	Herself	Episode: "Sisterhood of the Traveling SPANX"
2012	American Housewife	Leila	Lifetime original series (Unaired)
2012	Dino Time	Tyra	voice

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