From the day she was born, Melanie Griffith appeared destined to dwell a wild life. The kid of actor Tippi Hedren and promoting government Peter Griffith, the longer term star shared her childhood dwelling with lions, tigers, and elephants stored as pets by her dad and mom, for a time. That stranger-than-fiction story finally grew to become the 1981 film Roar, by which level the then 24-year-old Griffith had appeared in eight movies and was already well-acquainted with what a harmful jungle Hollywood might be. Within the a long time that adopted, she would seem in dozens of movies, be nominated for a Greatest Actress Oscar for 1988’s Working Woman, and undergo three high-profile divorces. Preserve studying to find what has occurred to her since her days as an in-demand main girl.
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Griffith’s standing because the youngster of a star meant she received an early begin in Hollywood. After her breakthrough efficiency in Brian De Palma’s Physique Double in 1984, she went on to star in a variety of different movies all through the remainder of the last decade, together with One thing Wild, directed by Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs); the sci-fi cult favourite Cherry 2000; and Mike Nichols’ Working Woman, for which she obtained an Oscar nomination.
Within the Nineties, Griffith labored steadily, however appeared in a number of films that have been critically reviled and/or field workplace bombs, together with The Bonfire of the Vanities, Born Yesterday, Mulholland Falls, and Loopy in Alabama. She additionally appeared within the coming-of-age favourite Now and Then and because the mom of the title character in Adrian Lyne’s Lolita.
The 2000s noticed Griffith step again considerably from appearing on movie. She appeared in solely a handful of flicks, most of which went straight to video; she additionally voiced animated characters in Stuart Little 2 and the Discovering Nemo knockoff, A Turtle’s Story. Nevertheless, she discovered success onstage, handing over an acclaimed efficiency within the Broadway manufacturing of the musical Chicago in 2003.
In newer years, the actor starred alongside her now-ex-husband Antonio Banderas within the 2014 sci-fi thriller Automata, appeared in 2017’s The Catastrophe Artist, and had a small function within the 2020 comedy-drama Excessive Be aware, which stars her daughter, Dakota Johnson.
Griffith has been married 4 instances, to a few fellow actors. Her first marriage to Don Johnson in 1976 did not final the yr. Subsequent, she was married to Steven Bauer from 1981 to 1989, giving start to their son Alexander Bauer in 1985. She then married Don Johnson (proper) once more in 1989, and the couple welcomed daughter Dakota (middle) later that yr. After Griffith and Johnson divorced in 1996, she married Antonio Banderas that very same yr, their daughter Stella Banderas arriving quickly after.
Regardless of their well-known lineage, Griffith was apparently hesitant to permit her kids to enter the enterprise. Although Alexander and Stella have principally stayed offscreen, Dakota rose to worldwide stardom showing within the Fifty Shades of Gray franchise—however, as she informed The Hollywood Reporter in 2021, she needed to look forward to maturity to get her profession began, as a result of her mother and pop insisted she end college first.
Griffith has struggled with substance use, as soon as being required to pay an $80,000 positive for displaying up drunk to the Working Woman set. Two weeks after that 1988 incident, she entered rehab for the primary time.
The actor returned to rehab in 2000 after a neck damage led to an habit to ache tablets, and as soon as once more in 2009 after a snowboarding accident and extra ache tablets led to a relapse. She is now clear and sober. “I’m an alcoholic and an addict and all my life I’ve fought in opposition to this and I’ve carried out it effectively,” she informed Hola in 2010 (through Every day Mail).
Griffith has additionally admitted to a behavior of cosmetic surgery that received out of hand. “No, I did not [realize] till individuals began saying. ‘Oh my god, what has she carried out?!'” she informed Porter in 2017 (through Individuals). “I used to be so damage I went to a special physician and he began dissolving all of this [stuff] that this different girl physician had put in. Hopefully, I look extra regular now.”
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Griffith wasn’t but 20 the primary time she received married (to Don Johnson, eight years her senior) in 1976. And whereas she’s been in a number of relationships which have been within the public eye, today, the actor is blissful to stay unhitched. “Why not benefit from the individual and have an excellent time and do no matter—dwell collectively, do not dwell collectively—however marriage appears archaic to me,” she informed Us Weekly in 2015.
That stated, she stays shut along with her exes and considers all of them associates. “I like them with all my coronary heart,” she informed Individuals in 2020.
In the meantime, single life is serving the star effectively. “I have been taking this time to determine my future,” Griffith stated to Individuals. “I’m going to loads of on-line conferences for my restoration…After getting divorced and with my youngsters all grown, there’s limitless potentialities!”
A kind of potentialities is publishing a memoir, which she is presently writing.
She additionally devotes her time to her household, not too long ago sharing Instagram posts celebrating her mom’s 92nd birthday and Dakota’s function within the Oscar-nominated 2021 movie The Misplaced Daughter.
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