Biography
The daughter of onetime fashion model
Tippi Hedren (
Marnie) and actor Peter Griffith, Melanie Griffith witnessed her parents' divorce as a toddler. She relocated from Manhattan to Los Angeles in the custody of her mom at the age of four, when
Alfred Hitchcock discovered Hedren and offered her a bid for movie stardom. Hedren soon married her second husband, film producer Noel Marshall, and relocated the entire family (including Griffith) to an Acton, California ranch, but at age 15 (c. 1972), Griffith broke out on her own. She started modeling professionally and struck up a live-in relationship with then-22-year-old
Don Johnson. Thus commenced a notoriously rocky, complex romance of four years. It temporarily ended when Griffith and Johnson wed and divorced several months later. In the mean time, Griffith kick-started her acting career with promising films including the
Arthur Penn-directed detective saga
Night Moves (1975) and the
Paul Newman mystery
The Drowning Pool (1975).
Problems with drugs and drinking followed Griffith and Johnson's divorce. It all came crashing down for the rising star in 1980, when she was hit by a car on Sunset Boulevard and seriously injured, with amnesia that lasted for several days and a fractured arm. Ultimately, she did survive, and launched a comeback in the 1980s, studying acting with the preeminent
Stella Adler. Griffith made a distinct impression as porn star Holly Body in Brian DePalma's thriller
Body Double (1984), and two years later received a wealth of critical acclaim for her role in
Something Wild, a
Jonathan Demme comedy. It cast her as a reckless spirit opposite an uptight
Jeff Daniels. In many ways, however, 1988 witnessed Griffith's breakthrough; that year, she appeared in
Robert Redford's
The Milagro Beanfield War and starred in the
Mike Nichols comedy
Working Girl. For her work in the latter film, as a young career woman trying to conquer the New York business world, Griffith earned an Oscar nomination and no small amount of critical respect. Unfortunately, she then endured a series of less well-received outings, including Brian DePalma's widely panned Tom Wolfe outing
The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990), the
John Schlesinger mystery
Pacific Heights (1990) and director
David Seltzer's period meller
Shining Through (1992).
While her acting career continued on its highs and lows, Griffith once again wed Johnson in 1989; their second union lasted until 1996. That same year, the actress married Spanish heartthrob
Antonio Banderas following a much-publicized romance. She went on to do some of her best work in years in 1997 as the puffy, tragically misguided Mrs. Haze in
Adrian Lyne's overlooked adaptation of
Lolita. She then signed on to portray drug dealer
James Woods's wife in the
Larry Clark-directed addiction drama
Another Day in Paradise (1998); unfortunately, the film failed to make a significant impact on critics. At about the same time, the actress portrayed a flippant movie star in
Woody Allen's
Celebrity (1998), and a nutty aspiring actress who totes her dead husband's head around in a hat box in the
Antonio Banderas-directed
Crazy in Alabama in 1999. Both films received negative-to-mediocre reviews.
Unfortunately, that marked the beginning of a decline in stature for Griffith. Though she continued signing for roles, subsequent projects were of somewhat lower profile. They included participation in the documentaries
Light Keeps Me Company (2000) and
Searching for Debra Winger (2002), as well as a critically-praised starring turn as a Hollywood prima-donna who falls prey to a guerilla filmmaking ensemble, in
John Waters's outrageous black comedy Cecil B. Demented (2000). The actress accepted roles in Eric Styles's romantic drama
Tempo (2003) and director Damian Nieman's ensemble crime thriller
Shade (2003); she also bowed on television as Bunny Baxter in the way-offbeat musical/thriller series
Viva Laughlin (2007) on CBS, which completely failed to connect with an audience and was cancelled after three episodes. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide