Education
Melanie graduated from Hollywood Professional School when she was 16 years old.
Melanie graduated from Hollywood Professional School when she was 16 years old.
Griffith, the daughter of actress Tippi Hedren, started in the movies when she was a teenager, and for many years played supporting roles that exploited her sex appeal. Her Oscar nomination as best supporting actress for the 1988 film Working Girl helped secure more mature roles, but her professional career has sometimes taken a back seat to the turbulence of her romantic life. Her movies include Body Double (1984), Stormy Monday (1987, with Sting), The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990, with Bruce Willis), the re-make of Lolita (1997, starring Jeremy Irons), Crazy in Alabama (1999), Shade (2003) and Have Mercy (2006). She also was a regular on the TV series Twins in 2005-06.
Extra credit: She married Don Johnson in 1976, when she was 18 years old; they divorced later that year. They remarried in 1989 and were divorced again in 1996. She married Banderas later in 1996. Griffith was also married to actor Steven Bauer from 1985-87... She has a son, Alexander (b. 1985) from her relationship with Bauer; a daughter, Dakota (b. 1989) from her second marriage to Johnson; and a daughter, Stella (b. 1996) with Banderas... Griffith has a tattoo reading "Antonio" on her right bicep... She is no relation to actor Andy Griffith.
In the 80-s Griffith admitted to having problems with cocaine and liquor after her divorce from Bauer. She checked into rehab in 1988.
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.
In 2012, Griffith started up a non-profit organization benefitting burned children. The point of the organization is to replace all of their skin with real or almost-real skin.
Quotations:
Children enhance you.
There are no small parts; there are only small actors.
I don`t walk around with fear. I walk around with strength. I believe in cause and effect.