Melanie Griffith

Season 7, Episode 707

Original Airdate: July 15, 2001

Born August 9, 1957 in New York City to actress Tippi Hedren and Peter Griffith, Melanie made her acting debut in 1975 in Night Moves. By that time she was already divorced from actor Don Johnson, whom she met in 1973 while he was costarring with her mother in The Harrad Experiment.

At age 23, Griffith was hit by a car on Sunset Boulevard. Medics say she would have been killed if she hadn't been so drunk. At age 24, a lioness clawed her face on a movie set.

But, even with her misfortune in her early years, Griffith was frequently working. There were lots of kewpie doll roles for the young actress with the girlish voice, including Smile (1975), The Drowning Pool (1976) One on One (1977) Joyride (1977) and Roar (1981). She struggled with substance-abuse problems but got back on track in the 80s.

Griffith received critical acclaim in Body Double (1984). Her performance as the adventurous Lulu in Something Wild (1986) was eye opening. And with an Oscar nomination for her starring role in Mike Nichol's film Working Girl (1988), Griffith was propelled into stardom.

Griffith kept working in films such as Stormy Monday (1988), and Pacific Heights (1990) and The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990). During Bonfire of the Vanities, she disappeared halfway through production in order to have her breasts enlarged, causing continuity problems.

In 1989, Griffith remarried Don Johnson and appeared with him in Paradise (1991). They were on again off again for seven years, divorcing for the second time in 1996. During that time Griffith starred in films including, A Stranger Among Us (1992), Shining Through (1992), Born Yesterday (1993), Milk Money (1994), Now and Then (1995), and Mulholland Falls (1996).

In May of 1996 Griffith married Antonio Banderas, and the couple welcomed their daughter, Stella del Carmen, the following September. Since then, Griffith's career has taken an eclectic turn. She appeared as a movie star in Woody Allen's Celebrity (1998) and in John Waters' Cecil B. Demented (2000).

She played a junkie prostitute in the gritty indie drama Another Day in Paradise (1998). And she starred in husband Banderas' directorial debut Crazy in Alabama (1999), a 60s era tale of a spirited Southern bombshell. She also works as spokesperson for Revlon cosmetics, and regularly updates her website, www.melaniegriffith.com.