Melanie Griffith (Melanie Griffith) - filmography, biography and personal life (photo)

Melanie Griffith, an American actress, was born in New York on August 9, 1957. Melanie's mother, the famous Hollywood actress Tippi Hendren, father - actor Peter Griffith, who in his career starred in only one film, "Halloween" in 1978. Father Melanie died in 2001 at the age of 67, and the mother, who recently turned 84 years old, lives and lives up to now.

Film-making

Actress Melanie Griffith, whose biography is worthy of being inscribed in the Guinness Book of Records, made her debut in cinema at the age of 9 months. It was just an advertising video, but as they say - "it's a bad start". And as for trouble, Melanie was just a "poor girl" in her childhood and youth. And after the coming of age she gradually passed into the image of a young woman "with whom you do not get bored."

First roles

In 1975, Melanie Griffith, at the invitation of the director Arthur Penn, starred in the detective "Night moves." This film can rightly be considered her debut in the movie, the role was sufficiently informative and required a certain actor's skill. And the actress could continue her climbing the career ladder, if not addicted to drugs. At first it was grass, marijuana and hemp, then cocaine and ended up all dependent on heroin.

Drugs

In 1982, Melanie was hit by a car and it happened because of drug intoxication. In the police report it was written - Griffith and drugs are to blame. It seems that the career of a movie star could already be crossed. Directors either turned away, or looked at Melanie with caution. Nobody wanted to risk, to assert the role of a drug addict in Hollywood was somehow not accepted. Dependence lasted almost ten years, Griffith was shot in minor episodes thanks to the support of her star mother. The films of Melanie Griffith of that period were of no value.

Return to life

Then Melanie met with director Brian De Palma and in some miraculous way her addiction began to decline and the woman gradually came back to normal. The director believed in a successful outcome and approved Griffith for the main role in the film "Double of the body." All Hollywood, holding its breath watched what was happening, everyone was waiting for the failure of the picture with a fairly large budget of 10 million dollars. But Melanie did not disappoint, largely due to the humanity of the director, her trust, she won her predilection and broke up with drugs. The actress brilliantly played Holly Bodie, the night dancer, the film took place, and for Griffith the road to the next picture called "Wild Thing" opened, to the role of Audrey Hankel, which became a star for Melanie.

Best Movies

In 1986, Melanie Griffith starred in Jonathan Demme's Wild Thing. The film can be called adventure, as the plot is built just on the journey of heroes, Lulu and banker Charles Driggs, from New York to Pennsylvania. In addition to the unusualness of what is happening to Charles Driggs, they are on the way to meet the former husband Lulu Ray Sinclair. He just got out of prison and is full of the desire to deal with everyone and everyone. And here he finds himself under the hot hand of a companion of his ex-wife. The fight begins, the police come. Lulu disappears, and Driggs, who has already fallen in love with her, is trying to find the girl. There are no chances, and desperate Charles, having lost all hope, visits the cafe, where he met Lulu. And - oh, a miracle ...!

Two years later, in the pavilions of the film company "20th Century Fox", the shooting of the film "The Business Girl" began on the screenplay of Kevin Wade. Director Michael Nichols confirmed the main roles of Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver and Melanie Griffith, and as it turned out, he was not mistaken in the choice of actors, it was difficult to imagine a more harmonious team. Thirty-year-old Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith), an ambitious, very capable secretary in a large firm, is concerned about her too slow advancement on the career ladder. She tries to take advantage of the temporary absence of the headmistress Catherine Parker (Sigourney Weaver) and take her place. The most complicated vicissitudes in the office ultimately lead to success.

For the role of Tess, the actress received the Golden Globe Award and the Oscar nomination.

Antonio Banderas

The year 1995 was held for Melanie Griffith under the familiarity with Antonio Banderas, for whom she subsequently married. They met on the set, where the shooting of the film "Two is too" directed by Fernando Trueb took place. Banderas played the main male role, the loser-debtor Art Dodge, who does not know how to get out of the situation, and Melanie played the female lead role, Betty Kerner. The film had no success, but the acquaintance of Melanie and Antonio ended more than successfully, they got married.

Sometimes Melanie Griffith participates in television projects and does it successfully, as for example by accepting an invitation in 1999 for a role in the television movie "Project 281", the actress received the Emmy Award as best performer of the supporting role. It can be said that Melanie Griffith devotes all her time to television work free from film projects. Most of all, she likes that the impact on television projects can be seen right away and do not have to wait for years, as it happens in the film industry.

Failure

For the very Melanie Griffith remember the role of Charlotte Haze, the aging mother of Lolita in the movie "Lolita", based on the novel of the same name, Vladimir Nabokov. The picture was released in 1997 and immediately failed. Prokatchikov did not want to take a questionable film, and those who took it, immediately burned out, because the viewer did not go. The box office barely managed to reach one million dollars with a budget of 58 million dollars.

Year 1998 was the most productive for the actress, Melanie starred this year in five feature films: "Prostitute's Feast", "Screech", "Conspiracy", "Paradise" and "Celebrity." Then followed a series of films in which the actress manifested her neurasthenism, capricious, without any reason became aggressive. During this period films were made: "Mad Cecil", "Fellows", "Light lives with me".

Musicals

In 2002, the film "Artful Hands" was released, about card cheaters. Melanie played the role of Eva, a kind of "podsadnoy duck," whose duties included the psychological processing of the client. The girl, with the help of her untold beauty, distracts the player, planned for the victim, seduces him, and he, thus, becomes an easy prey to the sharper. In the center of the plot is a conspiracy of a sharper with a gangster, aimed at overplaying a large player with money.

In 2003, Melanie tried herself in a new genre. She played the role of Roxy in the musical "Chicago". Shortly before this actress has passed a course of training in vocal and choreography. The natural artistry helped her to master the basics of the operetta, and Melanie performed quite successfully on stage. It is interesting that Antonio Banderas also decided to follow this path and took part in the musical "Nine", but in another theater located nearby. For Griffith, her endeavor resulted in the provision of a theater critic column in The New York Times, and Banderas received nothing, he simply congratulated Melanie on success.

Personal life

The personal life of Melanie Griffith is quite diverse, the actress married four times. The children of Melanie Griffith, two boys and one girl, have already grown up and live on their own.

Her first husband was an American actor and singer Don Johnson, for whom Griffith performed twice, in 1976 and in 1989. The first attempt to create a family ended in a divorce in the same year 76, and the second time the marriage lasted for seven years, but also ended in divorce in 1996.

Melanie married an actor of Cuban origin Stephen Bauer in 1980, gave birth to his son Alexander in 1985, and divorced his wife in 1987.

Her current husband Antonio Banderas met the actress when she was in a second marriage with Don Johnson, whom she immediately left. Banderas and Melanie Griffith still live together.

Children from Griffith are from all three husbands, Stella del Carmen Banderas Griffith (born in 1996), Dakota Mae Johnson (born in 1989) and Alexander Griffith Bauer (born in 1985). Daughter Melanie Griffith Stella decided to follow in the footsteps of her mother and become an actress.