Melanie Griffith’s life has been quite a rollercoaster. The iconic actress, daughter of actress Tippi Hedren, made her debut on the screen at age 12 – and since then, she’s starred in several big productions.
While Melanie Griffith’s career kept rolling, her private life was very much in focus. She’s been married three times – including to Antonio Banderas – been in rehab, and raised three children.
Melanie Griffith’s children from her first two marriages – Alexander Bauer and Dakota Johnson – had a pretty rough upbringing, especially considering that they had to go through having a mother who was in a terrible place at the time…
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Melanie Griffith really had something special in the ’80s. She was sensual and captivating in a way that European actresses sometimes are, but American actresses usually aren’t. Plus, she had acting skills, even if I don’t think Melanie ever fully recognized her own talent.
I really enjoyed her performances in the movies Working Girl and Paradise!
She was born on August 9, 1957, in New York City to parents Peter Griffith and superstar actress Tippi Hedren, who is best known for her role in the classic Hitchcock film, The Birds.
Looking back, Griffith’s life has been quite amazing. But it’s also had its sad moments. The well-known actress, famous for her roles as strong yet sexy characters, has faced a car accident, struggled with alcohol issues, and experienced three divorces.
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From the very beginning, she was under the pressure of living in the spotlight. Her mother, Tippi, was a superstar, and her childhood was lavish in a way that was really unique – even for Hollywood.
When Griffith was just seven years old, her mother married agent and producer Noah Marshall. After returning from a trip to Africa, they decided to create a movie about lions. An animal trainer suggested a cool idea: to understand the big cat better, they could bring one into their home.
So, Melanie Griffith had a pet lion when she was growing up, living with it in the 1970s at her home in Los Angeles, California.
“I grew up with lions, tigers, and two elephants,” Griffith shared.
The pet lion, named Neil, was part of the family. Life Magazine captured this amazing story, featuring photos of Hedren lounging on Neil’s back. The lion even snuggled under blankets in Melanie Griffith’s bed.
“It was incredibly foolish,” Griffith later remarked.
Although she never had any problems with Neil, years later, in a different situation, things didn’t turn out so well.
Melanie Griffith was in her first commercial before she even turned one year old. She kept doing commercials and modeling for a few years, and when she was 12, she made her first appearance in Extra!, even though she didn’t get credited for it.
When she was 14, she acted in The Harrad Experiment, and that’s where she met her first big crush. Griffith met actor Don Johnson while filming, and they fell deeply in love. But their age difference was a bit of a big deal. Don Johnson was 22, which made him eight years older than Melanie, but their feelings for each other didn’t hold them back.
“I thought he was the most beautiful person I’d ever seen,” Griffith said.
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Her mother feared for the two because of her age but eventually gave in. At 15, Melanie Griffith moved in with Don Johnson, and on her 18th birthday, the two got engaged.
”They were two beautiful, wonderful people, and here, my daughter was showing signs that I had never seen before in her, with an older man, and there was just sheer panic,” her mother, Tippi Hedren, recalled.
Griffith and Johnson tied the knot in Las Vegas in 1976. And, after just six months of marriage, the two split. However, they would rekindle their romance later on, exchanging vows a second time in 1989.
Melanie Griffith started her promising acting career in the 1970s, starring in films such as Night Moves and Joyride.
In 1981, Melanie Griffith starred in the film Roar. Even though her mother and stepfather raised lions to shoot a film, things turned out ugly on the set of Roar. It was very dangerous being in front of the camera, and Melanie got injured.
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She was attacked near her eye, and she was scared she might lose her sight. She required plastic surgery, while her mom, Tippi Hedren, got gangrene and needed skin grafts, as mentioned in an article in the New Yorker.
According to The Guardian, Melanie Griffith shared that the lioness “didn’t mean to hurt me. After spending seven years with the lions, I forgot that you have to be careful. You can never be sure you’re safe, and just one hit can pop your head like a ping pong ball.”
Melanie Griffith got through that frightening experience. She kept acting in movies, but she avoided working with live wild animals. She starred in Body Double, Something Wild, and The Working Girl, among others, with the last one getting her an Academy Award nomination in 1989.
In the 1980s, Melanie Griffith also fell in love for the second time. She married actor Steven Bauer in 1981, and four years later, they had a son named Alexander Bauer.
Their marriage lasted until 1989 when they divorced – but Griffith found love with Don Johnson again. They divorced once more in 1996, after having a daughter, Dakota Johnson, who is now an actress, in 1989.
“You have to understand that we have a connection, and I love him,” Melanie Griffith said, adding:
“I will always love [Don Johnson]. But just because you love someone doesn’t mean you can live with them.”
Dakota Johnson has become a well-known actress, appearing in Fifty Shades of Grey and The Social Network. However, her childhood was quite difficult because her parents got divorced when she was just seven years old. She moved around a lot, attended many different schools, and was even homeschooled for some time.
From a young age, she spent a lot of time with her parents on movie sets. This experience inspired her to pursue acting, which she eventually did.
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Despite her success, Dakota Johnson’s childhood was also filled with challenges due to her family situation. Because of this, she began going to therapy when she was only three years old.
“The whole shebang,” Dakota Johnson shared with Vogue. “All the help you can get.”
”I was so consistently unmoored and discombobulated, I didn’t have an anchor anywhere, I never learned how to learn the way you’re supposed to as a kid. I thought, ‘Why do I have to go to school on time? What’s the point when you’re living in Budapest for six months while your stepdad films Evita and you go to school in your hotel room?’ I was a disaster, and I thought for so long that there was something wrong with my brain. Now I realize that it just works in a different way.”
Dakota Johnson’s childhood could’ve become the thing that put her on the wrong foot. However, a new person soon entered her life, who changed everything. Just as she mentioned, she needed an anchor. And that was precisely what she got in her stepfather, Antonio Banderas.
In 1996, the same year that Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson broke up, Banderas also got divorced from Ana Leza, who he had been married to for nine years. He had always looked up to Melanie Griffith after watching her in Gone Girl and seeing her on the red carpet at the Academy Awards.
“The first time I went to the Academy Awards after we got a nomination for Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, we stepped onto the red carpet, and I spotted this blonde woman. I recognized her because I had seen her in movies, but I couldn’t remember her name at that moment,” Banderas shared with Vulture.
I said to [director Pedro Almodóvar], ‘Who is she? Who is she? What’s her name?’ Pedro replied, ‘That’s Melanie Griffith!’ I exclaimed, ‘That’s it. Oh my God.’ Six years later, I ended up marrying her.
They first met while making the comedy movie Two Much in 1995, and they had something important in common. Both were not happy in their marriages, and Banderas and Griffith understood each other’s feelings.
Antonio Banderas felt a strong attraction to Melanie Griffith while they were working together. He thought she was funny, kind, sweet, and beautiful. After filming Two Much, they kept in touch. In May 1996, they got married and had a daughter named Stella later that same year.
Not only did Antonio Banderas become a dad to Stella, but he also became a stepdad to Alexander, who is from Melanie’s second marriage to Steven Bauer, and to Dakota Johnson.
For both Alexander and Dakota, Antonio Banderas was really important because they finally had a stepdad who was always there for them.
At first, Banderas mentioned that it was tough for the kids to accept him since they weren’t sure how long he would be around.
“I had no experience at all. Suddenly, I found myself with a 6-year-old girl, a 10-year-old boy, and then Stella came along right after,” he shared with AARP. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God!’ But once the kids understood that I was there for the long haul, they were okay. They needed a stable environment to grow in. Once I figured that out, I began to build my relationship with them, providing security, and gradually taking on the father role.
Dakota and Alexander realized that Antonio Banderas was not just a temporary figure. He stepped up as their stepfather and supported them in every way he could.
For Dakota, this was really significant. Her childhood had been filled with stress and uncertainty. With Banderas, she found a stepfather who taught her a lot, including what “true passion and discipline” really means.
In 2011, he shared that the kids call him “Paponio,” which is a blend of “Papa” and “Antonio.”
At an award ceremony in 2019, Antonio Banderas was given the Hollywood Actor Award, and Dakota Johnson along with Melanie Griffith handed him the trophy.
“I come from a family with many marriages, and I feel really lucky,” Johnson mentioned during her speech.
“I got a bonus dad who I realized, over time, is actually one of the most important people in my life. When I was six, my mom married a man who brought a bright light, a whole new world of creativity and culture, and a wonderfully magical little sister into our family.”
“He loved my mom, my siblings, and me so much, so fiercely and loudly, that it changed all of our lives together,” Dakota continued in her speech.
The connection between Antonio Banderas and his stepchildren remained strong even after he and Melanie Griffith divorced in 2014.
Even though Melanie Griffith and Antonio are no longer married, their family bond will always be strong. Currently, Banderas is dating Nicole Kimpel. But whenever he is in Los Angeles, he makes sure to spend time with his stepchildren and ex-wife.
The divorce in 2014 was not dramatic at all, which his stepchildren were very thankful for, Banderas shared.
He also said that he will always treasure the time he spent with Melanie and that he will always love her. And when it comes to his stepdaughter, Dakota Johnson, he feels like a very proud biological father.
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“I think back to those years as really lively and super nice. Even though I’m not married to Melanie anymore, she still feels like family to me. She’s probably one of my closest friends, if not the best friend I have. My family includes Dakota [Johnson], Little Estella, and Alexander,” Antonio Banderas shared with Vulture in 2019.
“I met her when she was just five years old,” he continued. “I watched her grow up every step of the way. I’m really proud of her. I saw her recently in Toronto, and she looks amazing — just like I said on social media when I posted a picture of us together, I wrote, ‘My radiant Dakota.’”
At 65, Melanie Griffith is enjoying being single. Her last movie role was in 2020, where she had a small part and acted with her daughter Dakota in The High Note.
Now, she spends her time with family, and according to BestLife, Melanie is working on her memoir. There’s likely a lot to write about – including her fight against cancer.
The actress was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2010, and eight years later, she shared that she had cancer.
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Doctors had to take out a cancerous cell from her nose, and the whole situation was really hard on Melanie.
“It’s a scary thing when you’re an actress and you depend on your face for work,” she told InStyle and added:
“But I realize I have to put a Band-Aid on it, and it’s fine. I just look like a dork.”
Fortunately, everything turned out okay in the end – Melanie is now a strong supporter of cancer awareness and also helps out at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
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You can say what you want about Melanie’s looks and her turbulent life, but she does seem to have a really sweet soul!
