One actress whose appeal and exotic look never fail to draw crowds is Melanie Griffith. Griffith’s early exposure to the public was anticipated because she is the child of blonde bombshell actress Tippi Hedren. Her mother became well-known after being spotted in a commercial by director Alfred Hitchcock. She then became his inspiration and someone he genuinely liked.
Griffith made her acting debut in a commercial when she was just a year old. But everything in her life hasn’t been perfect. She had already experienced three divorces, struggled with alcoholism, and been in an auto accident. She, on the other hand, had a lavish upbringing in many ways. To start, she was nurtured around strange animals. Her mother brought a lion into their home so that she would get used to being around such creatures for a film production that eventually didn’t work out because young Griffith was harmed while filming.
I had two elephants, tigers, and lions while I was growing up, Griffith said.
Neil, the family’s resident lion, was photographed by Life Magazine while going about his everyday business. The lion was asleep in Griffith’s bed and the actress rested her head on its back.
It was incredibly stupid, as Griffith later explained.
Griffith began modeling when she was a young child, and when she was twelve years old, she appeared in her first film, Extra!, as the lead.
At the age of 14, she went on to be cast in The Harrad Experiment. She had just met her first love, the director Don Johnson. She was a minor and Johnson was 22, so their relationship was tense, but when she turned 15, her mother gave her permission to go in with him. When Johnson was eighteen, Griffith popped the question, and the two subsequently got married.
Griffith said, “I thought he was the most beautiful person I’d ever seen.”
Tippi Hedren, her mother, recalled: “They were two beautiful, wonderful people, and here, my daughter was showing signs that I had never seen in her before, with an older man, and there was just sheer panic.”
The couple wed in Las Vegas, and six months later their marriage fell apart.
Griffith appeared in a number of movies in the 1970s, including Joyride and Night Moves. In the movie Roar, a lion similarly hurt her. Her mother needed skin grafts and developed gangrene, whilst she needed plastic surgery because she was mauled close to the eye.
Griffith said at the time that the lioness “didn’t mean to hurt me.” I suddenly realized that after spending seven years growing up surrounded by lions, you must exercise caution. The Guardian claims that “you can never be sure you’re safe, and just a blow can pop your head like a ping pong ball.”
Griffith later starred in The Working Girl, Something Wild, and Body Double. She received an Academy Award nomination in 1989 for The Working Girl.
Griffith gave birth to Alexander in 1981, two years after her second marriage to Steven Bauer. After their marriage fell apart, the actress wed Don Johnson a second time and welcomed Dakota Johnson, who starred in Fifty Shades of Grey, as a daughter.
“You have to understand that we are tied, and I adore him,” Melanie Griffith said. Continuing, she said, “I will always be in love with [Don Johnson].” However, just because you love someone doesn’t mean you can always live with them.
As Griffith’s third husband, actor Antonio Banderas provided her children with their first solid father figure. Banderas remained an important figure in their lives even after he and their mother split up in 2014.
However, Banderas and Griffith remained close friends even after their breakup.
“I had almost no prior experience. Banderas said to AARP about Griffith’s children, “All of a sudden, I had a 6-year-old girl, a 10-year-old boy, and Stella came along almost immediately.” I exclaimed, “Oh my God!” But once they knew I was staying, the kids were alright. They needed solid ground to build on. I quickly started getting to know them, giving them safety, and eventually becoming their father.
In 2019 at an awards presentation, Dakota Johnson and Melanie Griffith presented Antonio Banderas with the Hollywood Actor Award trophy.
Johnson said in her speech, “I was incredibly lucky because I come from a family of numerous marriages.
I have an additional parent, who I’ve come to know through time is one of the most significant people in my life. My mother married a man when I was six years old, and he introduced our family to a whole new world of creativity and culture, along with one wonderfully magical little sister. He was an extremely strong light.
Dakota stated in her speech that “He loved my mother, my siblings, and me so big, so fiercely, and so loudly, that it would change all of our lives together.”
The good news is that she is in wonderful health and feels great right now. She started speaking out against the illness after finding out she had cancer and backed the programs at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
