From the day she was born, she seemed destined to live a wild life!
Melanie Griffith’s life has been a whirlwind of glamour, chaos, resilience, and reinvention. Born into Hollywood royalty as the daughter of actress Tippi Hedren, she seemed destined for a life in the spotlight. From childhood, cameras followed her, and in the decades that followed, her career soared while her personal life often unraveled under the glare of tabloids. Yet despite addiction struggles, car accidents, turbulent marriages, and the crushing pressure of fame, Griffith endured. At 65, she stands as both a survivor and a woman still writing her own story.
She was born August 9, 1957, in New York City to model-actor Peter Griffith and Tippi Hedren, who became a household name after starring in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. From the beginning, Melanie’s life was shaped by the strange, extravagant world of show business. Her childhood was far from ordinary. When her mother remarried producer Noel Marshall, the couple began a controversial film project involving lions. In preparation, they brought a full-grown lion named Neil into their Los Angeles home. Life magazine famously photographed Hedren lying across Neil’s back while young Melanie played nearby. For years, Melanie shared her home with lions, tigers, and even elephants, a surreal upbringing she would later call “stupid beyond belief.” Though she narrowly escaped injury as a child, she would later be mauled during the filming of Roar, a family project that left both her and Hedren badly hurt.
Her first brush with acting came early. Before she turned one, Griffith appeared in a commercial. At twelve, she landed her uncredited debut in Extra!. At fourteen, she met actor Don Johnson on the set of The Harrad Experiment. Johnson was 22, Melanie barely a teenager, but she fell in love instantly. “I thought he was the most beautiful person I’d ever seen,” she once said. Tippi Hedren initially panicked, worried about the age difference, but eventually relented. By 15, Melanie had moved in with Johnson. On her 18th birthday, they became engaged, and in 1976, they married in Las Vegas. Six months later, they divorced. Their story, however, was far from over—they would reunite in 1989 and marry again, only to split once more in 1996.
Her early film career took off in the 1970s with roles in Night Moves and Joyride. In 1981, while filming Roar, Melanie suffered a near-catastrophic injury when a lioness attacked her, leaving her face badly wounded and requiring plastic surgery. She recovered and pressed on, appearing in Body Double, Something Wild, and her career-defining performance in Working Girl. That role earned her an Academy Award nomination in 1989 and cemented her as one of Hollywood’s brightest stars of the decade. She had a natural sensuality and European-style magnetism that set her apart from most American actresses.
Her personal life was less steady. She married actor Steven Bauer in 1981, and together they had a son, Alexander, in 1985. Their marriage ended in 1989, and not long after, she reconnected with Don Johnson. In 1989, they welcomed a daughter, Dakota Johnson, who would later become a star in her own right. But Griffith and Johnson divorced again in 1996.
Dakota’s childhood was shaped by the instability of her parents’ relationships and Melanie’s ongoing battles with addiction. She moved frequently, attended multiple schools, and even started therapy at just three years old. She once described her youth as “consistently unmoored and discombobulated,” often struggling to find a sense of normalcy. Yet through it all, she was surrounded by film sets, directors, and actors, which inspired her eventual career.
In 1996, Melanie’s life changed dramatically when she married Spanish actor Antonio Banderas. The pair had met filming Two Much in 1995, both stuck in unhappy marriages at the time. Their attraction was immediate and undeniable. Banderas described Griffith as funny, generous, and radiant, and within a year they had tied the knot. That same year, their daughter Stella was born.
Banderas did more than become Melanie’s third husband. He also stepped into the role of stepfather for Alexander and Dakota, who had long craved stability. At first, the children were wary, uncertain how long he would remain. But Banderas proved himself. “They needed solid ground,” he later explained. “As soon as I realized that, I started establishing my relationship, giving them security, little by little doing the father thing.” For Dakota in particular, Banderas became the anchor she had been missing. She credits him with teaching her discipline and passion, lessons that helped her build her own acting career.
The bond between Banderas and his stepchildren grew so strong that Dakota eventually nicknamed him “Paponio,” a combination of “Papa” and “Antonio.” In 2019, when she presented him with the Hollywood Actor Award, Dakota described him as “one of the most influential people in my life” and “a bonus dad who changed everything.”
Though Melanie and Banderas divorced in 2014, their relationship remained unusually warm and respectful. Banderas still calls Melanie one of his best friends and refers to her children as his family. He has said often that his love for them did not end with the marriage.
Griffith’s later years brought new challenges. In 2010, she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Later, doctors discovered cancerous cells on her nose, forcing her to undergo surgery. The procedures left her with visible scars that she covered with bandages. For an actress whose face was her instrument, it was a frightening ordeal. Yet she faced it with resilience. “It’s a scary thing when you depend on your face for work,” she admitted, “but I realized I just had to put a Band-Aid on it and keep going.” Today, she is cancer-free and an outspoken advocate for research and awareness.
Now in her mid-sixties, Melanie Griffith has largely stepped away from acting. Her last major screen role came in 2020’s The High Note, where she appeared alongside Dakota. Instead, she has focused on her family, her health, and writing her memoir, a project expected to dive into the wild stories of her Hollywood life—from growing up with lions to her near-fatal accident on Roar, her battles with addiction, and her survival through decades of public scrutiny.
Despite a turbulent journey, Griffith remains admired for her strength and honesty. She has lived through scandals, three divorces, career highs and lows, and serious health battles. Through it all, she has held onto her sweetness, her resilience, and her ability to laugh at the absurdity of her own past. Looking at her now—still radiant, still present—you can’t help but smile. Melanie Griffith is living proof that Hollywood may bruise, but it doesn’t always break.