Melanie Griffith

Biography

The daughter of actress Tippi Hedren, the cool blonde protagonist of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" (1963) and "Marnie" (1964), Melanie Griffith made her film debut as the promiscuous neglected daughter of an actress in Arthur Penn's "Night Moves" (1975). She is nude at this site. That same year, she was Miss Simi Valley in Michael Ritchie's "Smile" before proceeding to specialize in playing precocious teens who were less innocent than they appeared.

A hectic private life and well-publicized substance abuse problems hamstrung Griffith's Hollywood career as an adult until she cleaned up and starred as porn actress Holly Body in Brian De Palma's "Body Double" (1984).

Impressed by her work in "Body Double", Jonathan Demme cast Griffith as Lulu/Audrey, the adventurous lead of "Something Wild" (1986). Mike Nichols' "Working Girl" (1988) solidified her stardom and earned her a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Griffith has been busy ever since, starring in "Pacific Heights" and De Palma's ill-fated "Bonfire of the Vanities" (both 1990) before co-starring with then-husband Don Johnson in the romantic drama, "Paradise" (1991).

In 1992, Melanie endured two back-to-back failures as she attempted to expand her screen image. She failed to interest the public with her performances as a legal secretary turned WWII spy in "Shining Through" (1992) as well as the role of a tough NYC cop in love with a Hassidic Jewish man in Sidney Lumet's "A Stranger Among Us".

She fell back upon her modern bombshell status to star in the remake of "Born Yesterday" (1993) with Johnson and John Goodman and "Milk Money" (1994). She fared better with the supporting role of Bruce Willis' wife in Robert Benton's "Nobody's Fool" (1995) and as Nick Nolte's wife in the 1950s period drama "Mulholland Falls" (1996).

Griffiths and Johnson divorced a second time and in 1996 she married Antonio Banderas, her co-star in the pallid comedy "Two Much" (1995). Further stretching her screen persona, the actress bravely took on the role of Charlotte Haze, the mother of the nymphet "Lolita" (1997) in Adrian Lyne's remake. Griffith, who in her youth could have played the title role, gained weight and perfectly embodied the shrill blowsy Charlotte.

Although she unsuccessfully attempted to find a small screen comedy, she landed a comedic role as a needy actress willing to trade sexual favors for an interview in Woody Allen's "Celebrity" (1998). But later that same year, Griffith delivered what is arguably her finest screen performance to date as a heroin user in "Another Day in Paradise". Co-star (and producer James Woods) handpicked her for the part, recognizing not only her ability to portray the character but the role's importance in repositioning her in the eyes of Hollywood. Although the production shoot was troubled, Griffith was mesmerizing as the mother figure in a band of low-rent criminals. She and Woods played off one another well, each eliciting the best in the other.

If she stumbled a bit as a dizzy aspiring actress in Banderas' directorial debut "Crazy in Alabama" (1999), Melanie Griffith once again delivered playing Marion Davies in "RKO 281" (HBO, (1999), an exaggerated and somewhat fictionalized behind-the-scenes look at the making of the 1941 classic "Citizen Kane". She followed that triumph with a turn as an unstable woman who seeks out an old sweetheart in "Loving Lulu" and played a movie star kidnapped by an aspiring indie filmmaker in John Waters' darkly comic "Cecil B Demented" (both 2000).

Pictures

Nude scene pics:
Fear City (1984)

Naked movie clip of:
Nobody's Fool (1994)