SECRETS OF HOLLYWOOD’S 60-YEAR DYNASTY
These close-knit leading ladies have experienced plenty of drama off set
When director Alfred Hitchcock terrified moviegoers with The Birds back in 1963, no one knew he would be spawning an acting dynasty that has entertained us for nearly 60 years.
Hitchcock’s leading lady Tippi Hedren, who went on to win a Golden Globe for her performance, became something of an “obsession” for the notoriously challenging film director.
Last month, Tippi’s granddaughter Dakota Johnson – an overnight sensation after starring in the Fifty Shades Of Grey franchise – opened up about the battles her grandmother and her superstar mum Melanie Griffith went through at the hands of the man who made Tippi famous.
“What happened with my grandmother was horrific,” she revealed, recounting how Hitchcock gifted a young Melanie a doll that looked exactly like Tippi in a toy coffin. “It’s alarming, dark and really, really sad for that little girl – really scary.”
Both Tippi and Melanie were vulnerable after going through Tippi’s painful divorce from Melanie’s father Peter Griffith in 1960. Sources tell Woman’s Day it’s likely why Tippi went on to marry her manager Noel Marshall after filming The Birds.
“She desperately needed the security,” says an insider.
Sadly, the marriage to Noel would end in a bitter divorce in 1982 and, three years later, Tippi wed steel mogul Luis
Barrenechea. It was another doomed union and the couple split after seven years, with Tippi saying, “He was everything I wanted in a man, except that he was an alcoholic.”
It was no wonder Tippi’s daughter became a Hollywood wild child. At the age of 17, Melanie, who was already living with boyfriend Don Johnson, shocked the world – and her mother – with her first major role in 1975’s Night Moves, where she appeared nude in several scenes.
In January 1976, Melanie married Don, only to divorce him seven months later. She would remarry the Miami Vice and Knives Out star in 1989, but they split again in 1996.
LOOKING FOR LOVE
There was husband number two, Scarface star Steven Bauer, in between, but like her mum, Melanie just “loves falling in love”, say her friends.
“Melanie, like Tippi, is very romantic and they love hard and hurt hard,” tells one pal.
Which is what happened in 2014, when Melanie announced she was divorcing the love of her life, Antonio Banderas, 61, after 18 years together.
Friends of the family confess
that Melanie and Antonio’s romance was put on a pedestal by Tippi and Dakota, with Antonio becoming a father figure for the young actress.
“It was like the fairytale prize they’d all been dreaming about, so when it all fell apart, it affected everyone,” says an insider. “Melanie will probably never marry again and as for Dakota, it took years before she could speak to him again.”
They eventually made peace in 2019, when Dakota presented him with a Hollywood Actor Award, telling the audience, “He loved my mother and my siblings and I so big, so fiercely and so loud that it would change all of our lives together.”
While both Melanie and Tippi have now shied away from romance, their experiences impacted Dakota’s outlook.
“My life is incredibly privileged, but we also struggled with internal family dynamics, situations and events that are so traumatic,” she says.
After several longterm relationships, Dakota met Coldplay frontman Chris Martin,
45, in 2017 and the pair are said to be tying the knot later this year.
As for the family’s matriarch, Tippi couldn’t be prouder of what her girls have achieved in life and in Tinseltown.
“They just learned from living with me,” she says. “And actually, my experiences with Hollywood were really wonderful, except for that Hitchcock incident.”
‘What happened with my grandmother was horrific’