Antonio Banderas has always been a very approachable figure with the Spanish press, although his daughter’s wedding has been completely shielded. So too were his parents, the well-remembered José Domínguez Prieto, who was a customs commissioner and died in 2008, and Ana Bandera Gallego, a high school teacher, who died in 2017. Also known is his brother, Javier Banderas, who has stood out in nautical sports. However, Stella del Carmen Banderas’s paternal grandfather, Peter Griffith, is largely unknown to much of the public, although his figure was highly relevant.
First of all, it is worth underscoring that it is difficult to live in the shadow of a star like Tippi Hedren, his first wife, Hitchcock’s irreplaceable muse in titles such as The Birds and Marnie. They met in their tender youth when he was an aspiring advertising executive and she was beginning to establish herself as a film star. Their paths crossed in the series The Aldrich Family, where she played a guest role, and they fell in love.
A significant detail is that they obtained their marriage license in New York on October 24, 1951, the eve of Peter Griffith’s 18th birthday, who would later leave a solid service record in the Korean War. They married a year later and their first and only daughter, Melanie Griffith, was born on August 9, 1957. This happy news did not prevent the couple from crumbling and divorcing three years later.
Melanie Griffith’s mother remarried in 1954 to Noel Marshall, her agent and producer of three of her films. Her partner was a disaster and Tippi Hedren obtained an order of protection against her husband, whom she would eventually divorce in 1982. Three years later she married steelmaker Luis Barrenechea, with whom she also suffered emotionally before they reached four years together. Her accusations were tremendous: “He had everything I looked for in a man, except that he was an alcoholic and unbearable.” Nothing more to add.
The Children of Peter Griffith with His Second Wife
Peter Griffith’s second wife was the model Nanita Greene, mother of his other two children, Tracy Griffith, who was born in 1965, and Clay Griffith, who came into the world two years later. The former followed in her steps, Melanie Griffith’s half-sister, and had a brief acting career, but later decided to become a sushi chef, painter, and owner of a gallery in Alabama. Clay, for his part, is a production designer in film and has worked on movies such as Dolemite Is My Name, Elizabethtown, Almost Famous, and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.
In October 2020, the former model, Melanie Griffith’s stepmother, died, with whom she had always maintained a very close relationship. She bid farewell in a very affectionate way on her Instagram profile: “Goodbye, beautiful soul. Thank you for bringing my sister Tracy and my brother Clay into this world. I wouldn’t be complete without them. Thank you for the love you gave me.”
Stella del Carmen is very close to her father, Antonio Banderas.
His third wife, Marianne, ran a clothing store for a few years. Subsequently, he married Daryl Griffith, with whom he was married from 1980 to 1998. The fifth and last wife was Debra Meyer Boyd, whom he joined in 2000, shortly before his death, which occurred the following year at a hospital in Santa Fe, New Mexico, due to complications of emphysema he had suffered for years. A brain tumor was also mentioned, but the family kept everything very discreet. He was 67 years old.
From Peter Griffith’s professional résumé, who was four years younger than Tippi Hedren, we should note that he was an occasional actor and appeared in the films Halloween, under the direction of John Carpenter, Suspense and Road to Romance, the last two in the 1940s, when he was still a boy. After selling his New York advertising agency, he dedicated himself with notable success to real estate ventures and was also a rancher. An entrepreneur and born conquistador.
Melanie Griffith was at the Cannes Film Festival at the moment of her father’s death. She was attending a dinner in his honor and could not hold back tears upon learning the news. “It’s hard not to see the proud face of my father out there,” said the Oscar-nominated for Working Girl in her acceptance speech. “Somehow, I know you’re here, Dad, and I know your smile is huge, and, old cowboy, I know you’re up there asking me: ‘Why are you wearing that dress?,'” she said through sobs. Surely, at her daughter Stella del Carmen’s wedding, he has kept a strong presence in her thoughts. Also to Tippi, who suffers from dementia at 95 years old.
