MELANIE GRIFFITH - MY LIFE IN 10 Pictures

GROWING UP the daughter of The Birds star Tippi Hedren, Melanie Griffith confessed she "didn't want to be an actress at all."

Seeing her mother get made up and not being allowed on set, "I guess I kind of resented it." But that all changed after she landed a small role in 1975's Night Moves. "After I started filming, I loved it." As she rose in Hollywood, what she didn't love was attention, fueled by marriages to actors Don Johnson, Steven Bauer and Antonio Banderas, as well as her struggle with addiction. "I wasn't like a drunk-on-the-floor, out-of-it person. I didn't do some things I probably should have done, but mostly I was there for my kids." And it's her three children - Alexander, Dakota and Stella that she's taken the most pride in. Now, Melanie, who turns 65 on Aug. 9, seems content to enjoy all that her family has to offer. "I'm not desperate anymore or feeling weird about myself because I'm not working. I'm older and wiser, and there's a lot more to life."