If you don’t recognize her from How to Be Single or Bad Times at the El Royale, you will most definitely recognize her from the Fifty Shades of Grey series. Of course, we’re referring to the great Dakota Johnson, a multitalented actress whose talent knows no bounds. The 10-year-old Texas native made her acting debut with a small part in the 1999 dark comedy Crazy in Alabama, which also starred her mother, Melanie Griffith, as Lucille Vinson, Peter Joseph “Peejoe” Bullis’ eccentric aunt. Johnson started applying for roles after realizing she had a natural talent for acting, and she eventually got a small part in The Social Network (2010).
Johnson made a name for herself in 2015 as the reluctantly submissive Anastasia Steele against Jamie Dornan’s power-hungry billionaire-dominant Christian Grey in the live-action adaption of E. L. James’ racy novel Fifty Shades of Grey. Dakota Johnson was nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award in 2016 for her performance as Anastasia. She earned fame in the supernatural horror movie Suspiria (2018) and the psychological thriller The Lost Daughter (2021), both directed by Jake Gyllenhaal’s older sister, Maggie Gyllenhaal. From then, her career only continued to rise to even higher heights. There has to be a source for all of this brilliance, and Maggie Griffith and Don Johnson must be incredibly proud.
Who are Maggie Griffith and Don Johnson?
Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith both set the road for their daughter to follow in their acting careers. Johnson, 73, may be best known for his role as James “Sonny” Crockett in the 1980s television series Miami Vice, for which he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and won a Golden Globe. A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was awarded to Johnson in 1996, an accomplishment that is now highly regarded. He has starred in timeless classics such as A Boy and His Dog (1975), Tin Cup (1996), Machete (2010), and Django Unchained (2012), but contemporary audiences will remember him most for playing the obnoxious husband of Jamie Lee Curtis’ Linda Drysdale in Rian Johnson’s sweeping murder-mystery Knives Out. But Johnson isn’t limited to just that. He is also a skilled singer-songwriter, and his albums Heartbeat (1986) and Let It Roll were both successful. Johnson will play as-yet-unspecified roles in the upcoming thriller Rebel Ridge, action movie High Heat, and independent comedy movie A Little White Lie (2023).