Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster (born November 19, 1962) is an American actress, film director, producer as well as being a former child actress.
Foster began acting in commercials at three years of age, and her first significant role came in the 1976 film Taxi Driver as the preteen prostitute Iris for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Also that year, she starred in the cult film The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1989 for playing a rape survivor in The Accused. In 1991, she starred in The Silence of the Lambs as Clarice Starling, a gifted FBI trainee, assisting in a hunt for a serial killer. This performance received international acclaim and her second Academy Award for Best Actress. She received her fourth Academy Award nomination for playing a hermit in Nell (1994). Other popular films include Maverick (1994), Contact (1997), Panic Room (2002), Flightplan (2005), Inside Man (2006), The Brave One (2007), and Nim's Island (2008).
Foster's films have spanned a wide variety of genres, from family films to horror. In addition to her two Academy Awards she has won two BAFTA Awards for three films, two Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a People's Choice Award, and has received two Emmy nominations.
Target of fan obsession
John Hinckley, Jr. became obsessed with Foster after watching Taxi Driver a number of times, and stalked her while she attended Yale, sending her love letters to her campus mail box and even talking to her on the phone. On March 30, 1981, he attempted to assassinate U.S. President Ronald Reagan (shooting and wounding Reagan and three others) and claimed his motive was to impress Foster, then a Yale freshman. The media stormed the Yale campus in April "like a cavalry invasion", and followed Foster relentlessly.
Another man, Edward Richardson, followed Foster around Yale and planned to shoot her, but decided against it because she "was too pretty. This all caused intense discomfort to Foster and reporters have constantly been warned in advance not to bring up the subject in front of her, as she has been known to walk out of interviews if Hinckley's name is even mentioned
Personal life
Foster has two older sisters, Lucinda "Cindy" Foster (b. 1954), Constance "Connie" Foster (b. 1955), and an older brother, Lucius Fisher "Buddy" Foster (b. 1957). During the filming of both Taxi Driver and The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, Connie was her stand-in. Buddy Foster had his own career for several years appearing in regular spots on television shows such as Hondo and Mayberry, R.F.D. Foster and her brother have been estranged for many years. In 1997, he wrote a book titled Foster Child in which he stated "I have always assumed Jodie was gay or bisexual. In the book, he writes that she was conceived in her father's office three years after their parents divorced when their mother went to him for child support. He also claims that her name was changed from "Alicia" to "Jodie" because it was a code "Jo D" for their mother's partner, Josephina Dominguez. Jodie Foster called the book:
“ A cheap cry for attention and money filled with hazy recollections, fantasies and borrowed press releases. Buddy has done nothing but break our mother's heart his whole life.
Foster is intensely private about certain aspects of her personal life, notably her sexual orientation, which has been the subject of speculation.
Foster has two sons: Charles Foster (b. July 20, 1998) and Christopher "Kit" Foster (b. September 29, 2001). Foster gave birth to both children, but has not revealed the identity of the children's father(s).
Career
Child star
Foster made nearly 50 film and television appearances before she attended college. She began her career at age three as a Coppertone Girl in a television commercial and debuted as a television actress in a 1968 episode of Mayberry R.F.D. She was managed by her mother. In 1969, she appeared in an episode of Gunsmoke, where she was credited as "Jody Foster". She is also credited as "Jodi Foster" for her 1970 Daniel Boone role and credited as "Jodie Foster" for her 1970 Adam-12 role. Although not a regular on The Courtship of Eddie's Father, she appeared from time to time as Eddie's friend Joey Kelly. She made her film debut in the 1970 TV movie Menace on the Mountain and was featured as Tallulah in Bugsy Malone in 1976. As a child, Foster made a number of Disney movies, including Napoleon and Samantha (1972) and One Little Indian (1973), and she continued to star in Disney films into her early teens. On television, she appeared in an episode of The Partridge Family titled "The Eleven-Year Itch", co-starred with Christopher Connelly in the 1974 TV series Paper Moon and alongside Martin Sheen in the 1976 cult film The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane. As a teenager, Foster made several appearances on the French pop music circuit as a singer. Commenting on her years as a child actress, which she describes as an "actor's career", Foster has said that "it was very clear to me at a young age that I had to fight for my life and that if I didn't, my life would get gobbled up and taken away from me. She hosted Saturday Night Live at age 14, making her the youngest person to host at that time until Drew Barrymore hosted at the age of seven. She also said,
"I think all of us when we look back on our childhood, we always think of it as somebody else. It's just a completely different place. But I was lucky to be around in the '70s and to really be making movies in the '70s with some great filmmakers – the most exciting time, for me, in American Cinema. I learned a lot from some very interesting artists — and I learned a lot about the business at a young age, because, for whatever reason, I was paying attention; so it was kind of invaluable in my career.
Early life
Foster was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of Evelyn "Brandy" Ella (née Almond) and Lucius Fisher Foster III. Her father, a decorated Air Force lieutenant-colonel turned real estate broker, came from a wealthy background and left his wife before Jodie was born. Evelyn supported Jodie by working as a film producer. After appearing as a child in several commercials, Foster made her first credited TV appearance on The Doris Day Show. Her first film role was in the 1970 television movie Menace on the Mountain, which was followed by several Disney productions.
Foster attended a French-language prep school, the Lycée Français de Los Angeles, and graduated in 1980 as the valedictorian. She frequently stayed and worked in France as a teenager, and she still speaks the language fluently without accent. She attended Yale University, and was a member of Calhoun College and Manuscript Society. She graduated magna cum laude, earning a bachelor's degree in literature in 1985. She was scheduled to graduate in 1984 but the shooting of then-President Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley, Jr., in which Hinckley's fascination with Foster created unwanted adverse publicity for her, caused her to take a semester's leave of absence from Yale. She later gave the Class Day speech at her alma mater in 1994 and received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the university in 1997.
Adult career
Unlike other child stars such as Shirley Temple or Tatum O'Neal, Foster successfully made the transition to adult roles, but it was not without initial difficulty, as several of the films in her early adult career were financially unsuccessful. These included The Hotel New Hampshire, Five Corners, and Stealing Home. She had to audition for her role in The Accused. She won the part and the first of her two Golden Globes and Academy Awards and a nomination for a BAFTA Award as Best Actress for her role as a rape survivor. She starred as FBI trainee Clarice Starling in the 1991 thriller The Silence of the Lambs, for which she won her second Academy Award and Golden Globe, and won her first BAFTA Award for Best Actress. This "sleeper" film marked a breakthrough in her career, grossing nearly $273 million in theaters and becoming her first blockbuster.
Filmography
List of acting credits in film
Year Title Role Notes
1976 Bugsy Malone Tallulah BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (also for Taxi Driver)
1976 The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane Rynn Jacobs Saturn Award for Best Actress
1976 Freaky Friday Annabel Andrews Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1977 Moi, fleur bleue Isabelle Tristan (aka Fleur bleue) aka Stop Calling Me Baby!
1977 Casotto Teresina Fedeli aka Beach House
1977 Candleshoe Casey Brown
1980 Foxes Jeanie Nominated—Young Artist Award for Best Young Actress in a Major Motion Picture
1980 Carny Donna
1982 O'Hara's Wife Barbara O'Hara
1983 Svengali Zoe Alexander
1984 The Hotel New Hampshire Frannie Berry
1984 The Blood of Others Hélène Bertrand aka Le Sang des autres
1986 Mesmerized Victoria Thompson
1987 Five Corners Linda Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female
1987 Siesta Nancy
1988 Stealing Home Katie Chandler
1988 The Accused Sarah Tobias Academy Award for Best Actress
David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actress
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama (tied with Sigourney Weaver for Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey and Shirley MacLaine for Madame Sousatzka)
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
National Board of Review Award for Best Actress
Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
1990 Catchfire Anne Benton aka Backtrack
1991 The Silence of the Lambs Clarice Starling Academy Award for Best Actress
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actress
1991 Little Man Tate Dede Tate
1992 Shadows and Fog Prostitute
1993 Sommersby Laurel Sommersby
1994 Maverick Mrs. Annabelle Bransford
1994 Nell Nell Kellty David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actress
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated—Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1997 The X-Files Betty (voice) TV series, episode "Never Again"
1997 Contact Dr. Eleanor Arroway Saturn Award for Best Actress
Nominated—Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1998 The Uttmost Herself Documentary
1998 Psycho Woman in background
1999 Anna and the King Anna Leonowens
2002 The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys Sister Assumpta
2002 Panic Room Meg Altman Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actress
2002 Tusker Minnie Animated voice over
2003 Abby Singer Herself
2004 A Very Long Engagement Elodie Gordes Un long dimanche de fiançailles
2005 Flightplan Kyle Pratt Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actress
2005 Statler and Waldorf: From the Balcony Herself Guest appearance in episode 8
2006 Inside Man Madeline White
2007 The Brave One Erica Bain Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—Irish Film Award for Best International Actress
Nominated—St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
2008 Nim's Island Alexandra Rover
2009 The Simpsons Maggie Simpson (voice) TV series, episode: "Four Great Women and a Manicure"
2011 The Beaver Meredith Black Also director
2011 Elysium
2012 Carnage Penelope
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