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Jodie Foster - Biography |
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Alicia Christian Foster was born on
November 19, 1962, in Los Angeles, California. Foster’s father, Lucian,
left the family before she was born; her mother, Evelyn, supported herself
and her four children by working for a film producer. Advertising
executives for Coppertone suntan lotion “discovered” Foster when she
tagged along with her older brother Buddy, a child actor, to one of his
auditions. At age three, she became the tow-headed, bare-bottomed
“Coppertone girl” in a now famous ad campaign.
By age eight, Foster had expanded her acting repertoire to include nearly
forty commercials, as well as appearances on television shows such as The
Courtship of Eddie’s Father, Bonanza, and The Partridge Family. By the
time she was ten years old, her acting jobs were supporting the entire
Foster family. Her feature film debut came in 1972 with the Disney film
Napoleon and Samantha. In the next five years, she appeared in no fewer
than eleven more films, bringing to each role a precocious intelligence
that impressed both critics and filmmakers.
In 1976, Foster made what she has referred to as the film that changed her
life--the dark, violent Taxi Driver, directed by Martin Scorsese. Foster
played Iris, a twelve year-old prostitute befriended by the dangerously
unbalanced taxi driver Travis Bickle, played by Robert DeNiro. The role
was entirely different from any the fourteen-year-old actress had ever
played before. “It was the first time anyone asked me to create a
character that wasn’t myself,” Foster told The New York Times Magazine in
1991. “It was the first time I realized that acting wasn’t this hobby you
just sort of did, but that there was actually some craft.” Her performance
won her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Unlike many young actors, Foster, who learned to read at age three, chose
not to sacrifice her education to her growing film career. After
graduating in 1980 from Los Angeles Lycee Francais (where she delivered
the valedictory address in perfect French), she enrolled at Yale
University. In March 1981, however, Foster was dragged unwillingly into
the international spotlight when John Hinckley, Jr. attempted to
assassinate President Ronald Reagan, stating as his primary motive the
desire to impress the nineteen-year-old actress and Yale freshman. Foster
was so affected by Hinckley’s actions and the subsequent media frenzy that
she published an article in Esquire plaintively entitled “Why Me?” and
refused to speak publicly about the incident any further.
Foster graduated magna cum laude from Yale in 1985 with a B.A. in
Literature. She made a number of films during and in the few years after
college, but none attracted as much attention or won her as much acclaim
as Taxi Driver. In 1988, however, Foster finally gained respect as an
adult actress--along with an Academy Award--for her portrayal of Sarah
Tobias, the working-class victim of a brutal gang rape in The Accused. Her
next great performance came three years later in the haunting thriller,
The Silence of the Lambs. With darkened hair and a West Virginia twang,
Foster played fledgling FBI agent Clarice Starling opposite the
mesmerizing Anthony Hopkins as psychologist-cum-serial-killer Hannibal
Lecter. At the 1991 Academy Awards, the film won Best Picture, Best
Director (Jonathan Demme), Best Actor and Best Actress.
At age twenty-nine, with two Best Actress Oscars and nearly thirty film
roles under her belt, Foster had already turned her attention to other
aspects of the movie business. Her directorial debut came in 1991 with
Little Man Tate, a moderately well-received film about a child prodigy and
his protective single mother (played by Foster). In 1992, Polygram Filmed
Entertaiment committed to finance three films for Foster’s production
company, Egg Pictures. Foster produced and starred in the first of those
films, 1994’s Nell; her performance as a woman who lives in the woods and
speaks in her own invented language earned her a fourth Oscar nomination.
Over the past several years, Foster directed her second film, 1995’s
comedy Home for the Holidays and delivered a Golden Globe-nominated
performance as an astronomer looking for extraterrestrial life in 1997’s
Contact. Egg Pictures has several pictures in development, all of which
Foster has the option to produce, direct, and/or star in. In late 1999,
Foster starred in Anna and the King, a remake of the classic story of
widowed schoolteacher Anna Leonowens and the King of Siam made famous in
the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, to mixed reviews. She
is set to direct and produce Disney’s Flora Plum, starring Russell Crowe
and Claire Danes, but turned down the opportunity to reteam with Anthony
Hopkins in Hannibal, the much-awaited sequel to The Silence of the Lambs.
She also stepped in for Nicole Kidman in the thriller The Panic Room.
With her unconventional beauty and fierce intelligence, Foster has emerged
as one of America’s most well-respected actors and filmmakers. She
reportedly received $15 million for Anna and the King, making her one of
only a few actresses to command such an amount.
Foster is known as a private woman who refuses to reveal too much about
her personal life. She has two sons: Charles, born in 1998, and Kit, born
in September 2001, and will not identify the father of either child. |
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Jodie Foster - Personal Quotes |
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"Being understood is not the
most essential thing in life."
On her role in Taxi Driver (1976), when she was 13: "I spent four
hours with a shrink trying to prove I was normal enough to play a
hooker. Does that make sense?"
"Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away
from."
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not
acceptable."
"It's not my personality to be extroverted emotionally, so acting
has been helpful to me."
"I could tell you the criticism backward and forward about Little
Man Tate (1991). But it didn't bother me as long as they were
talking about the work and not about 'she has fat thighs' or
something. But I fared really well with 'Tate,' so I shouldn't be
complaining."
"Kids talk like sailors now. Adults don't want to know." -- at age
14.
On the advantages of being an actress who is months from turning 40:
"They've lived longer, they're more confident about their choices
and they don't have to be hip and cool anymore, which I think is a
godsend - you make really bad choices when you are trying to be
hip." -- April 2004
"If I fail, at least I will have failed my way."
On "Foster Child", her brother Buddy Foster's unauthorized biography
about her: "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."
On devoting more time to parenting her sons than film work: "There's
something so pure about the ways boys love you."
"I'm interested in directing movies about situations that I've
lived, so they are almost a personal essay about what I've come to
believe in."
"Acting, for me, is exhausting. I'm always more energized by
directing. It's more intense to direct. I can pop in and express
myself, then pop out again. It's a huge passion for me."
"I love to see theater but not to work in it. Too messy, and I have
a bit of an inferiority complex."
"What I didn't realize is how completely consumed I would be by my
sons. I didn't know that the rest of my life would become so little
a priority."
"I'm nervous every day on a film set. The anxiety of performance is
not like anything else because you never know if you'll get there or
not. There is an anxiety when it comes to finding the truth."
"I'm lucky that people do leave me alone. I'm not Madonna. The red
carpet is work for me. I work from 9-to-5 and when I get home, I
don't want to go back to work by going to an industry event. For me,
putting on makeup and a fancy dress is work".
"I've learned something in the last few years that I really didn't
know about myself as an actor. I basically learned how to stay
happy. It's important for me to be happy working or I feel
resentful. I don't like it. I hate myself. What I know now is that I
really need to love the director. I need him to be a good parent.
And then I will lie down on the train tracks for him and go to the
ends of the earth for him."
"Motherhood doesn't mean I don't have a creative side that I need to
nourish. It doesn't mean I don't have independence from them. I'd be
a crazy person if I didn't."
"As time goes on, I will play characters who get older: I don't want
to be some Botoxed weirdo."
On her role as the child prostitute Iris in Taxi Driver (1976): "At
first I didn't want to do the part, but only because I was afraid my
friends would tease me afterwards. I thought, wow, they've got to be
kidding. It was a great part for a 21-year old, but I couldn't
believe that they were offering it to me. I was the Disney kid."
On her role as the child prostitute Iris in Taxi Driver (1976): "I
spent four hours with a shrink to prove that I was normal enough to
play a hooker. It was the role that changed my life. For the first
time I played something completely different. But I knew the
character I had to play - I grew up three blocks away from Hollywood
Boulevard and saw prostitutes like Iris every day."
On the making of Taxi Driver (1976): "There was a welfare worker on
the set every day and she saw the daily rushes of all my scenes and
made sure I wasn't on set when Robert De Niro said a dirty word."
On the making of Taxi Driver (1976): "You rarely have a director
like Martin Scorsese or a co-star like Robert De Niro, who rehearses
and rehearses until you get the feeling that for the time you're
with him he is the character. It's so real it's frightening."
On Taxi Driver (1976): "I think it's one of the finest films that's
ever been made in America. It's a statement about America. About
violence. About loneliness. Anonymity. Some of the best works are
those that have tried to imitate that kind of film, that kind of
style. It's just a classic. I felt when I came home every day that I
had really accomplished something."
On backing Mel Gibson after his 2006 anti-Semitic comments to a cop
while drunk: "Is he an anti-Semite? Absolutely not. But it's no
secret that he has always fought a terrible battle with alcoholism.
[Mel] was a shining example of how low you can go when you are young
and still pull yourself up. He took his recovery very seriously,
which is why I know he is strong enough to get through this now." |
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Jodie Foster - Filmography |
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Nim's Island (2008)
Sugarland (2008)
The Brave One (2007) .... Erica
Inside Man (2006) .... Madeleine White
Flightplan (2005) .... Kyle Pratt
Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004) .... Elodie Gordes
... aka A Very Long Engagement (International: English title) (USA)
Panic Room (2002) .... Meg Altman
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002) .... Sister Assumpta
Anna and the King (1999) .... Anna Leonowens
Contact (1997) .... Eleanor Arroway
"The X Files" .... Betty (1 episode, 1997)
... aka The X-Files (USA)
- Never Again (1997) TV Episode (voice) .... Betty
"Frasier" .... Marlene (1 episode, 1996)
- Moon Dance (1996) TV Episode (voice) .... Marlene
Nell (1994) .... Nell Kellty
Maverick (1994) .... Annabelle Bransford
Sommersby (1993) .... Laurel Sommersby
... aka Sommersby (France)
Shadows and Fog (1992) .... Prostitute
Little Man Tate (1991) .... Dede Tate
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) .... Clarice Starling
Catchfire (1990) .... Anne Benton
... aka Backtrack (USA: TV title (director's cut))
... aka Catchfire (Australia)
... aka Do It the Hard Way
Rabbit Ears: The Fisherman and His Wife (1989) (V) .... Storyteller
The Accused (1988) .... Sarah Tobias
... aka Appel à la justice (Canada: French title)
Stealing Home (1988) .... Katie Chandler
Siesta (1987) .... Nancy
Five Corners (1987) .... Linda
... aka 5 Corners (USA: video box title)
Mesmerized (1986) .... Victoria
... aka My Letter to George (International: English title)
... aka Shocked
Sang des autres, Le (1984) .... Hélène
... aka The Blood of Others (USA)
The Hotel New Hampshire (1984) .... Frannie Berry
Svengali (1983) (TV) .... Zoe Alexander
O'Hara's Wife (1982) .... Barbara O'Hara
Carny (1980) .... Donna
Foxes (1980) .... Jeanie
Candleshoe (1977) .... Casey Brown
Casotto (1977) .... Teresina Fedeli
... aka Beach House (International: English title)
... aka The Beach Hut
Moi, fleur bleue (1977) .... Isabelle Tristan, AKA Fleur bleue
... aka Stop Calling Me Baby!
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976) .... Rynn
... aka Petite fille au bout du chemin, La (France)
Freaky Friday (1976) .... Annabel Andrews
Bugsy Malone (1976) .... Tallulah
Taxi Driver (1976) .... Iris Steensma
Echoes of a Summer (1976) .... Deirdre Striden
... aka The Last Castle
"ABC Afterschool Specials" .... Sharon Lee / ... (3 episodes,
1973-1975)
- The Secret Life of T.K. Dearing (1975) TV Episode .... T.K.
Dearing
- Rookie of the Year (1973) TV Episode .... Sharon Lee
- Alexander (1973) TV Episode .... Sue
"Medical Center" .... Ivy (1 episode, 1975)
- The Captives (1975) TV Episode .... Ivy
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) .... Audrey
"Paper Moon" (1974) TV Series .... Addie Pray (unknown episodes)
Smile, Jenny, You're Dead (1974) (TV) .... Liberty Cole
... aka Don't Call the Police (USA: new title)
... aka Harry-O
"Love Story" .... Ellie Madison (1 episode, 1973)
- The Youngest Lovers (1973) TV Episode .... Ellie Madison
"The New Perry Mason" .... Hildy Haynes (1 episode, 1973)
- The Case of the Deadly Deeds (1973) TV Episode .... Hildy Haynes
"Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" (1973) TV Series .... Elizabeth
Henderson (unknown episodes)
"The Addams Family" (1973) TV Series (voice) .... Pugsly Addams
One Little Indian (1973) .... Martha McIver
"Kung Fu" .... Alethea Patricia Ingram (1 episode, 1973)
- Alethea (1973) TV Episode .... Alethea Patricia Ingram
Tom Sawyer (1973) .... Becky Thatcher
... aka A Musical Adaptation of Mark Twain's 'Tom Sawyer' (USA:
promotional title)
"The Partridge Family" .... Julie Lawrence (1 episode, 1973)
- The Eleven Year Itch (1973) TV Episode .... Julie Lawrence
"The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan" .... Anne Chan (10 episodes,
1972)
- The Chan Clan at Scotland Yard (1972) TV Episode (voice) .... Anne
Chan
- The White Elephant (1972) TV Episode (voice) .... Anne Chan
- The Greek Caper (1972) TV Episode (voice) .... Anne Chan
- The Gypsy Caper (1972) TV Episode (voice) .... Anne Chan
- The Mardi Gras Caper (1972) TV Episode (voice) .... Anne Chan
(5 more)
"Ghost Story" .... Judy (1 episode, 1972)
... aka Circle of Fear (USA: new title)
- House of Evil (1972) TV Episode .... Judy
"The Paul Lynde Show" (1 episode, 1972)
- To Commune or Not to Commune (1972) TV Episode
Kansas City Bomber (1972) .... Rita
Napoleon and Samantha (1972) .... Samantha
My Sister Hank (1972) (TV) .... Henrietta 'Hank' Bennett
"Bonanza" .... Bluebird (1 episode, 1972)
... aka Ponderosa (USA: rerun title)
- A Place to Hide (1972) TV Episode .... Bluebird
"Ironside" .... Pip Barker (1 episode, 1972)
... aka The Raymond Burr Show (USA: syndication title)
- Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Murder (1972) TV Episode .... Pip Barker
"Gunsmoke" .... Marieanne Johnson / ... (3 episodes, 1969-1972)
... aka Gun Law (UK)
... aka Marshal Dillon (USA: rerun title)
- The Predators (1972) TV Episode .... Marieanne Johnson
- P.S. Murry Christmas (1971) TV Episode .... Patricia
- Roots of Fear (1969) TV Episode (as Jody Foster) .... Susan Sadler
"The Courtship of Eddie's Father" .... Joey Kelly (5 episodes,
1969-1971)
- The Magic Mrs. Rickles (1971) TV Episode .... Joey Kelly
- The Lonely Weekend (1971) TV Episode .... Joey Kelly
- Gifts Are for Giving (1970) TV Episode .... Joey Kelly
- A Loaf of Bread, a Bar of Soap and a Jar of Peanut Butter (1970)
TV Episode .... Joey Kelly
- Bully for You (1969) TV Episode .... Joey Kelly
"My Three Sons" .... Susan / ... (2 episodes, 1971)
- The Recital (1971) TV Episode .... Susan
- The Love God (1971) TV Episode .... Susan/Victoria
"Adam-12" .... Mary Bennett (1 episode, 1970)
- Log 55: Missing Child (1970) TV Episode .... Mary Bennett
"Mayberry R.F.D." .... Fairy / ... (2 episodes, 1968-1970)
- All for Charity (1970) TV Episode .... Little Girl
- The Church Play (1968) TV Episode (as Jody Foster) .... Fairy
"Daniel Boone" .... Rachel (1 episode, 1970)
- Bringing Up Josh (1970) TV Episode (as Jodi Foster) .... Rachel
"Nanny and the Professor" .... Angela (1 episode, 1970)
- The Scientific Approach (1970) TV Episode .... Angela
"Disneyland" .... Suellen McIver (2 episodes, 1970)
... aka Disney's Wonderful World (USA: new title)
... aka The Disney Sunday Movie (USA: new title)
... aka The Magical World of Disney (USA: new title)
... aka The Wonderful World of Disney (USA: new title)
... aka Walt Disney (USA: new title)
... aka Walt Disney Presents (USA: new title)
... aka Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color (USA: new title)
- Menace on the Mountain: Part 2 (1970) TV Episode .... Suellen
McIver
- Menace on the Mountain: Part 1 (1970) TV Episode .... Suellen
McIver
Menace on the Mountain (1970) (TV) .... Suellen McIver
"Julia" .... Cindy (1 episode, 1969)
- Romeo and Julia (1969) TV Episode .... Cindy
"The Doris Day Show" .... Jenny Benson (1 episode, 1969)
- The Baby Sitter (1969) TV Episode .... Jenny Benson |
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Jodie Foster - Related Links |
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Wikipedia: Jodie Foster
YouTube: Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster at Babemania.com
Top Celebrities Sites:
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