Jodie Foster Biography  Alicia Christian Foster "Jodie" was born November 19, 1962 in Los Angeles, California. Lucian, Jodie's father, left the family before the actress, director, and producer was born. Evelyn, her mother, supported herself and her four children by working for a film producer. Jodie was discovered by an advertising executive for Coppertone suntan lotion, when she tagged along with of her older brother, Buddy, a child actor, to one of his auditions. At the age of three, Jodie became the "Coppertone Girl" in a famous ad campaign. By the age of eight, Jodie expanded her acting career to nearly over 40 commericals, as well as appearances on TV shows such as The Courtship of Eddie's Father, Bonanza, and The Partridge Family. By ten years old, Jodie's acting jobs were supporting the entire Foster family. Jodie's film debut came in 1972, at the age of 10, with the Disney film Napoleon and Samantha. Over the next five years, Jodie appeared in over eleven more films, impressing both critics and filmmakers. Jodie Foster made what she called the film that changed her life. In 1976, she appeared in Taxi Driver, directed my Martin Scorsese. The film was said to be dark and violent. Foster played the role of Iris, a 12 year old prostitute who was befriended by the dangerously unbalanced taxi driver Travis Bickle, played by none other than Mr. Robert De Niro. This role was entirely different from any the 14 year old actress had ever played before. Foster told 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 for her role as a 12 year old prostitute in Taxi Driver won her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Foster, who learned to read at the young age of 3, decided not to sacrifice her education to her growing film career. She graduated in 1980 from Los Angeles Lycee Francais, where she delivered the valedictory address in perfect French. After graduation, Foster enrolled at Yale University. However in March of 1981, Jodie was dragged into unwillingly into the international spotlight, when John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan. Hinckley stated his primary role for his action was his desire to impress the 19 year old Foster and Yale freshman. She was so affected by his actions and the media frenzy afterwards, she published an article in Esquire, entitled "Why Me?" and then refused to speak publicly the incident any further. Jodie graduated in 1985, magna cum laude from Yale with a B.A. in Literature. She made numerous films during and after college, but none of the films attracted so much attention or won her acclaim as her role in the film Taxi Driver. In 1988, she finally gained respect as an adult actress, along with an Academy Award, for her portrayal as Sarah Tobias, the victim of a brutal gang rape for the film The Accused. Three years later her next great performance came in the haunting thriller, The Silence of the Lambs, with whom she co-starred alongside the mesmerizing Anthony Hopkins. Foster played FBI agent Clarice Starling getting clues and tips from the psychologies turned serial killer Hannibal Lecter (Hopkins). The film won for Best Picture, Best Director (Jonathan Demme), Best Actor and Best Actress in 1991 at the Academy Awards. With two Best Actress Oscars and nearly thirty film roles under her belt, at the age of 29, her directorial debut came in 1991 with the film Little Man Tate. A film about a child prodigy and his protective single mother, played by Foster. In 1992, Polygram Filmed Entertainment committed to finance three films for Foster's production company, Egg Pictures. Foster produced and starred in the first of those films. In 1994, she starred in her produced film Nell. She portrayed a woman who lives in the woods and speaks in her own invented language. Her role earned her a fourth Oscar nomination. Over the next several years, Foster directed her second film, 1995's comedy Home for the Holidays and Jodie delivered a Golden Globe-nominated performance as an astronomer looking for extraterrestrial life in 1997's Contact. Egg Pictures had several pictures in development, all of which Foster has the option to produce, direct, and/or star in all of them. In 1999, she starred as Anna and the King. A remake of the classic story of a widowed schoolteacher Anna Leonowens. Although, Jodie turned down the role of Clarice Starling in the much awaited sequel to The Silence of the Lambs, she stepped in for Nicole Kidman in the thriller Panic Room in 2002. In 2005, Foster starred in the film Flightplan. Jodie starred as Kyle Pratt, a widow and her daughter are flying home from Berlin to America when her child vanishes on the plan and nobody admits her daughter was even on the plane. 2006, Jodie starred in Inside Man, along with fellow actors, Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, and Willem Dafoe. Next, Jodie starred in The Brave One in 2007, in which she was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture. Foster portrayed a woman who struggles to recover after a brutal attack and the murder of her fiance, then sets out on a mission for revenge. Jodie Foster's last film was in 2008 for Nim's Island. With Foster's beauty and fierce intelligence, she has emerged as one of the most well respected actors and filmmakers. When it comes to Foster's private life, she is intensely private about certain things in her life, notably her sexual orientation which was a a subject of speculation for years. Foster has been seen in the public eye with Julian Sands and Russell Crowe, however they never commented on if they were in a relationship. Jodie gave birth to a son July 20, 1998 to a son, Charles Foster and again on September 29, 2001 to another son, Christopher "Kitt" Foster. Although, Foster gave birth to both sons, she has yet to reveal the identity of the children's fathers or the specifics of the conception. Finally, in December of 2007, Foster was at an acceptance speech at Hollywood Reporter's Women in Entertainment event, where she paid tribute to film producer and her longtime companion Cydney Bernard. This ended all the speculation of her sexual orientation. However, in May of 2008, the couple decided to call it quits. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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