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There are millions of toddlers that are photogenic,
but how many of them are so remarkably darling that they are featured
in a national TV ad campaign? Young Jodie Foster is one such child.
As a pigtailed tyke of three, she appeared in her first commercial,
a widely circulated pitch for Coppertone suntan lotion.
The youngest of four children, Jodie was born Alicia Christian Foster
on November 19th, 1962, in Los Angeles, California. She grew up in
a one parent household because her parents were divorced before she
was born. Her mother, Brandy, worked for a film producer to make ends
meet. Jodie recalls growing up in a culturally, if not monetarily,
rich environment. "I come from a really cool family…,"
she remembers. "We had…really good Tuscan bread. And Portuguese
food. And the Pugeot car." Her mother instilled a love for the
exotic international cinema in her daughter as well.
Her face became something of a household figure in the 1970's, when
Foster was a staple of that era's television shows as well as of such
movies as "Freaky Friday", and "The Little Girl Who
Lives Down the Lane." She made a noticeable impression on film
audiences in 1975, in the Martin Scorsese classic depiction of Inner-city
psychopathic isolation. Jodi portrayed - with uncanny believability-an
adolescent prostitute in "Taxi Driver" for which she won
her first Oscar nomination.
She attended the exclusive Lycee Franais prep school in Los Angeles,
graduating as class valedictorian. She delivered her valedictory speech
in flawless French, and went to the opposite end of the country to
attend the prestigious Yale University. She studied English Literature
at Yale, and graduated magna cum laude in 1985. She kept a low profile
in those years but failed to stay out of the headlines when in March
of 1981 an unbalanced fan, John Hinckley Jr., tried to assassinate
President Ronald Reagan, motivated by a desire to impress Foster.
After graduating with honors from Yale, Jodi made several box office
flops. However, in 1988 she portrayed a rape victim in Jonathan Kaplan's
"The Accused". She earned a Best Actress Oscar for her amazing
performance. With her renewed fame she made her directorial debut
in "Little Man Tate", (1991) which she also stared in. That
same year she scored another hit in the chilling thriller "Silence
of The Lambs." She received her second Oscar for her portrayal
of Clarice Starling in the film.
1994 brought her another Best Actress Oscar nomination. Her production
company, Egg Pictures, released the wonderfully fresh "Nell,"
co-starring Liam Neisen. She returned behind the camera in 1995 to
direct Holly Hunter in "Home for the Holidays."
Foster again delivered a remarkable performance in 1997's "Contact,"
where she played an astronomer searching for extraterrestrial life.
Her most recent endeavor was in "Anna and the King" where
she played a proper British schoolteacher.
She currently has six pictures in development at her thriving production
company, including a screen adaptation of Margaret Atwood's best selling
novel, "Alias Grace".Jodie
Foster Personal videos and photos - Click here!
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