Jodie Foster
Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster (born November 19, 1962) is an American actress and filmmaker. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards. She has also earned numerous honors such as the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2013 and the Honorary Palme d'Or in 2021.
Jodie Foster
Foster began her professional career as a child model and later as a teen idol in various Disney films including Napoleon and Samantha (1972), Freaky Friday (1976) and Candleshoe (1977). She acted in Martin Scorsese's comedy-drama Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) and thriller Taxi Driver (1976). For playing a teen prostitute in the latter, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Other early films include Tom Sawyer (1973), Bugsy Malone (1976), The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976), Carny (1980) and Foxes (1980).
After attending Yale University, Foster transitioned into mature leading roles earning two Academy Awards for Best Actress for playing a rape victim in The Accused (1988) and Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs (1991). She also received a nomination for Nell (1994). Her other notable films include Sommersby (1993), Maverick (1994), Contact (1997), Anna and the King (1999), Panic Room (2002), Flightplan (2005), Inside Man (2006), The Brave One (2007), Nim's Island (2008), Carnage (2011), Elysium (2013), The Mauritanian (2021), and Nyad (2023). The last of these earned Foster her fifth Academy Award nomination. In 2024, she starred in the HBO anthology series True Detective: Night Country.
Foster made her directorial film debut with Little Man Tate (1991) and has since directed films such as Home for the Holidays (1995), The Beaver (2011) and Money Monster (2016).[1] She founded her own production company, Egg Pictures, in 1992. She earned two Primetime Emmy nominations for producing The Baby Dance (1999), and directing the Orange Is the New Black episode "Lesbian Request Denied" in 2014. She has also directed episodes for Tales from the Darkside in 1988, House of Cards in 2014, the Black Mirror episode "Arkangel" in 2017, and Tales from the Loop in 2020.
Early life
Alicia Christian Foster[2][3] was born on November 19, 1962, in Los Angeles, the youngest child of Evelyn Ella "Brandy" (née Almond; 1928–2019)[4] and Lucius Fisher Foster III, a wealthy businessman.[5] She is of German descent,[6] with some Irish heritage.[7] On her father's side, she is descended from John Alden, who arrived in North America on the Mayflower in 1620.[5][8]
Her parents' marriage ended before she was born, and she never established a relationship with her father.[5][9][10] She has three older full siblings: Lucinda, Constance, and Lucius, nicknamed "Buddy", as well as three half-brothers from her father's earlier marriage.[8] Following the divorce, Brandy raised the children with her female partner in Los Angeles.[5][11] She worked as a publicist for film producer Arthur P. Jacobs until focusing on managing the acting careers of Buddy and Jodie.[5][8][9] Although Foster was officially named Alicia, her siblings began calling her "Jodie", and the name stuck.[3] Foster was a gifted child who learned to read at age three.[5][9]
She attended the Lycée Français de Los Angeles, a French-language prep school.[9] Her fluency in French has enabled her to act in French films and she also dubs herself in French-language versions of most of her English-language films.[5][12] At her graduation in 1980, she delivered the valedictorian address for the school's French division.[9]
She then attended Yale University,[10][13] where she majored in African-American literature, wrote her thesis on Toni Morrison under the guidance of Henry Louis Gates Jr., and graduated magna cum laude in 1985.[5][14][15][16] She returned to Yale in 1993 to address the graduating class and received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree in 1997.[17][18] In 2018, she was awarded the Yale Undergraduate Lifetime Achievement Award.[19]
Foster has received two Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards, the Cannes Film Festival's Honorary Palme d'Or, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award and nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards. She also earned the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2013.
Foster has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) for the following films:
People magazine named her the most beautiful woman in the world in 1992,[184] and in 2003, she was voted Number 23 in Channel 4's countdown of the 100 Greatest Movie Stars of All Time.[185] Entertainment Weekly named her 57th on their list of 100 Greatest Movie Stars of All Time in 1996.[186] In 2016, she was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a motion pictures star located at 6927 Hollywood Boulevard.[187]