Overview (4)

Born November 19, 1962 in Los Angeles, California, USA Birth Name Alicia Christian Foster Nickname Jodie F Height 5' 3" (1.6 m)

Mini Bio (1)

Jodie Foster started her career at the age of two. For four years she made commercials and finally gave her debut as an actress in the TV series Mayberry R.F.D. (1968). In 1975 Jodie was offered the role of prostitute Iris Steensma in the movie Taxi Driver (1976). This role, for which she received an Academy Award nomination in the "Best Supporting Actress" category, marked a breakthrough in her career. In 1980 she graduated as the best of her class from the College Lycée Français and began to study English Literature at Yale University, from where she graduated magna cum laude in 1985. One tragic moment in her life was March 30th, 1981 when John Warnock Hinkley Jr. attempted to assassinate the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. Hinkley was obsessed with Jodie and the movieTaxi Driver (1976), in which Travis Bickle, played by Robert De Niro, tried to shoot presidential candidate Palantine. Despite the fact that Jodie never took acting lessons, she received two Oscars before she was thirty years of age. She received her first award for her part as Sarah Tobias in Angeklagt (1988) and the second one for her performance as Clarice Starling in Das Schweigen der Lämmer (1991).

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Mathias Peter Gabel

Spouse (1)

Trade Mark (2)

Husky voice



Athletic figure



Trivia (123)

Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 "Sexiest Stars" in film history (#45) (1995).



Was supposed to be commencement Speaker for Smith College in Massachusetts, but eventually had to decline (2000).





As a child, she was attacked by a lion and carried briefly in its mouth while filming Disney's Flucht in die Wildnis (1972).

Received her Bachelor's degree in literature, magna cum laude from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut (1985).





Had to pull out of Doppelmord (1999) because she became pregnant.

Ranked #18 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 2007]



Born to Lucius Fisher Foster III (1922-2016), an Air Force colonel and real estate agent, and Evelyn 'Brandy' Ella Almond (1928-2019), a film producer. Her father had three sons from a previous marriage and one daughter from a subsequent marriage.



Graduated as the class valedictorian from the private academy Le Lycée Français in Los Angeles, California. [June 1980]



Was reading by the time she was three years old.



Listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1976" in John'Willis' Screen World, Vol. 28.



Born Alicia Christian Foster, her three siblings insisted on calling her "Jodie" after their mother's live-in girlfriend, Josephine Dominguez Hill, who was known as "Jo D".



Made her acting debut in a Coppertone Suntan Lotion commercial when she was 3 years old.





For Sommersby (1993), Foster learned how to handle a horse-pulled buckboard.



Was offered a role in Me and Rubyfruit (1989) twice and turned the role down.

Has two convertibles.



Enjoys kickboxing, yoga, karate, aerobics, and weightlifting and collects fancy kitchenware and B&W photos.



Received an honorary degree from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.



Gave the Class Day speech at Yale University (1993) and received an honorary (Doctor of Fine Arts) degree from Yale University (1997).





CBS was billed $12,000 for her hair and makeup for her appearance on 60 Minutes II (1999), December 1999 to promote Anna und der König (1999). This total was later determined to be incorrect and inflated.



Was replaced by Ashley Judd for the lead in Doppelmord (1999).



Starred as Addie Pray on the short-lived television series Papermoon (1974), which was originally a movie starring Tatum O'Neal



Never liked Es bleibt in der Familie (1971) because "it seemed to be doing the same thing each week".



(March 30, 1981) Was stalked by John Hinckley during her college years, who attempted to assassinate US President Ronald Reagan to impress her.

Parents divorced three years before she was born. She was raised by her mother Brandy and Josephine Dominguez Hill (1930-1984), Brandy's lesbian lover.



Born at 8:14 AM PST.



Was named one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in the World (2002).



Shut down production company Egg Pictures in late 2001 to spend more time with her children.





Replaced Nicole Kidman in the role of Meg Altman in Panic Room (2002) at the last minute when Kidman injured herself.



Recorded a number of songs for her film Fetzig-frei und endlich high (1977), including "Je T'Attends Depuis La Nuit Des Temps", "When I Looked at Your Face" and "La Vie C'est Chouette".



Was in a serious relationship with Cydney Bernard since they met on the set of the movie Sommersby (1993) until they broke up in 2008.



Her sister, Connie Foster , was her stand-in during the more explicit scenes in Taxi Driver (1976).



Decided not to reprise the role of Clarice Starling in Hannibal (2001), which eventually went to Julianne Moore



Is doubled by stuntwoman Jill Stokesberry in most of her films, starting with Sommersby (1993).

She was voted the 57th "Greatest Movie Star" of all time by Entertainment Weekly.



Ranked #4 in VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Kid Stars"



Has never revealed the identity of the father(s) of her two children.





She was all set to star in the television film The Best Little Girl in the World (1981). Unfortunately, an actors' strike prevented the film from being made. By the time the production was ready to go, Jodie was already studying at Yale University. The leading role went to Jennifer Jason Leigh



Her performance as Sarah Tobias in Angeklagt (1988) is ranked #56 on Premiere magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).

She was the Commencement Speaker at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was received an honorary degree from the university. [May 2006]



Ranked #4 on VH-1's 100 Greatest Kid Stars of All Time.





In an article published on September 5, 2006, Foster told the New York Times that she is such a "'serious N.P.R. [National Public Radio]-head', the sort of person who will sit in her garage listening to the car radio until a show is over" that she changed her character in Die Fremde in dir (2007) from a newspaper reporter to the host of a public radio show.

Revealed during a 2005 interview on the French talk show "Le Grand Journal" that she knows the words to the French national anthem, "La Marseillaise", but does not know "The Star-Spangled Banner".



Was member of the dramatic jury at the Sundance Film Festival in 1989.



Ranked #30 on Entertainment Weekly's 50 Smartest People in Hollywood (2007).



An asteroid, 17744 Jodiefoster, was named after her (1998).





Attended Yale University at the same time as Jennifer Beals



Considered Randy Stone her best friend until his death.

Her family celebrates both Christmas and Hanukkah.





Made an acceptance speech at a breakfast for Hollywood Reporter's Women in Entertainment, where she paid tribute to her longtime companion Cydney Bernard , ending all speculations about her sexual orientation. [December 2007]



The British rock group Asia wrote the song "Alibis" about her.

Has said that her only regret is that she would love to live life without knowing what it's like to be famous.



Rated No. 36 in the 2008 Power 50 issue of Out magazine.





Was considered for the role of Viola de Lesseps in Shakespeare in Love (1998), which went to Gwyneth Paltrow



Turned down the role of Angel Bright in Kleine Biester (1980), which went to Kristy McNichol



Was considered for the role of Vivian Ward in Pretty Woman (1990), which went to Julia Roberts



Was considered for the role of Claire Standish in Der Frühstücksclub (1985), which went to Molly Ringwald



Foster was pursued by an obsessed fan named John Hinckley . Hinckley came up with a plan to impress her by assassinating President Ronald Reagan . Shortly before 2:30 PM EST, as Reagan walked out of the hotel's T Street NW exit toward his waiting car, Hinckley emerged from the crowd of admirers and fired a .22-cal. blue steel revolver six times in three seconds, missing the President with all six shots. The first bullet hit White House Press Secretary James Brady in the head. The second hit District of Columbia police officer Thomas K. Delahanty in the back. The third overshot Reagan and hit the window of a building across the street. The fourth hit Secret Service agent Timothy J. McCarthy in the abdomen. The fifth hit the bullet-resistant glass of the window on the open side door of the president's limousine. The sixth and final bullet ricocheted off the side of the limousine and hit the president in his left underarm, grazing a rib and lodging in his lung, stopping nearly an inch from his heart. In 2016, Hinckley was released (under a number of conditions) from the psychiatric hospital in which he had been institutionalized.



Considers her performance in Nell (1994) as her best one.



Returned to work four months after giving birth to her son Kit in order to begin filming Lost Heaven (2002).



Returned to work four months after giving birth to her son Charles in order to begin filming Anna und der König (1999).

As of 2012, she is the 10th youngest person to receive an Academy Award for Best Actress.





Received the Cecil B. DeMille award at the 2013 Golden Globe Awards on January 13, 2013 at the Beverly Hills Hotel.



Gave birth to her first child at age 35, a son Charles Foster on July 20, 1998, with partner Cydney Bernard . Child's father is unknown.



Gave birth to her second child at age 38, a son Kit Foster on September 29, 2001, with partner Cydney Bernard . Child's father is unknown.



She and Jane Fonda are the two actresses with the initials 'J.F.' who have each won two Academy Awards for Best Actress.



Was chosen from among 18,000 hopefuls for the role of Iris in Taxi Driver (1976), as screenwriter Paul Schrader wanted an unknown actress for the role.



Was the 98th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Actress Oscar for Angeklagt (1988) at The 61st Annual Academy Awards (1989) on March 29, 1989.



Joe Funicello , from ICM Partners, has been her talent agent since 1974.



Turned down the role of Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct (1992), which went to Sharon Stone



Was considered to play a young version of Princess Leia Organa in Krieg der Sterne (1977). However, director George Lucas decided to make the character older.



Expressed her desire to work with actor Matthias Schoenaerts during a Q&A at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival.

Because she speaks perfect French, she makes the dubbing over her character's voice for most of her films released in France.



She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6927 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on May 4, 2016.





In college she dated Tina Landau for about a year and a half.

In July 2016, John Hinckley was released after almost 35 years of commission to St. Elizabeth's Mental Institution. His release was contingent on dozens of conditions, including mandatory residence with his elderly mother in her home in a Williamsburg, Virginia, gated community and a ban on use of social media and/or the internet to read about his own crimes or other assassins. He is also forbidden from attempting or making any contact with an array of people connected to his crimes, including his victims, their relatives, or Jodie Foster.





At age 29, she became the second youngest person to win two Academy Awards, behind Luise Rainer (28). She won twice for Best Actress in a Leading Role for performances she gave at age 24 during filming of Angeklagt (1988) in the spring of 1987 and at age 26-turning-27 during filming of Das Schweigen der Lämmer (1991) in the winter of 1989-90.



Was age 12-turning-13 during production of Das Mädchen am Ende der Straße (1976) in the summer and early fall of 1975, for which she won the Saturn Award for Best Actress in early 1978 at the age of 15. As of 2018, she is the youngest actress to receive the award.



At the 31st AFI Life Achievement Awards, Jodie Foster credited Robert De Niro with introducing her to the true craft of acting. During production of Taxi Driver (1976), he would insist that they'd meet for coffee and rehearse their scenes from together at a local diner. After a while, Jodie became bored of the routine until De Niro began improvising lines during their rehearsals. Jodie soon learned to follow his improv as he weaved back and forth to the original script, in essence teaching her how to effectively build a character beyond the screenplay.



She has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Taxi Driver (1976) and Das Schweigen der Lämmer (1991).

Actually distantly related to John Hinckley Jr. They are 9th cousins once removed.



Avoids social media such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.



Her mother, Evelyn was a former big band singer.



Jodie began in commercials when she was 3.



She plays the guitar, composes songs and speaks fluent French.



Like Kim Basinger, Foster was also offered the role of Annie Reed in Sleepless in Seattle (1993), but she declined it, because as in the case with Basinger she thought the premise of the movie was ridiculous. The role instead went to Meg Ryan and the film became a massive box office success.



Personal Quotes (38)

Being understood is not the most essential thing in life.





[on her role in Taxi Driver (1976), when she was age 12] 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 Das Wunderkind 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.

[At age 14] Kids talk like sailors now. Adults don't want to know.



[In April 2004, 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.



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 afterward. I thought, "Wow, they've got to be kidding." It was a great part for Melanie Griffith , but I couldn't believe that they were offering it to me. I was a Disney girl.



[on her role as the child prostitute Iris in Taxi Driver (1976)] 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 while drunk to a cop he thought was Jewish] 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.



[Criticizing the film adaptation of Sin City (2005)] That was so painfully cartoonish I was offended. I don't know how you enjoy or laugh about a child abduction and molestation. What part of that sentence is funny? I can't get beyond that. I don't know if everyone understands the impact of that movie's message.

When people are there to simply do a job they don't have any passion for, those are nearly always bad films.



[on independent films] Obviously, I've made a lot of independent movies and I ran an independent production company and produced a bunch of independent movies. I don't make as many indie movies as an actress 'cause I don't think I'm well suited for them. I don't know why. As an actress, I think I'm better in mainstream movies because I have a very linear storytelling way and sometimes that's kind of boring for indie movies. So I think I'm a better indie movie director and producer than I am an actress.





[Agreeing to work with the controversial Mel Gibson in Der Biber (2011)] I grew up with the idea that the movie business is a family. It's like the mob. You don't rat on your friends. Who you are in a business relationship is a reflection of who you are as an artist.

Mel [Gibson] and I work in the same way. We're people who focus intensely but for a short period of time. One minute he's standing there making a joke. And then, bam! He's in it. It's all about concentration. What do you need to concentrate.



I've reached that point where I don't want to act very much anymore. I am much more interested in holding off on acting, after 45 years as an actor. It's a long period of time to do the same thing.



[at the 2013 Golden Globe Awards] I hope that you're not disappointed that there won't be a big coming-out speech tonight, because I already did my coming out about a thousand years ago, back in the Stone Age.





[on Jennifer Lawrence ] The good news is that Jen, her good-humoured, ballsy, free-spirited ego with the husky voice and a propensity for junk food - Jen, the spirited tomboy from Kentucky - that Jen's got it together. A hoot. A gem. A gem with a killer stare.

I think "destiny" is just a fancy word for a psychological pattern.





[on Richard Gere ] A lot of actors think acting is a girl's job, but Richard finds something sensuous in acting.

For 15 or 20 years, every single script I read, the motivation for the female character was that they had been raped or abused as a child... Is that the only thing [men] think about us that feels deep or something?



I don't like it when journalists mention parts that were passed on by other actors. It diminishes the actors who DID play the role beautifully. I have NEVER commented on films that I passed on. I find it disrespectful to the artists by creating a gratuitous public competition. I'm pretty sure all of my peers would agree. It has been an issue of discussion with some of the actresses I have worked with.



Salary (8)