Jodie Foster Biography

Jodie Foster got her start as a pig-tailed tyke of two in her first commercial for Coppertone suntan lotion. Her father, Lucius Foster, left the family when Jodie's mother was just a few months pregnant with her. With four children to raise, Brandy got her children into show business. Jodie's brother Buddy was a successful child actor, appearing as a regular in the television series Mayberry R.F.D., and Jodie's first acting role was a guest appearance on the show at the age of five. Other television appearances followed but at ten, Jodie made the leap from the small to the big screen for the Disney flick Napoleon and Samantha (1972). At 13, she delivered a knockout performance as a child hooker in Taxi Driver that won Jodie her first Oscar nomination.

Jodie attended the exclusive Le Lycee Francais prep school in Los Angeles, graduating as class valedictorian. Fluent in French, she and her mother spent most Christmases in France and from a young age, Jodie has done all of her own dubbing for the French versions of her films, as well as appearing in several French language films over the course of her career. She once turned down a offer to appear on a Christmas special featuring child stars because she didn't know the English words to any Christmas carols.

During her high school years, Jodie appeared in a string of movies such as Disney's highly successful Freaky Friday that prompted a remake in 2003, and the angst-ridden, less successful Foxes. After graduating with honors from Yale in 1985, Jodie slogged through several films that were critical and commercial disappointments before finally coming of age in director Jonathan Kaplan's 1988 courtroom drama, The Accused.

Scoring a Best Actress Oscar for her astounding performance as a rape victim, Jodie fully realized the promise she had first evidenced so many years before in Taxi Driver. Taking full advantage of her reborn celebrity, Jodie made her directorial debut with the 1991 drama Little Man Tate, in which she also starred and scored another huge hit with The Silence of the Lambs that same year. Although her performance as federal agent Clarice Starling was somewhat overshadowed by Anthony Hopkins's magnificent turn as Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter, Foster's dead-on Appalachian accent and convincingly professional manner were believable enough to warrant a second Best Actress Oscar.

In 1994, her production company, Egg Pictures, released the acclaimed Nell, which earned her another Best Actress nomination. Jodie demonstrated both romantic and comedic flair — Sommersby and Maverick respectively — before stepping behind the camera again for 1995's Home for the Holidays.

Intensely private (she remains close-mouthed about who fathered her sons Charles and Kit), Jodie rarely discusses her romantic attachments, and in general struggles valiantly to stay out of the limelight. Not surprisingly, Jodie often feels more at home making movies than living out her "normal" life; as she told one interviewer, "I can't go to Disneyland without having a specialized experience, with V.I.P. passes and people treating me differently. But I can play someone who goes to Disneyland. Onscreen, I can have a life I've never been able to have."

Jodie passed on presiding over the 2001 Cannes International Film Festival jury in order to replace Nicole Kidman in The Panic Room. After a break to spend time with her children, she returned to the big screen in 2004 with a small role in the French language film Un long dimanche de fiancailles/A Very Long Engagement.

Since then she's starred in a number of movies, including The Brave One (2007), Nim's Island (2008) with Gerard Butler and Abigail Breslin, and Elysium (2013) co-starring Matt Damon. She also returned to directing with The Beaver, in which she co-starred with longtime friend Mel Gibson.

After a break of several years from appearing on the big screen, she starred in the action/thriller, Hotel Artemis (2018). In 2021, she received an Honorary Gold Palm at the Cannes Film Festival.

In 2024 she received her fifth Oscar nomination, for her work in the critically acclaimed biopic Nyad (2023).

In January 2013 at the Golden Globe Awards, Jodie publicly acknowledged she is a lesbian in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek speech, thanking her former lover Cydney Bernard, calling her "my most beloved BFF (best friend) of 20 years."

In April 2014 she married actress/director Alexandra Hedison.

Filmography:

Nyad (2023)
The Mauritanian (2021)
Hotel Artemis (2018)
Elysium (2013)
The Beaver (2011)
Nim’s Island (2008)
The Brave One (2007)
Inside Man (2006)
Flightplan (2005)
Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004)
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002)
Panic Room (2002)
Anna and the King (1999)
Contact (1997)
Nell (1994)
Maverick (1994)
Sommersby (1993)
Shadows and Fog (1991)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Little Man Tate (1991)
Catchfire (1990)
Backtrack (1989)
The Accused (1988)
Stealing Home (1988)
Five Corners (1987)
Siesta (1987)
Mesmerized (1986)
Le sang des autres (1984)
The Hotel New Hampshire (1984)
O'Hara's Wife (1982)
Carny (1980)
Foxes (1980)
Candleshoe (1977)
Casotto (1977)
Moi, fleur bleue (1977)
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976)
Freaky Friday (1976)
Bugsy Malone (1976)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Echoes of a Summer (1976)
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)
One Little Indian (1973)
Tom Sawyer (1973)
Kansas City Bomber (1972)
Napoleon and Samantha (1972)