Jodie Foster Biography

news-details Faces from the show business would cheer and nod in agreement whenever the name Jodie Foster was mentioned as one of Hollywood's pioneers. She had pulled through many phases and it was amazing to realize that she embarked from a child actress before establishing a firm position as prominent adult actress when many child actors had devastated their career upon reaching adulthood. Jodie indeed owed it mostly to her mother Brandy Foster who tirelessly supported her career even when she hadn't get a clue what the meaning of 'acting' was. Bearing Jodie in her womb, Brandy was left by her husband Lucius to go through the few months old pregnancy alone and be the breadwinner of three other children, Lucinda, Constance and Buddy. Tough and smart, she managed to get connections with film producers and encouraged Buddy to appear in TV shows and some ads. With the birth of Alicia Christian Foster aka Jodie on November 12, 1962, Brandy saw another potential. In the audition for Coppertone sun lotion ad, the casting directors selected the three years old Jodie instead of Buddy and the commercial became her first official nationwide appearance.

Since then on for the next five years little Foster appeared in numerous other commercials and TV shows. Indicating her intelligence from the age of 3 when she was able to read already, she had no trouble earning her first screen debut in TV series "Mayberry R.F.D." (1968). From that point on she would load her film carts with several other TV series until 1972 when she enrolled in her first TV movie "My Sister Hank" (1972) as a tomboy girl. Then proceeding to act in "Napoleon and Samantha" (1972) and "Kansas City Bomber" (1972), she also filled in some voices for animations "The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan" (1972) and "The Addams Family" (1973). Such a tight work for an eleven years old but she managed to take in as much as 8 other projects in the first half of the 70s including as another tomboy girl in Martin Scorsese's "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" (1974). It was with the same director that she gained a worldwide recognition as a twelve-year-old prostitute in the highly acclaimed "Taxi Driver" (1976). When she could simply being a bitch, the fully committed actress delivered her lines perfectly and what beyond ordinary was her acting that only professionals could do similarly. Receiving her first Oscar nomination that was for Best Actress in a Supporting Role category in 1977, she claimed that it was the first time she learnt the true meaning of acting.

Striking while the iron was hot, she swallowed four other silver screens in 1976 that eventually made her name more sonorous. The first one was the heartbreaking "Echoes of a Summer" where she should play a sick child with incurable heart problem who found love in the last days of her life. Very tragic indeed but then she carried out a totally different atmosphere in "The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane" as a creepy child hiding her dad's decomposing body in the cellar. It was quite a change of direction but she lightened things up by showing her comedic taste in "Bugsy Malone" as a child gangster fighting with splurge guns. Fun and amusing, she was granted the 1977 BAFTA Film Award for Best Newcomer. To close the year, she landed her feet on a hilarious comedy "Freaky Friday" (1976) where Barbara Harris played her mother and they would trade the spirit during a freaky night. This time, it was the 1977 Golden Globes' turn to nominate her for Best Motion Picture Actress - Musical/Comedy. Soon after the brilliant performances Brandy who at that time was still Jodie's agent immediately delivered her French fluent daughter to play in "Moi, fleur bleue" (1977) and also in an Italian movie titled "Casotto" (1977).

Then made a came back to English speaking movies she starred in the children classic "Candleshoe" (1977) and was nearly cast as Princess Leia in "Star Wars" (1977) when she made a bold decision to take a three years break in order to concentrate studying in College Lyc�e Fran�ais de Los Angeles. Very smart from the beginning, she obtained high grades in almost all of her subjects and eventually was made a valedictorian. Graduated in 1980, she slipped in two movies "Foxes" and "Carny" before taking a longer hiatus to attend the prestigious Yale University, majored English Literature. While studying there, she didn't let her acting skill went blunt, joining an off campus student play titled "Getting Out" she wasn't really into theatrical performances, "I love to see theater but not to work in it. Too messy, and I have a bit of an inferiority complex."

Fame eventually came with a consequence. Few miles away a man named John Hinckley, Jr in Colorado moved to New Haven, Connecticut after knowing that Jodie entered Yale. Sending messages, poems and calling her on the phone, Hinckley had become so obsessed with Jodie that when she ignored him due to the disturbance, he attempted something that even Jodie could never have imagined. A fan of "Taxi Driver" which story told about the assassination of a presidential candidate, Hinckley was so inspired by the story that he insanely shot President Ronald Reagan six times when the president and his party left Hilton Hotel on March 30, 1981. Missing the all bullets but caught one on the lung after a bullet bounced back from his bulletproof car window, the president was lucky to be alive. Hinckley was then caught but Jodie who was told about the incident had to live in horror as the maniac stated that the murder attempt was dedicated to gain her attention. As she was coping with the nightmare, in the same year another lunatic named Edward Richardson also stalked her and carried loaded gun in Yale but didn't hurt her because he said she was too pretty to die. During the dark years press would swarm her like bees and began asking questions concerning the two stalkers. The wise actress, however, was smart enough to avoid the bombarding questions whenever the two names popped up. Surprisingly, despite the turmoil happening, she kept up with her study and graduated magna cum laude in 1985.

Leaving all the bizarre experiences behind, she got up and walked into her first adult role in "The Hotel New Hampshire" (1984) as a mother and housewife before acting in as well as co producing the drama "Mesmerized" (1986). Then allocating her energy to a different angle, she was sitting as the director of an episode of "Tales from the Dark Side" (1984) in 1988. Liking that position, she stated, "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." However, she didn't abandon her enthusiasm in acting too. Still maintaining her magic in this particular field, Jodie once again astonished the audience with her performance in "Stealing Home" (1988) and even more in "The Accused" (1988) where she became Sarah Tobias, a rape victim who sought justice. Was sheer magnificent with deep emotional, her portrayal in that movie gained audience's sympathy for which in 1989 she won her first Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role and also a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama.

Definitely one of the busiest celebrities in Hollywood, Jodie still managed to establish a production company called Egg in 1990 with her friend Meg Le Fauve. And when the opportunity to direct came again, she gave all her energy to "Little Man Tate" (1991). In the same year she also acted in the splendid dreadful thriller "The Silence of the Lambs." Playing opposite Anthony Hopkins who became the sinister Dr. Hannibal Lecter, Jodie had to balance the veteran actor's outstanding portrayal by being Clarice Starling, an FBI agent assigned to get clues from the psychopath to catch another serial killer. Afraid but maintaining her poised feature as a brilliant officer, Clarice managed to go through the mind of the clever psychopath, sustaining the movie in its most suspense grip. Applauded for the act, Jodie brought home an Academy Award for the category of Best Actress in a Leading Role at the awards event in 1992 and brought the movie as much as 4 other winnings in the same event. That was her second Oscar and thus she was the first actress to win 2 Oscars before reaching 30. However, when the extract of the movie was later on going to be made under the title "Hannibal" in 2001, she turned it down because she felt that the character Clarice had been exploited in the script and it was immediately given to Julianne Moore.

In 1994, seemingly interested in the idea of feminism, she hosted the biography of woman icon, Bette Davis in "All About Bette" (1994) and also joined a partly documentary drama titled "A Century of Women" (1994) about the struggle of American women over the past century. Commenting on such involvement she said, "Truth is what I look for in a film, and the truth in female history is that it includes a lot of victimization." Apart from the humanitarian projects she started to make Egg ran effectively by producing its first movie "Nell" (1994) where she also starred in as the lead role, Nell Kellty who lived in a remote where no other human ever exist. Through this movie, Jodie was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role category at the 1995 Academy Awards and also that of Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role at the 1995 SAG Awards. After that guest starring in two series "Frasier" (1993) and "The X Files" (1993) in 1996 and 1997 respectively, she continued with a sci-fi drama "Contact" (1997) for which the 1998 Golden Globe Awards nominated her for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama category.

Successful as an actress, her private life seemed reclusive from the eye of the public and as people began questioning her orientation towards men, in 1998 she cancelled her role in "Double Jeopardy" (1999) because she bore acting as a child. Keeping the identity of the father closely tight, Charles Foster was born July 20, 1998 and subsequently in 2001 another son named Kit Foster was born on September 29. It was at first questionable that she chose to do single parenting for two children in between her hectic schedule but it then came to sense when she said, "Strange, ugly things happen between single parents and children. And also the most beautiful things." Soon after a year break following her first son's birth, she signed for a conventional movie taking set in Thailand "Anna and the King" (1999) opposite Chinese actor Chow Yun-Fat and resumed to the next movie "The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys" (2001) in which she interestingly acted as Sister Assumpta. Taking "Panic Room" (2002) as her next film project after Nicole Kidman turned down the role Meg Altman because of knee injury, she perfectly built the suspense and was successful in making the movie intense enough to hit the US Box Office before then played a small role in French movie "A Very Long Engagement" (2004) starring Audrey Tautou.

The next year, she enrolled in a suspense thriller entitled "Flight Plan" which was almost similar to "Panic Room" only that the former was more psychotic. Playing a mother, she flew home with her daughter by plane but at the altitude of 16,000 suddenly her daughter was missing and as she looked for her, nobody admitted that they ever saw such a girl on that plane. Was it a conspiracy or simply her mind playing a trick on her, it was a well worth watching. Joining Spike Lee's "Inside Man" (2006) she was teamed with Denzel Washington and Clive Owen to become a lawyer named Madeliene White. In the same year she was back to her favorite profession, directing her fourth movie "Flora Plump." Unfortunately, she encountered some problems even before the actual shooting begun. Russell Crowe who was the original cast was injured on the shoulder hence preferred to concentrate on "A Beautiful Mind"(2001) and finally Ewan McGregor replaced him. All of this had suspended the production of the movie for almost 5 years before the filming was finally started in the end of 2005. Meanwhile, the year 2007 saw her play in another high profile flick "The Brave One" followed by others namely "Sugarland" and "Nim's Island", both coming by 2008.