Jodie Foster

Guide Note

American actress, director and producer Jodie Foster began her on-screen career at age three, appearing as the bare-bottomed child in the famous Coppertone advertisement. She appeared in various television series and commercials throughout her childhood before landing her breakthrough role in 1976 in director Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver. Her role as an underage prostitute opposite Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel earned her an Academy Award nomination for "Best Supporting Actress" at only age fourteen.

Before the age of thirty, Foster won two "Best Actress" Oscars: The first in 1989 for her role as Sarah Tobias in The Accused and the next in 1992 for portraying Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs.

Foster's directorial debut came in 1991 with Little Man Tate and the next year she founded Egg Pictures production studio, which produced mostly independent movies until its closure in 2001.

Fast Facts

1. Birth Name: Alicia Christian Foster
2. Date of Birth: November 19, 1962
3. Birth place: Los Angeles, California
4. Graduated magna cum laude from Yale University in 1985
5. 2 Children: Charles (born 1998) and Kit (born 2001)

1. On her Taxi Driver role: "I spent four hours with a shrink to prove that I was normal enough to play a hooker. It was the role that changed my life. For the first time 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."
2. "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."