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Jodie Foster, American actress, was born Alicia Christian Foster on
November 19, 1962 in Los Angeles, California. Her father had left the
family before her birth, leaving Alicia and her three siblings to be
raised by their mother, Evelyn Foster, a Hollywood publicist. Her
mother was able to find on-screen work for any of the children
interested in it, and so Jodie made her first appearance on screen at
age three in a Coppertone sunscreen commercial. Jodie later achieved
bit parts in many popular television shows before beginning a movie
career at age ten in Walt Disney's Napoleon and Samantha. She found time
for an Honors degree in English Literature from Yale University, then
resumed her acting career, taking on directorial duties in movies such
as Nell and Little Man Tate. Fluent in French, she uses her own voice in
French translations of her own films. When she was still young, Jodie
was a standout of great maturity in the movie, "Bugsy Malone", as Tallulah,
a part that would later be reproduced to excellence on stage by
Catherine Zeta Jones.
Jodie acquired her nickname from a family friend, Josephine D, shortened
to Jodie. Her most famous role was as a teenage prostitute in the 1976
film, "Taxi Driver." The film became a classic, winning Jodie an Oscar
nomination for Best Supporting Actress while she was still only 14.
Ultimately the film became an obsession for a crazed fan who wrote her
many letters and later attempted to assasinate President Ronald Reagan
in 1981. A second stalker, enamored by Jodie, has inspired her to since
retire from the public spotlight and remain one of the more private
celebrities. 1988 gave her a role in "The Accused," a film that
achieved her a Golder Globe, a National Board of Review Award, and an
Oscar for Best Actress. She then went on for her next Oscar-winning
performance in the classic terror flick, "Silence of the Lambs" (1991).
She won her second Best Actress Oscar, both before the age of 30, the
first time ever for Hollywood actresses. Jodie has given birth to two
sons since 1998 and raised them as a single mother, keeping the identity
of the father or fathers a secret. She continues to carefully choose
her cinematic roles, always for character rather than monetary reasons,
and remains as elusive as a modern day Greta Garbo.