Alicia Christian “Jodie” Foster (photo ©Georges Biard) was born on November 19, 1962, in Los Angeles, California.

Her mother Evelyn was abandoned by her husband when she was pregnant with Jodie and, working as a film producer, was able to have her children work in TV, cinema, and advertising. Jodie made her debut when she was only three years old in the advertising for Coppertone suntan lotion.

Jodie was a child prodigy who could already read at three. She started appearing on television in popular shows such as “Gunsmoke”, “The Addams Family”, “Paper Moon” and “Kung Fu” and since 1972 in various Disney movies from “Napoleon and Samantha” to “One Little Indian” and “Alice Does not Live Here Anymore”.

The big breakthrough for Jodie Foster came with the 1976 movie “Taxi Driver”, where she was followed by a psychiatrist to avoid trauma due to the sensitive themes of the movie. In the crudest scenes, her character was played by her older sister Connie. This movie was followed in the same year by “Bugsy Malone” and “Freaky Friday”, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination, her first one.

In 1977, Jodie Foster starred in the Italian movie “Beach House” (“Casotto”), which allowed her to learn the Italian language.

Jodie Foster kept on studying and in 1980 she graduated from the Lycée Français de Los Angeles, a French-language school where she learned to speak that language fluently. Later, she studied at Yale University, where she earned a bachelor’s in literature in 1985.

During her studies at the university, Jodie Foster was the object of attention of a deranged man, John Hinckley, the same who in 1984 shot then-President Ronald Reagan. The event was understandably very traumatic for Foster, who doesn’t want to even hear the name Hinckley.

Jodie Foster’s career continued successfully with various movies moving from being a child actress to grown-up roles even if her movies weren’t always successful. She also started expanding her activities and in 1984 she made her debut as a director in an episode of the TV show “Tales from the Darkside”. In 1986 she starred and was also a producer of the movie “Mesmerized”.

Wanting to look for more challenging roles, though difficult, in 1988 Jodie Foster starred in “The Accused”, for which she won a Golden Globe and an Oscar.

In 1991, Jodie Foster starred in the hugely successful movie “The Silence of the Lambs”, for which she won a Golden Globe and an Oscar again. In the same year, she made her debut as a movie director in the movie “Little Man Tate”.

In the following years, Jodie Foster starred in films of various genres, from the comedy “Shadows and Fogs” in 1992, the drama “Sommersby” in 1993, the comedy western “Maverick” in 1994, and the science fiction “Contact” in 1997.

Jodie Foster briefly interrupted her career when she had her first son, Charles, but later returned to acting in “Anna and the King” in 1999. After another break to have her second son, Christopher, she came back again, always choosing productions of different types even though they often were thrillers such as “Panic Room” in 2002, “Flightplan” in 2005, “Inside Man” in 2006, and “The Brave One”, of which was she’s also the producer, in 2007.

In 2004, Jodie Foster also starred in the French movie “A Very Long Engagement” (“Un long dimanche de fiançailles”). The French are lucky because they can often appreciate her acting even in the dubbed versions of her movies: in fact, on many occasions she dubbed herself.

In recent years, she returned to comedy to star in “Nim’s Island” in 2008, “The Beaver” in 2011, of which she was also the director, and “Carnage” in 2011.

Jodie Foster is a very private person so for example she hasn’t revealed who’s the father (or fathers) of her children. There are also a lot of speculations about her sexual orientation but she never revealed anything about her relationships. Instead, she stated she’s an atheist.

Jodie Foster has several projects for the future so we can rest assured that we’ll see this extraordinary actress act for a long time!