Jodie began her showbiz adventure as the three-year-old Coppertone Girl for a commercial advertising sunscreen of the same name. Her film career began in the 1970s with a role in the made-for-TV movie Menace of the Mountain. Menace was followed a succession of Disney features for the emerging child star, beginning with One Little Indian in 1972. Candleshore wrapped up Jodie's stunt with the family film giant. Her claim to fame with Disney came in 1976 with Freaky Friday, co-starring Barbara Harris. Barbara and Jodie played Ellen and Annabel Andrews, a mother-daughter duo with strained relations who are mystically forced to trade places for a day. The film was successfully remade twice, in the early 90s, featuring Shelley Long and Gaby Hoffman, and again in 2003 with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan.
Yet it was the role that garnered Jodie her first Oscar nomination at fourteen that undoubtedly made her a star. In 1976, Jodie teamed up with director Martin Scorsese and actor Robert De Niro for Taxi Driver. Jodie played Iris, a twelve-year-old lady of the night. De Niro's character, the title taxi driver, becomes obsessed with saving young Iris from the streets. The mentally disturbed cabbie even plots to kill a presidential candidate, which served as a bit of irony four years later.
In 1981, a hapless mental patient named John Hinckley shot President Ronald Reagan and three others. He claimed that he did it to impress Jodie Foster. Hinckley also stalked Jodie while she was a popular honors student at Yale.
So the 1980s didn't get off to such a hot start, but that all changed toward the end of the decade. Jodie won both a Golden Globe and an Oscar for her portrayal of "Sexy Sadie," a party girl who becomes the victim of a violent gang rape. The 90s brought Jodie more jewels as she earned another Academy Award for her performance alongside Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs. The film remains a cinematic gem featuring timeless lines like, "I ate his liver with some fava beans," from Hopkins' cannibal Hannibal Lecter.
Shortly after the success of Silence of the Lambs, Jodie decided to try her hand at directing. Her directorial debut came in 1991 with Little Man Tate, in which she also co-starred. The film chronicled the life of a child prodigy who "just wants to be like other people." She later directed Home for the Holidays, starring Hollywood bad boy Robert Downey Jr.
Many have wondered why Jodie Foster, a former child star, managed to find immense mainstream success when other child stars like Tatum ONeal and Gary Coleman can barely get a gig in Vegas. Jodie summed it up in one interview: "It was very clear to me at a young age that I had to fight for my life and that if I didn't my life would get gobbled up and taken away from me.
Jodie took a break from acting, but returned in 2005 with Inside Man, pairing with fellow Oscar winner Denzel Washington. She also delivered a revered commencement address to the Class of 2006 at the University of Pennsylvania.
Jodie Foster has two sons, Charles and Christopher. There's been speculation surrounding Jodie's sexual orientation, with many leaning toward lesbian. According to Foster Child, an unauthorized biography by Jodie's brother Buddy, she is bisexual.
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