Foster, Jodie (Alicia Christian Foster), 1962–, American actress and film director, b. Los Angeles, Yale Univ. (B.A., 1985). A child model, she began acting in TV commercials at three, appeared on various TV shows, and made her screen debut in Disney's Napoleon and Samantha (1972). Her first important role was as the barely adolescent prostitute of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976). While attending Yale University, she was the target of the stalker John Hinckley Jr., who became obsessed with her after seeing Taxi Driver; he later attempted to assassinate then-president Ronald Reagan. She achieved undisputed Hollywood stardom and best actress Oscars for her portrayals of a working-class rape victim in The Accused (1988) and an FBI agent on the trail of a serial killer in The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Foster's other films include Bugsy Malone (1976), Carny (1980), Sommersby (1993), Nell (1994), Maverick (1995), in which she costarred with Mel Gibson, Anna and the King (1999), and Panic Room (2002), her last major commercial hit as an actress. She received her fifth Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress in Nyad (2023). Foster began directing features with Little Man Tate (1991), in which she also starred, and, during the 2010s, directed several feature films and TV dramas, with mixed success. She was awarded the Golden Globe's Cecil B. DeMille Award (2013)
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