Jodie Foster has been acting for basically her entire life, and that’s no exaggeration! She started acting in TV commercials at the age of three, and before attending college she had accumulated no fewer than 50 credits to her name, including the role of Iris in Taxi Driver, which netted her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress! At the age of 14, she hosted Saturday Night Live, and appeared in TV shows such as Mayberry RFD and Gunsmoke. Foster continued acting into adulthood, appearing in movies such as The Accused and Silence of the Lambs, both of which won her Oscars for Best Actress, and other films including Maverick, Contact, Nell, Anna and the King, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, Panic Room and Inside Man. And, of course, she starred in Flightplan, which Robin mentioned on our podcast about big movie plot holes! One final credit of Foster’s that I want to mention was as the voice of an evil tattoo on an episode of The X-Files, which was undeniably cool. Foster’s movie output has slowed down a bit in recent years, but she still finds time to act and direct, having worked behind and in front of the camera on The Beaver and acting in the upcoming Roman Polanski film Carnage.
To round this somewhat directionless bio off, here are some fun facts about Foster: she can speak German, Italian and French, and often dubs herself in the French versions of her films, and she’s a descendant of some of the passengers of the Mayflower! Jodie Foster turns 49 today.