American actress, director, and producer who won Oscars as Best Actress for her role of a rape survivor in The Accused (1988) and as an FBI trainee in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
She appeared in TV commercials from age three and is a veteran of various TV series that included stints in Gunsmoke (1969-1972), My Three Sons (1971), Ironside (1972) and The Partridge Family (1973). Her androgynous blonde looks and deep voice were also seen in small film roles before her first starring vehicle as a 12-year-old child prostitute in Taxi Driver (1976). Foster’s early experience included Disney films and European films. At the age of nine, she was mauled by a lion on the set of a Disney film Napoleon and Samantha (1972). He picked her up in his mouth and shook her like a rabbit. When the trainer order the beast to put her down, she was rushed to the hospital where she was given shots and stitches for puncture wounds. She made her own choice to return to the film.
When Foster was born, her parents were already separated and she was raised by her mother with supportive approval. The youngest of four kids, she had an eclectic and unconventional upbringing, exposed to Hollywood from youth due to her mother’s job with a movie producer. When her brother Buddy tried out for a TV commercial, she stole the scene at three, leading to other roles. By 1970 she was working consistently on various shows and by 1974, honing her acting skills with performances that were intelligent and hard edged.
Her performance in Taxi Driver won her an Oscar nomination. Making an effort to be a “normal” teen, Foster enrolled in Yale University in 1981. She graduated magna cum laude in 1985 with a B.A. in literature. Her attempt to have privacy during her education was interrupted by the unwelcome attention of an admirer, a stalker-type fan, John Hinckley Jr. On 30 March 1981, he made an attempt to assassinate President Reagan after writing a series of love letters to Foster.
Foster took on the role of director with Little Man Tate in 1993 and the following year, created her own production company, Egg Pictures. The company’s first release was Nell for which she received another Best Actress Oscar nomination.
In 1976, she again received unwelcome publicity when her brother Buddy published an unauthorized biography, Foster Child, in which she charged that she abused drugs and was “probably a lesbian.” She remarked that Buddy had left home at nine and the book was “a cheap cry for attention and money.” She has always guarded her privacy and normalcy.
In 1998, Foster announced her pregnancy but would not discuss the ways and means. On 20 July, she gave birth to a son, Charles. She found plenty of support in raising Charles with her girlfriend, Cydney Bernard. On 29 September 2001, Foster, 38, gave birth to a six-lb.-three-oz. boy, Kit Foster, in Los Angeles. As with her older son Charles, three, the Oscar winner would not identify the child’s father. Foster and Bernard were in a relationship from 1993 until 2008.
She has concentrated on directing in the 2010s, with the films The Beaver (2011) and Money Monster (2016), and episodes for Netflix television series Orange Is the New Black, House of Cards, and Black Mirror. She received her first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for “Lesbian Request Denied”, the third episode of the former.
In April 2014, Foster married actress and photographer Alexandra Hedison after a year of dating.
Link to Wikipedia biography