Jodie Foster Timeline

Jodie Foster 15

1965 Jodie Foster appears in a Coppertone commercial Her first professional job, as a toddler At about three years old, Foster appeared in a television advertisement for Coppertone sunscreen. It started a busy career as a child performer in TV and commercials.
1972 Jodie Foster makes her feature film debut in Napoleon and Samantha Disney family adventure film Foster made her big-screen debut opposite Michael Douglas and Johnny Whitaker in Disney's Napoleon and Samantha. Before that she had mostly worked in television.
1976 Jodie Foster stars in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver Her performance as Iris earns her first Oscar nomination Aged 12 at the time of filming, Foster played a child prostitute in Scorsese's Taxi Driver. The role earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
1981 John Hinckley Jr. shoots President Reagan to impress Jodie Foster Assassination attempt by a man obsessed with the actress While Foster was a freshman at Yale, John Hinckley Jr. shot President Ronald Reagan in Washington, D.C. He said he did it to win her attention, and the media frenzy that followed affected her for years.
1985 Jodie Foster graduates from Yale University B.A. in literature, magna cum laude Foster finished her degree in literature at Yale and kept acting during her studies. After that she went back to acting full-time.
1989 Jodie Foster wins the Best Actress Oscar for The Accused Her first Academy Award Foster won the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing a rape survivor seeking justice in The Accused. The win restarted her adult career.
1991 Jodie Foster stars as Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs Jonathan Demme's thriller opposite Anthony Hopkins Foster played FBI trainee Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs. The film became a critical and box-office hit and went on to sweep the major Oscars.
1991 Jodie Foster makes her directorial debut with Little Man Tate She directs and co-stars in a drama about a child prodigy Foster directed and acted in Little Man Tate, a film about a gifted boy and his working-class mother. It made her a filmmaker as well as an actress.
1992 Jodie Foster wins her second Best Actress Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs The film sweeps the five top Academy Awards Foster won her second Best Actress Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs. The film became only the third to win all five major categories.
1997 Jodie Foster stars in Robert Zemeckis's Contact Adaptation of Carl Sagan's novel Foster played astronomer Ellie Arroway, who detects a signal from extraterrestrial intelligence, in Contact. She received a Golden Globe nomination for the role.
2013 Jodie Foster receives the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes Her acceptance speech publicly acknowledges her sexuality While accepting the lifetime achievement award, Foster gave a widely discussed speech. In it she publicly acknowledged she was gay and thanked her former partner Cydney Bernard.
2014 Jodie Foster marries photographer Alexandra Hedison Wedding after about a year together Foster married photographer and actress Alexandra Hedison in April 2014, after they had dated for about a year.
2021 Jodie Foster receives an honorary Palme d'Or at Cannes Honoured at the opening of the 74th Cannes Film Festival Foster received an honorary Palme d'Or for her career at the opening ceremony of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. That same year she also won a Golden Globe for The Mauritanian.
2024 Jodie Foster wins her first Emmy for True Detective: Night Country Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series Foster won her first Primetime Emmy Award for playing police chief Liz Danvers in True Detective: Night Country. She later won the Golden Globe for the same role.
2025 Jodie Foster premieres the French-language film Vie privée at Cannes Rebecca Zlotowski's A Private Life Foster starred as a psychiatrist investigating a patient's death in Rebecca Zlotowski's Vie privée. She performed the role in French, and the film premiered out of competition at Cannes.