Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Jodie Foster

Jodie Foster

Alicia Christian Foster was born on November 19, 1962, in Los Angeles, California. Foster’s father, Lucian, left the family before she was born; her mother, Evelyn, supported herself and her four children by working for a film producer. Advertising executives for Coppertone suntan lotion “discovered” Foster when she tagged along with her older brother Buddy, a child actor, to one of his auditions. At age three, she became the tow-headed, bare-bottomed “Coppertone girl” in a now-famous ad campaign.
By age eight, Foster had expanded her acting repertoire to include nearly forty commercials, as well as appearances on television shows such as The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, Bonanza, and The Partridge Family. By the time she was ten years old, her acting jobs were supporting the entire Foster family. Her feature film debut came in 1972 with the Disney film Napoleon and Samantha. In the next five years, she appeared in no fewer than eleven more films, bringing to each role a precocious intelligence that impressed both critics and filmmakers.

In 1976, Foster made what she has referred to as the film that changed her life--the dark, violent Taxi Driver, directed by Martin Scorsese. Her performance won her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Unlike many young actors, Foster, who learned to read at age three, chose not to sacrifice her education to her growing film career. After graduating in 1980 from Los Angeles Lycee Francais (where she delivered the valedictory address in perfect French), she enrolled at Yale University. In March 1981, however, Foster was dragged unwillingly into the international spotlight when John Hinckley, Jr. attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan, stating as his primary motive the desire to impress the nineteen-year-old actress and Yale freshman. Foster was so affected by Hinckley’s actions and the subsequent media frenzy that she published an article in Esquire plaintively entitled “Why Me?” and refused to speak publicly about the incident any further.

Foster graduated magna cum laude from Yale in 1985 with a B.A. in Literature. She made a number of films during and in the few years after college, but none attracted as much attention or won her as much acclaim as Taxi Driver. In 1988, however, Foster finally gained respect as an adult actress--along with an Academy Award--for her portrayal of Sarah Tobias, the working-class victim of a brutal gang rape in The Accused. Her next great performance came three years later in the haunting thriller, The Silence of the Lambs. With darkened hair and a West Virginia twang, Foster played fledgling FBI agent Clarice Starling opposite the mesmerizing Anthony Hopkins as psychologist-cum-serial-killer Hannibal Lecter. At the 1991 Academy Awards, the film won Best Picture, Best Director (Jonathan Demme), Best Actor and Best Actress.

Her directorial debut came in 1991 with Little Man Tate, a moderately well-received film about a child prodigy and his protective single mother (played by Foster). In 1992, Polygram Filmed Entertaiment committed to finance three films for Foster’s production company, Egg Pictures. Foster produced and starred in the first of those films, 1994’s Nell; her performance as a woman who lives in the woods and speaks in her own invented language earned her a fourth Oscar nomination.

Over the past several years, Foster directed her second film, 1995’s comedy Home for the Holidays and delivered a Golden Globe-nominated performance as an astronomer looking for extraterrestrial life in 1997’s Contact. Egg Pictures has several pictures in development, all of which Foster has the option to produce, direct, and/or star in. In late 1999, Foster starred in Anna and the King. She is set to direct and produce Disney’s Flora Plum in 2000, but has reportedly turned down the opportunity to re-team with Anthony Hopkins in the much-awaited sequel to The Silence of the Lambs, called Hannibal. Today she lives in the San Fernando Valley with her son, Charles, who was born on July 20, 1998.

Angelina Jolie Voight

Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie is the daughter of Academy Award-winning actor Jon Voight, 58, and former actress/model Marcheline Bertrand, 46. Jon Voight separated from Bertrand when Jolie was 1, remained in California while the family lived on the East coast. "He was the perfect example of an artist who couldn't be married," she says. "He had the perfect family, but there's something for him that's very scary about that." Jolie, is her middle name. Ultimately, she decided to use it because, she says, "I love my father, but I'm not him".

Angelina began training and performing at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute at around 12. She was seen in several stage productions at the Institute. She worked as a professional model in London, New York and Los Angeles, and has also appeared in music videos for such artists as the Rolling Stones, Meat Loaf, Lenny Kravitz, Antonello Venditti and The Lemonheads. In addition, she has acted in five student films for the USC School of Cinema, all directed by her brother, James Haven Voight. She landed her first feature film starring part in HACKERS, about a group of high school computer hackers. Previously, she had roles in independent features Gathering Evidence and Oh No, Not Her.

Angelina was recently married to her co-star from Hackers, Jonny Lee Miller. The marriage took place in May of 1996 where she wore black rubber clothes (although they are now divorced). She has a extensive dagger collection (likes knives) and has several tattoos (one is the Japanese word for death on her shoulder). Today Angelina splits her time between New York and Los Angeles.

Angelina Jolie


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