Jodie Foster

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Jodie Foster graduated from Yale with a degree in English in 1985

Jodie Foster was a gifted child who learned to read at the age of three. She attended a French-language prep school, the Lycée Français de Los Angeles. Her fluency in French has enabled her to act in French films, and she also dubs herself in French-language versions of most of her English-language films. She also understands Italian, although she does not speak it, as well as some German and Spanish. At her graduation in 1980, she delivered the valedictory address for the school's French division. Already a successful actor, Foster attended Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. She majored in literature, writing her thesis on Toni Morrison under the guidance of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and graduated magna cum laude in 1985. She returned to Yale in 1993 to address the graduating class, and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree in 1997

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Jodie Foster began acting in commercials at the age of three, and her first significant role came in 1976 as a child prostitute in Taxi Driver (left), for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1989, for playing a rape victim in The Accused. In 1991, she starred in The Silence of the Lambs as Clarice Starling, a gifted FBI trainee, assisting in a hunt for a serial killer. This performance received international acclaim and her second Academy Award for Best Actress. She received her third Best Actress Academy Award nomination for playing a backwoods hermit in Nell (1994). Her other best-known work includes Contact (1997), Panic Room (2002), Flightplan (2005), Inside Man (2006) and The Brave One (2007). Foster made her directorial debut in 1991 with Little Man Tate; she also directed the films Home for the Holidays (1995) and The Beaver (2011). In addition to her two Academy Awards, she has won three BAFTA Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, the Cecil B DeMille Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

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FILE - In this Aug. 7, 2013 file photo, Jodie Foster arrives at the world premiere of "Elysium" at the Regency Village Theater, in Los Angeles. A representative for the Oscar-winning actress confirms that Foster wed girlfriend Alexandra Hedison over the weekend. Publicist Jennifer Allen offered no other details Wednesday, April 23, 2014. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP, file)

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Actress-director Jodie Foster poses with the Cecil B. DeMille Award for outstanding contributions to the entertainment field backstage at the 70th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 13, 2013, in Beverly Hills, Calif. ( Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

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Jodie Foster is Meg Altman in 'Panic Room.' (Associated Press)

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Jodie Foster (Invision via AP)

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**FILE** Actress Jodie Foster attends Comic-Con in San Diego on July 13, 2012. (Matt Sayles/Invision/Associated Press)

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From left, John C. Reilly, Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet co-star in the claustrophobic "Carnage." (Sony Pictures Classics)

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Actress and director Jodie Foster talks about her movie The Beaver starring actor Mel Gibson, during an interview at the Mandarin Oriental in Washington D.C., Monday, April 3, 2011. (Photo by Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)

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Actress and director Jodie Foster talks about her movie The Beaver starring actor Mel Gibson, during an interview at the Mandarin Oriental in Washington D.C., Monday, April 3, 2011. (Photo by Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)

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SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS Jodie Foster and Mel Gibson consult during the filming of "The Beaver."

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Actress and director Jodie Foster talks about her movie The Beaver starring actor Mel Gibson, during an interview at the Mandarin Oriental in Washington D.C., Monday, April 3, 2011. (Photo by Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROD LAMKEY JR./THE WASHINGTON TIMES Actress and director Jodie Foster talks about her movie The Beaver starring actor Mel Gibson, during an interview at the Mandarin Oriental in Washington D.C., Monday, April 3, 2011. (Photo by Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)