She was born into a well heeled Californian family, where she learned French before English. From the start, her mother arranged for the girl to be in commercials. This led to television roles and feature films, in heavy roles in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and Taxi Driver. Surprised on how she handled the subject material, she earned an Oscar nomination at 14.
She then decided to stop acting and major in African-American literature at Yale. Then, tragedy struck. An obsessive man attempted to kill President Ronald Reagan to show his love for her. Refusing to talk about the incident, she told Charlie Rose her trauma is no where near that of James Brady, the then White House Press Secretary who was paralyzed for life by the shooting.
Coming back to Hollywood, she had success in her second wave: The Accused and The Silence of the Lambs, where she won the Oscar for Best Actress. Little Man Tate, Maverick, and Nell, where she earned her fourth Oscar nomination, followed. As the new millennium settled, she found steady work as a character actress and later a director.
She is Jodie Foster.