"Trust me, 47 years in the film business is a long time," said Jodie Foster when she accepted her Cecil B. DeMille award at the Golden Globes in 2013. She should know. Foster made her acting debut in a Coppertone commercial when she was just three. She would go on to appear in several TV shows and films. But what really put her on the map was playing opposite Robert DeNiro in Martin Scorsese's haunting 1976 film Taxi Driver. "Taxi Driver completely changed my life," she later said. "It was the first time I realized that acting wasn't just this hobby you just sort of did. But that there was actually some craft."
From there Foster was unstoppable and morphed from comedy to dramatic parts with equal panache. She even managed to graduate magna cum laude from Yale. And even after all these years, the two-time, Oscar-winning actress, director and producer continues to develop her creative prowess. She directed House of Cards and several episodes of Orange Is The New Black, one of which earned her an Emmy nomination in 2014. "If I make two movies my entire life, and they're two movies that -- whether they make a lot of money or two people go to see them -- they speak of me, then I consider them incredibly successful," said Foster. We say she's triumphed.
Celebrate Jodie Foster's 53rd birthday with her words of wisdom over the years. To read her quotes click to this story at Parade.com.