Jodie Foster
Foster in 2011, photo by PrPhotos.com
Birth Name: Alicia Christian Foster
Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California, United States
Date of Birth: November 19, 1962
Ethnicity: English, some Scots-Irish/Northern Irish, Scottish, Irish, possibly German, distant French
Jodie Foster is an American actress, director, producer, filmmaker, and child model. She has twice won the Academy Award for Best Actress, for The Accused (1988) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991). She is also known for her roles in the films Napoleon and Samantha, Kansas City Bomber, Tom Sawyer (1973), Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Taxi Driver, Bugsy Malone, The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, Freaky Friday (1976), Candleshow, Foxes, Carny, The Hotel New Hampshire, Mesmerized, Stealing Home, Shadows and Fog, Sommersby, Maverick (1994), Nell, Contact, Anna and the King, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, Panic Room, A Very Long Engagement, Flightplan, Inside Man (2006), The Brave One, Nim’s Island, Carnage (2011), Elysium, Hotel Artemis, The Mauritanian, and Nyad. She has also directed the films Little Man Tate, Home for the Holidays, The Beaver (2011), and Money Monster, the first and third of which she starred in; and directed Black Mirror: Arkangel and episodes of Orange Is the New Black. She founded production company Egg Pictures.
She is the daughter of Evelyn Della/Ella “Brandy” (Almond), a film producer, and Lucius Fisher Foster III, a real estate broker, and decorated U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel. Her brother is actor Buddy Foster (Lucius Fisher Foster IV). Jodie is married to photographer, director, and actress Alexandra Hedison. Jodie has two children with her former partner Cydney Bernard.
On her father’s side, she has English, along with Scots-Irish/Northern Irish, Scottish, Irish, and distant French, ancestry. Jodie’s mother was born in the Bronx, New York, and raised in Rockford, Winnebago, Illinois; she is sometimes cited as being of part German descent. Jodie has also said that she has roots in County Cork, Ireland.
Jodie speaks French, and dubs her own roles into the language.
Jodie’s paternal grandfather was Lucius Fisher Foster (the son of Alexis Caldwell Foster and Alice Eddy Fisher). Lucius was born in Denver, Colorado, and was a member of the 336th Fighter Squadron. He was from a family with deep Colonial American roots, particularly in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and was a Mayflower descendant. Alexis was the son of Turner Saunders Foster and Harriet/Harriett Erwin. Alice was the daughter of Lucius George Fisher, Jr. and Katherine Louise Eddy.
Jodie’s paternal grandmother was Constance Marie Robertson (the daughter of Samuel R. Robertson and Elizabeth Hughes). Constance was born in Paris, Henry, Tennessee. Samuel was the son of William Platt Robertson, who had Scottish and Irish heritage; and of Louanna Noble Harris. Elizabeth was the daughter of Napoleon Emmett Hughes and Maria Constance Courtenay/Courtney.
Jodie’s biological maternal grandmother was named Josie Almond, and was born in Rockford. Jodie’s biological maternal grandfather has not been publicly identified. Jodie’s mother was adopted by Lucy M. (Lefler) and John Clinton Almond, who were related to her own biological mother.
Through her Almond line, Jodie likely descends from William Almond and Mary Ann Day, who were English, from Yorkshire.
Sources: Rolling Stone article about Jodie Foster, 1991 – http://www.rollingstone.com
Genealogies of Jodie Foster – http://famouskin.com
https://www.geni.com
http://www.countyhistorian.com
Genealogy of Jodie Foster (focusing on her father’s side) – http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com
Jodie’s mother on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://www.familysearch.org
Jodie’s mother on the 1940 U.S. Census – https://www.familysearch.org
Jodie’s mother’s adoptive parents, John Clinton Almond and Lucy M. Lefler, on the 1920 U.S. Census – https://www.familysearch.org
If her mother has the last name “Almond,” she is almost certainly Jewish. The fact that she later remarried to a man named Mazur confirms that. The mother was adopted horizontally through the family.
Also of note is that the mother apparently had a lesbian relationship when young, leading us to wonder (of course) if these traits are inherited. Either way, what a lovely lady Ms. Foster is, and in so many disturbing movies!
The Almonds were Methodists.
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=PED&db=dowfam3&id=I185836
This must be her mother:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KWTF-23B
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X39C-53N
Her mother was adopted by Lucy M. (Lefler) and John Clinton Almond.
How do you know that Josie Almond was Jodie’s biological maternal grandmother? And that Lucy and John were related to Jodie’s mother? Lucy and Josie could be the same person.
…from the “County Historian” link I added, which cites Foster’s brother’s book…
Oh, I see now. In that case I would change to:
Jodie’s mother was adopted by her first cousin once removed, John Clinton Almond, and his wife, Lucy M. (Lefler). The magazine Rolling Stone has written that “Born in the Bronx to a strict German family, Brandy Foster [Jodie’s mother] was raised in Rockford, Illinois.”
http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/jodie-foster-makes-it-work-19910321
Jodie’s biological maternal grandmother was Josie Almond. Josie had an affair with an older man, Jodie’s biological maternal grandfather, and got pregnant, and the child, Jodie’s mother, was subsequently raised by Josie’s cousin and his wife. Josie was the granddaughter of William Almond and Mary Ann Day, who were both English.
I’m however not sure that the Rolling Stone article refers to Jodie’s biological maternal grandparents. It says “family” which is hardly a description you can give to a woman giving birth to her lovers child (although, maybe Josie was married to someone at that time). And Lucy Lefler has some German ancestry through her surname, which might be enough for a magazine to say she was “German”. On the other side, it also says “born in the Bronx to…”, and the Almond family lived in Illinois, presumably at the time of Evelyn’s birth. I don’t know what to make of it. But at least English should be added to Jodie’s mother’s ethnicity, whether German should remain or not I don’t know.
She is lesbian according to starfluff
So what? There are gays, lesbians, bisexuals and straights in the world. Just a fact of life. And?
She is lesbian