Known for: Taxi Driver and Silence of the Lambs
Net worth: $100 million
Do you remember that darling Coppertone ad with a dog tugging at the back of a pig-tailed toddler’s bikini? That was Jodie Foster. She started young in film as well. Her role in Taxi Driver (1976), in which she played a child prostitute as a twelve-year-old, is memorably recognized with an Academy Award nomination. Foster took a break from acting to graduate from Yale. Returning as a serious actor, she played a rape survivor In The Accused (1988). The role delivered her an Oscar for Best Actress, her first of two.
Her most widely acclaimed and well-known movie, partly due to the fact that it’s impossible to un-see, is the epic horror flick, The Silence of the Lambs. Her portrayal of the FBI Academy student, Ms. Clarice Starling, won her another Best Actress Academy Award. Trying her hand at directing, Foster has directed film and television. She’s worked with Netflix directing episodes of Orange is the New Black, House of Cards and Black Mirror. While at Yale, an obsessive fan stalked Jodie Foster. On March 30, 1981, he sought to impress her by assassinating President Ronald Reagan. The president escaped wounded.
Jamison Newlander
Known for: The Lost Boys
Net worth: $1 million
Long before Buffy was a thing, Jamison Newlander played a vampire hunter fighting off vamps alongside his brother. The Lost Boys (1987) starring Corey Feldman as his brother, Kiefer Sutherland and Corey Haim was popular! The film franchise includes two sequels, a comic book series, plus a television series in the works.
Newlander graduated from Beverly Hills High School and moved to the East coast to study acting. In 1996 he became an award-winning playwright with his play, “Remember This.” He starred with River Phoenix in the TV movie, Circle of Violence: A Family Drama shortly before Phoenix’s death. In Valerie , he starred with Jason Bateman. Newlander had a bi-weekly podcast called “The Jamison Newlander and Some Other Guy Show” that streamed on Saturdays. He’s currently working on getting another podcast online called “Current Frequencies.” Also on the Internet, he created a Wikisoap, the first-ever soap opera of its kind.
Meryl Streep
Known for: Winning the most Oscar nominations
Net worth: $90 million
Playing opposite Dustin Hoffman in Kramer vs. Kramer is another actor of our cinematic pantheon, the incomparable Meryl Streep. “Mrs. Kramer” is but one masterful performance by the renowned film goddess.
Meryl, short for Mary, is a nickname her father came up with since every other woman in the family was named Mary. After enrolling at the Yale School of Drama, she started acting in the 1960s but hit it big in the 1970s. In 1977, Julia turned out to be her breakout film. By 1978 she received her first Oscar nomination for The Deer Hunter. In all, she has been nominated for a record 21 Academy Awards and 31 Golden Globe Awards. She won eight Golden Globes. Besides Kramer vs. Kramer, she has won an Oscar for Sophie’s Choice and The Iron Lady. Her work ethic is impeccable. She’s known to prepare obsessively. At first, Dustin Hoffman was annoyed by her tireless intensity.
Cybill Shepherd
Known for: The Last Picture Show, Moonlighting and Taxi Driver
Net worth: $40 million
As a 1960s supermodel, Cybill Shepherd donned the cover of every leading fashion industry magazine. One of those covers caught the eye of film director, Peter Bogdanovich. Instantaneously, he found the “Jacy” character for The Last Picture Show role he was casting. By the 1970s, she became the decade’s quintessential American beauty replete with blonde hair and glassy blue eyes. In Taxi Driver, Shepherd played a character whose preternatural beauty entranced and obsessed Robert DeNiro’s character. By 40, she became L’Oréal’s confident and drop-dead-gorgeous spokeswoman.
The title of her autobiography gives a vivid sense of who she is: Cybill Disobedience: How I Survived Beauty Pageants, Elvis, Sex, Bruce Willis, Lies, Marriage, Motherhood, Hollywood, and the Irrepressible Urge to Say What I Think. She’s been honored for her activism supporting human rights awareness, like gay rights and a woman’s right to abortion.
Piper Laurie
Known for: Carrie
Net worth: $10 million
Piper Laurie lost her virginity to Ronald Reagan. President Reagan’s original career as an actor is well known, but it was only more recently in her memoir, Learning to Live Out Loud when Piper Laurie revealed the relationship details. On the set of Louisa starring Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, Julie Adams, and James Best, he seduced young Piper. In the movie, he played her father. One word: “awkward.” He insisted she calls him “Ronnie.”
The three-time Oscar nominee took a 15-year hiatus during the Civil Rights movement to protest the Vietnam War, feeling it was important to prioritize her efforts. Coming back to star in the terrifying horror movie Carrie, Laurie earned another Oscar nomination. She starred in The Hustler with Paul Newman and received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. She also starred in Children of a Lesser God. On TV, she played George Clooney’s mom on ER. We can see her in Will & Grace, Cold Case, and Law & Order.