Who would have thought that the Coppertone Girl would one day grow up to be ranked among Hollywood`s power elite?
While other former child stars make tabloid headlines, Jodie Foster wins Academy Awards. Not yet 30, she has more than 25 films to her credit. She joins a select group of enduring actors who have grown up onscreen before our eyes.
Home video allows us to rewind and fast-forward through Foster`s celluloid life, beginning with her film debut in 1972 at age 10, opposite Johnny Whitaker and Michael Douglas in Disney`s ”Napoleon and Samantha.”
Her latest triumph, ”Little Man Tate,” was recently released on video, and ”The Silence of the Lambs,” for which she won her second Oscar, is being re-released in May at a sell-through price.
A scan of Foster`s films reveals a gallery of quirky and unconventional characters. ”Bugsy Malone” (1976) is a gangster musical populated solely by children. Foster is all brash and sass as saloon singer Tallulah, who invites Bugsy (Scott Baio) to smear her lipstick.
Only a year separates Foster`s two films for Martin Scorsese, but they are worlds apart. In ”Alice Doesn`t Live Here Anymore,” she is a
shoplifting, ripple-swigging small-town tomboy. In the infamous ”Taxi Driver,” she portrayed prepubescent urban hooker Iris.
Foster begins to come of age as a larcenous girl of the midway in
”Carny” (1980) and the teenage Valley Girl in ”Foxes.” Eight years later, she won her first Academy Award for her gripping performance as the gang-rape victim in ”The Accused.”
Ron Howard is another former child star whose career successfully survived puberty. Howard has long since shaken off the dust of Mayberry to become one of Hollywood`s most successful directors.
But for the television generation, he remains frozen in time as sheriff Andy Taylor`s son. ”Opie`s Adventures,” a three-episode Opie-thon, is available from United American Video (803-548-7300), as are other original episodes from ”The Andy Griffith Show.”
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Howard was one of the most natural of child actors. He held his own with Glenn Ford in ”The Courtship of Eddie`s Father,” and with Robert Preston and Shirley Jones in ”The Music Man.” As Genius, he stole ”Village of the Giants” from former adolescent veterans Tommy Kirk, Johnny Crawford (formerly ”The Rifleman`s” son) and a behemoth Beau Bridges.
By the time of ”American Graffiti,” he was the most recognizable star in an ensemble of then-unknowns that included Richard Dreyfuss, Cindy Williams and Harrison Ford.
Home video provides ample evidence that not all child actors wind up as fugitives from ”America`s Most Wanted.” Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer boasted that it had more stars than there were in the heavens. None were more enduring than Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney and Elizabeth Taylor.
In commemoration of what would have been Garland`s 70th birthday, MGM/UA Home Video recently released for the first time four of her earliest films. In addition to ”Little Nelly Kelly” (1940), the collection includes three pre-”Wizard of Oz” musicals: ”Everybody Sing”; ”Listen Darling”; and
”Thoroughbreds Don`t Cry.”
Few careers reach the peaks or plunge the depths as has Rooney`s. But with a touch of the ”play” button, he is once again Andy Hardy.
In addition to such well-known films as ”Boy`s Town” and ”The Human Comedy,” home video preserves more than five decades of dramatic performances in the made-for-TV ”The Comedian,” ”Requiem for a Heavyweight, ”The Black Stallion” and ”Bill,” for which he won an Emmy Award.
The passing years and media scrutiny have done little to tarnish Elizabeth Taylor`s lustre. All the phases of her career are well-represented on video, from beatific child star (”Lassie Come Home” and ”National Velvet”) to screen icon (co-host of ”That`s Entertainment”).
May and June bring to video two films featuring some of today`s child stars: Macaulay Culkin and Anna Chlumsky in ”My Girl,” and Christina Ricci as the deadpan daughter Wednesday in ”The Addams Family.”