Benjamin A. Foster was born in
Boston on October 29, 1980, the son of restaurant owners Steven Foster and Gillian Kirwan.[4][5][6] He has described his parents as "free-spirited,
Vietnam-protesting hippies".[7] He has a younger brother,
Jon, who is also an actor. In 1984, the Foster family relocated to
Fairfield, Iowa when their Boston home was broken into by robbers while they were present.[6][7]
Foster was raised
Jewish, and had a
Bar Mitzvah ceremony.[7][8] His paternal grandparents were Celia (Segal) and Abraham Foster, who was a prominent judge and politician in Boston; their families emigrated from the
Russian Empire.[9][10][11] As a youth he attended
Interlochen Arts Camp and studied theatre there.[12]
Career
Foster began working as an actor when he was 16 years old.[6] In 1996 and 1997, he starred in the
Disney Channel television series Flash Forward.
Also in 2016, Foster appeared in Hell or High Water as the dangerous Tanner Howard, opposite
Chris Pine and
Jeff Bridges. Foster was acclaimed for his roles and has received numerous awards nominations.
Foster has often received praise from critics for his "intense" and "unhinged" performances in numerous films.[21][22] Film critic
Matt Zoller Seitz described Foster in 2016 as "one of those actors who makes even a bad film worth seeing. Sometimes he suggests the film you'd rather be watching."[23]
Personal life
Foster was in a relationship with German actress
Antje Traue, his co-star in the movie Pandorum. Traue revealed in an interview that she had moved to
Los Angeles and lived with Foster until their relationship ended around 2010.[24] Foster began a relationship with actress
Robin Wright in early 2012.[25][26] They became engaged in early 2014,[27] but called off their engagement on November 12, 2014.[28] Foster and Wright reconciled in early 2015;[29] however, on August 29, 2015, they announced they were ending their second engagement.[30]
In October 2016, Foster announced his engagement to actress
Laura Prepon.[31] Prepon gave birth to their first child, a daughter, Ella, in August 2017. Foster and Prepon married in June 2018.[32] Their son was born in February 2020.[33]
After filming of the movie Here ended, five members of the cast and crew got tattooed with the letters T.I.A., which stand for This Is Armenia.[34]
^Scott, A. O. (12 November 2009).
"Delivering Bad News and Truths About War". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 February 2017. ... with this performance Mr. Foster, having shown intriguing promise in "Alpha Dog" and "3:10 to Yuma," places himself in the first rank of young American screen actors.