6 Child Actors Who Grew Up To Become A-List Stars

Jodie Foster went from a controversial role at 13 to an Oscar-winning icon

Foster's role as a child sex worker in Taxi Driver at just 13 years old drew global attention, and required a psychological evaluation before she was allowed to film it. She kept working steadily through her teens and twenties before The Silence of the Lambs won her a second Best Actress Oscar and cemented her as one of her generation's most respected actors.

Christian Bale survived a brutal shoot at 13 — and grew up to be Batman

Bale's lead role in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun earned him the National Board of Review's award for Best Juvenile Performance. He kept working through his teens and twenties in mostly small films before American Psycho and Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy turned him into one of the most acclaimed actors of his generation — he'd go on to win an Oscar for The Fighter.

Natalie Portman was 12 in Léon — she'd win an Oscar by 29

Portman made her film debut at 12 as a young girl taken in by a hitman in Léon: The Professional. She balanced acting with a Harvard psychology degree through her twenties before Black Swan — for which she trained five to eight hours a day for six months — won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Drew Barrymore was 7 in E.T. — and rebuilt her entire career as an adult

Barrymore became one of the most famous child stars in the world as Gertie in E.T., even becoming the youngest person ever to host Saturday Night Live at age 7. After a well-documented difficult adolescence in the spotlight, she rebuilt her career from the ground up in the '90s, becoming a leading lady with The Wedding Singer and Charlie's Angels, and later a successful producer and talk-show host.

Elijah Wood was a Back to the Future kid before he carried The Lord of the Rings

Wood made his film debut in a small role in Back to the Future Part II at age 8, and spent the '90s as one of Hollywood's most reliable child actors in films like The Good Son and Flipper. By 20, he was cast as Frodo Baggins, the lead of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, one of the most critically and commercially successful franchises ever made.

Ron Howard played a kid on TV — and grew up to win Best Director

Howard played Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show as a child, then Richie Cunningham on Happy Days as a teenager — a rare case of one actor headlining two different iconic sitcoms across two decades of his childhood. He transitioned to directing in his twenties, and would go on to direct Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind, winning the Academy Award for Best Director for the latter.