Ben Foster

Ben Foster, born Benjamin A. Foster on October 29, 1980, in Boston, Massachusetts, is an American actor whose work spans film, television, and stage. He is the son of Steven and Gillian Foster, both restaurant owners, and has described his parents as free-spirited Vietnam-protesting hippies. His father is Jewish, and Foster was raised in that faith; his paternal grandparents, Celia and Abraham Foster, emigrated from the Russian Empire, and Abraham Foster was a prominent judge and politician in Boston. Foster also has Irish ancestry. He has a younger brother, Jon, who is likewise an actor. In 1984, the family left Boston for Fairfield, Iowa after their home was broken into while they were present. As a young person, Foster attended Interlochen Arts Camp, where he studied theatre.

Foster began his acting career at age 14. Between 1995 and 1997, he starred in the Disney Channel series Flash Forward, and his first significant film role came in Barry Levinson's 1999 film Liberty Heights. He appeared in Get Over It in 2001 and went on to play Russell Corwin in 22 episodes of the HBO series Six Feet Under from 2003 to 2005. His film credits from the mid-2000s include The Punisher (2004), Hostage, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Alpha Dog, the latter two released in 2006. In X-Men: The Last Stand, he portrayed the character Angel / Warren Worthington III. For his role as Jake Mazursky in Alpha Dog, he used glaucoma drops in his eyes to simulate the appearance of a drug addict. In 2007, he played outlaw Charlie Prince in the Western 3:10 to Yuma.

His subsequent film work includes 30 Days of Night (2007), The Messenger and Pandorum (both 2009), The Mechanic (2011), Contraband (2012), Kill Your Darlings and Lone Survivor (both 2013), and Warcraft (2016), in which he co-starred in the fantasy adventure released in June of that year. He portrayed Lance Armstrong in the 2015 biopic The Program. In 2016, Foster appeared in Hell or High Water as Tanner Howard, opposite Chris Pine and Jeff Bridges, a performance for which he won an Independent Spirit Award. He reunited with director Barry Levinson for The Survivor in 2021. In 2025, Foster played James V. Martin, the coach and abusive husband of boxer Christy Martin, in the biopic Christy. He is also set to portray Evel Knievel in the upcoming film The Stunt Driver.

Foster made his Broadway debut in 2013, when he was cast to replace Shia LaBeouf in the play Orphans. That same year, in May 2014, it was announced that he would appear alongside Gillian Anderson and Vanessa Kirby in Benedict Andrews' production of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Young Vic in London. That production closed on September 19, 2014, and subsequently transferred to New York in 2016, opening at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn.

In his personal life, Foster was in a relationship with actress Antje Traue, his co-star in Pandorum, until around 2010. He began a relationship with actress Robin Wright in early 2012; the two became engaged in early 2014, called off the engagement in November 2014, reconciled in early 2015, and ended their second engagement in August 2015. In October 2016, Foster announced his engagement to actress Laura Prepon. Their daughter, Ella, was born in August 2017, and the two married in June 2018. Their son was born in February 2020. Foster filed for divorce from Prepon on November 12, 2024, citing irreconcilable differences. Foster practices transcendental meditation and, following the filming of Here, was among five cast and crew members who got tattooed with the letters T.I.A., standing for "This is Armenia."