Lisa Foster is a former Canadian actress,

visual effects artist Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated as VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action fo ...

, and

animation Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

producer; she starred in the title role of the 1983 film, ''

Fanny Hill ''Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure'' – popularly known as ''Fanny Hill'' – is an erotic novel by the English novelist John Cleland first published in London in 1748 and 1749. Written while the author was in debtors' prison in London,Wagne ...

'' with

Oliver Reed Robert Oliver Reed (13 February 1938 – 2 May 1999) was an English actor, known for his upper-middle class, macho image and his heavy-drinking, "hellraiser" lifestyle. His screen career spanned over 40 years, between 1955 and 1999. At the ...

Career

Films

Foster began her professional career at the age of thirteen in Edmonton as a young performer. A few years later, still in her teens, she moved to New York and studied acting at HB Studio with

Rochelle Oliver Rochelle Oliver (April 15, 1937 – April 13, 2024) was an American acting coach and actress. Early life and career Oliver studied acting with Uta Hagen. Her stage appearances include ''The Brothers Karamazov'', ''The Cave Dwellers'', '' The D ...

and Elizabeth Dillon and took

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

dance with Buck Heller. A couple of years later she returned to Toronto to model and act. She was a photographic model in Toronto and

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

and graced fashion magazines like '' Clin D'Oeil'' as well as ads for

L'Oréal L'Oréal S.A. () is a French multinational personal care corporation registered in Paris

. She got a three-picture deal through producer

Harry Alan Towers Harry Alan Towers (19 October 1920 – 31 July 2009) was a British radio and independent film producer and screenwriter. He wrote numerous screenplays for the films he produced, often under the pseudonym Peter Welbeck. He produced over 80 f ...

while in Toronto and was Mila in the mid-1980s film '' The Blade Master'' which was later lampooned as an episode of the television series ''

Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on WUCW, KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. It then ...

''. She then played the lead of Fanny Hill in the movie of the same name 1983 movie ''

'' which also starred

Shelley Winters Shelley Winters (born Shirley Schrift; August 18, 1920 – January 14, 2006) was an American film actress whose career spanned seven decades. She won Academy Awards for ''The Diary of Anne Frank (1959 film), The Diary of Anne Frank'' (1959) and ' ...

and

. Later on in her life she has directed most of her attention to behind the scenes work where she was proficient as

camera operator A camera operator, or depending on the context cameraman or camerawoman, is a professional operator of a film camera or video camera as part of a film crew. The term "cameraman" does not necessarily imply that a male is performing the task. ...

stage manager Stage management is a broad field that is generally defined as the practice of organization and coordination of an event or theatrical production. Stage management may encompass a variety of activities including overseeing of the rehearsal proce ...

and finally as

technical director A technical director (TD) is usually a senior technical person within e.g. a software company, engineering firm, film studio, theatre company or television studio. They are responsible for overseeing and coordinating all of the technical aspect ...

on the award-winning political panel show, '' Week in Review'' (KCLA). She began her visual effects career at

Cinesite Cinesite (also known as The Cinesite Group) is an independent, multinational business which provides services to the media and entertainment industries. Its head office in London opened for business in 1994, initially offering services in visu ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

as part of the complex restoration team assigned to the major task of digitally reconstructing the

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

animated film ''

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs "Snow White" is a German fairy tale, first written down in the early 19th century. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', numbered as Tale 53. The original title was ''Sneewittch ...

'' (1937). Following the success of these new digital techniques, she went on to work as a technical artist on such films as ''

Coneheads The Coneheads are a fictional family of extraterrestrials with bald conical heads, created for a series of recurring sketches on ''Saturday Night Live'' (SNL). They first appeared on the January 15, 1977 episode hosted by Ralph Nader (episode ...

'' (1993), ''

Cliffhanger A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious situation, facing a difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction or bef ...

'' (1993) and the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

-nominated (for visual effects) film ''

Super Mario Bros. is a 1985 Platformer, platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It is the successor to the 1983 arcade game ''Mario Bros.'' and the first game in the ''Super Mario'' series. It was origi ...

'' (1993). As staff animator at

Sony Pictures Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, acquires, and distributes filmed entertainment (theatrical motion pictures, television programs, and rec ...

Imageworks, Foster lent her skills to such films as ''

Die Hard with a Vengeance ''Die Hard with a Vengeance'' is a 1995 American action film directed and produced by John McTiernan, from a screenplay written by Jonathan Hensleigh, and starring Bruce Willis as John McClane. It is the third installment in the ''Die Hard'' f ...

'' (1995), ''

Wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, includin ...

'' (1994), ''

The Cable Guy ''The Cable Guy'' is a 1996 American satirical black comedy thriller film directed by Ben Stiller and written by Lou Holtz Jr. It stars Jim Carrey as an eccentric cable installer who becomes overly intrusive in the life of a customer (Matthew ...

'' (1996), ''

Virtuosity ''Virtuosity'' is a 1995 American science fiction action film directed by Brett Leonard and starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. Howard W. Koch Jr. served as an executive producer for the film. The film was released in the United St ...

'' (1995), '' Hideaway'' (1995), and ''

James and the Giant Peach ''James and the Giant Peach'' is a children's novel written in 1961 by British author Roald Dahl. The first edition, published by Alfred Knopf, featured illustrations by Nancy Ekholm Burkert. There have been re-illustrated versions of it over ...

'' (1996). Some of the films that include her visual effects work are ''Die Hard with a Vengeance'', ''James and the Giant Peach'' and ''Virtuosity''. She was last known to be directing the 3D animated series ''Thesaurus Rex'' aimed at encouraging and challenging visual and vocabulary concepts in preschoolers.

Video games

From there she moved into the game arena, first as a CG supervisor for

Square In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...

's mega-hit game ''

Parasite Eve Parasite Eve may refer to: * ''Parasite Eve'' (novel), a 1995 Japanese science fiction horror novel by Hideaki Sena * ''Parasite Eve'' (film), a 1997 Japanese science fiction film based on the novel * ''Parasite Eve'' (video game), a 1998 role-p ...

'', in which she also directed two key cinematic sequences, and then as a CG supervisor and Technical Director for the games '' Evil Dead: Hail to the King'' and

THQ THQ Inc. was an American video game company based in Agoura Hills, California. It was founded in April 1990 by Jack Friedman, originally in Calabasas, and became a public company the following year through a reverse merger takeover. Initial ...

's ''

Scooby-Doo ''Scooby-Doo'' is an American media franchise owned by Warner Bros., Warner Bros. Entertainment and created in 1969 by writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears through their animated series, ''Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!'', for Hanna-Barbera (which wa ...

''. After a stint as Executive Producer for the broadcast design arm of Duck Soup in

, Lisa took the Senior Producer position at Phantagram Entertainment. Games included: '' The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers'' based on the

Peter Jackson Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand filmmaker. He is best known as the director, writer, and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy (2012–2014), both of which ar ...

film for

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

and '' Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders''. In 2009 she became the Core Systems and User Generated Content Producer for LEGO's multimillion-dollar MMO, LEGO Universe.

Filmography

As actress

* ''Country Gold'' (1982) as Mrs. Vogel * '' Ator 2: The Blade Master'' (1982) as Mila * '' Spring Fever'' (1982) as Lena * ''

'' (1983) as Fanny Hill * ''

Marie Marie may refer to the following. People Given name * Marie (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name ** List of people named Marie * Marie (Japanese given name) Surname * Jean Gabriel-Marie, French compo ...

'' (1985) as Sherry Lomax * ''The Hitchhiker'' (1985, 1 episode) as Patty * ''The Jitters'' (1989) as Jennifer * ''The Twilight Zone'' (1989, 1 episode) as Nurse Carla * ''Come Spy with Me'' (1989, television film) as Charlie * ''Separated by Murder'' (1984, television film) as Donna Dupree * ''A Letter from Death Row'' (1989) as Charlene Fitzpatrick * ''For the Cause'' (2000) as Systems operator

As visual effects artist

* ''Cliffhanger'' (1993) * ''Super Mario Bros.'' (1993) * ''Coneheads'' (1993) * ''

Brainscan ''Brainscan'' is a 1994 American science fiction slasher film directed by John Flynn and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. The film stars Edward Furlong, Frank Langella, Amy Hargreaves, Jamie Marsh, and T. Ryder Smith. The soundtrack was co ...

'' (1994) * ''Wolf'' (1994) * ''Hideaway'' (1995) – Technical director * ''

'' (1995) * ''

'' (1995) – Technical director * ''James and the Giant Peach'' (1996) * ''

'' (1996) * ''Moomins and the Winter Wonderland'' (2017) – Animator

As video game developer

* ''Parasite Eve'' (1998) – CGI supervisor * '' Evil Dead: Hail to the King'' (2000) – CGI supervisor * ''The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers'' (2002) – Producer * '' Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders'' (2004) – Senior producer * '' Lego Universe'' (2010) – Systems producer

Other projects

In October 1999, Foster founded an online shopping site called Spreckels Lane.

References

External links

*
Lisa Foster's autobiographical page

a.k.a writer has an interview with Lisa Foster
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foster, Lisa Living people Canadian film actresses Actresses from London 20th-century births Year of birth missing (living people)