David Foster
Biography
David Foster is a Canadian and American music producer, composer, arranger, and keyboardist. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, he studied classical and jazz music and played in bands before settling in Los Angeles as a studio musician. He moved into production and produced his first major label album, Hall & Oates's Along the Red Ledge, in 1978. In the 1980s he produced Chicago's comeback records and won Producer of the Year at the Grammy Awards for Chicago 17. His film soundtrack work includes Stealing Home, The Secret of My Success, and St. Elmo's Fire, and he produced Whitney Houston's The Bodyguard soundtrack, which featured I Have Nothing and I Will Always Love You. Foster has 16 Grammy Awards and 45 nominations, plus three Academy Award nominations for Best Original Song. He also composed the musical Boop!, first staged in Chicago in 2023 and brought to Broadway in 2025, work that earned him a Drama Desk Award nomination.
77years old
Turns 78 on November 1in 356 days
- Born Victoria
- Star sign: ScorpioThe sign runs October 23 to November 21
- David Walter Foster (birth name)Also credited as David W. Foster
Movie Career
- Films
- 7
- Career span
- 26 years1998 to 2024
Genres
- Documentary86%, 6 films
- Music57%, 4 films
- Biography14%, 1 film
- History14%, 1 film
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Big break
In 1974, while doing minor work as a rehearsal pianist, Foster got an invitation to Jim Keltner's weekly jam session. That event drew the music industry's notice and started his career in Los Angeles.
A first
Foster's first production of an entire album for a major label was Along the Red Ledge by Hall & Oates in 1978, which also began his long collaboration with Humberto Gatica.
A first
Foster wrote "Winter Games," the instrumental theme for the 1988 Winter Olympics, and in Calgary, Alberta he performed the instrumental plus its vocal version, "Can't You Feel It?" It earned a Best Instrumental Composition Grammy nomination.
David Foster movies on Netflix
Best known for
The films on Netflix they are best known for, with the part played in each.
Most often with
Six actors appear in two of them each. Pick a number on the chart or a name in the list to see the films they share.
Films together
Clive Davis's page
Diane Warren's page
Lee Loughnane's page
James Pankow's page
John J.R. Robinson2 films together, 2016 to 2019
John J.R. Robinson's page
Robert Lamm's page
Awards
Seventeen awards and honors from 1979 to 2010, seventeen of them major.
| Year | Award | Film | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emmy Awards | |||
| 2003 | Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics | Won | |
| Grammy Awards | |||
| 2010 | Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album | Crazy Love | Won |
| 2007 | Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album | Call Me Irresponsible | Won |
| 1996 | Album of the Year | Falling into You | Won |
| 1996 | Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals | Won | |
| 1993 | Album of the Year | The Bodyguard - Original Soundtrack Album | Won |
| 1993 | Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals | Won | |
| 1993 | Producer of the Year, Non-Classical | Won | |
| 1993 | Record of the Year | Won | |
| 1991 | Album of the Year | Unforgettable... with Love | Won |
| 1991 | Producer of the Year, Non-Classical | Won | |
| 1991 | Record of the Year | Won | |
| 1986 | Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals | Somewhere | Won |
| 1984 | Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals | Won | |
| 1984 | Producer of the Year, Non-Classical | Won | |
| 1982 | Best Musical Theater Album | Dreamgirls | Won |
| 1979 | Best R&B Song | After the Love Has Gone | Won |
Online
Official profiles and reference pages.