In the early 1960s, Evelyn Almond Foster began managing the career of her son Buddy Foster. :"Buddy, the first to start acting, lost a Coppertone commercial when 4-year-old Jodie charmed the casting director and got the job." As a child actor, Foster appeared in a regular role on the 1967 TV western
Hondo and
Mayberry, R.F.D. (1968–1971), as well as appearing guest roles on numerous other television series throughout the late 1960s and 1970s including
Land of the Giants, and
The Six Million Dollar Man. He appeared on the
Dragnet TV series in the 1969 episode "Burglary Auto: Juvenile Genius" as James "Watermelon" Chambers. In 1967, Foster appeared on
Petticoat Junction in the episode "Temperance, Temperance", as Clint Priddy. He voiced the little boy in the famous 1969
Tootsie Pop commercial Mr. Owl "
How Many Licks Does It Take?", often miscredited to fellow child actor
Peter Robbins. He made his final screen appearance with a small role in the film
Foxes (1980) starring his sister
Jodie Foster. In 1997, Foster released the book
Foster Child, in which he chronicled his childhood. The book saw Foster allege that Jodie was a
lesbian or
bisexual, many years before she came out, and claim that their mother had once had a same-sex relationship. Jodie called the book a "cheap cry for attention and money, filled with hazy recollections, fantasies, and borrowed press releases [...] Buddy has done nothing but break our mother's heart his whole life". In October 1997, Foster owned a construction company in Duluth, Minnesota, where he lived with his second wife. ==Footnotes==