John Hinckley Jr., who shot Ronald Reagan to impress Jodie Foster, says he wishes her well

Add NBC News to Google Man who tried to kill Ronald Reagan to impress Jodie Foster 'wishes her well' 02:41 Get more news on Share Add NBC News to Google Aug. 12, 2026, 12:32 PM EDT By Matt Lavietes John Hinckley Jr., who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981 in an attempt to impress Jodie Foster, spoke out about the Academy Award-winning actor more than four decades after the assassination attempt.

“I just wish Jodie Foster well, you know,” Hinckley said Wednesday on the podcast “The Mark Joseph Show.” “I don’t really see her movies, but I wish her well, and I know she’s doing quite well. And that’s all I can say is just, I wish Jodie well, and I hope she has a good life.”

Hinckley, now 71, shot Reagan as the president was leaving the Washington Hilton in 1981. Reagan survived the assassination attempt, but former White House press secretary James Brady was paralyzed in the shooting, and Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and Washington police officer Thomas Delahanty were injured. Brady died in 2014.

Hinckley said at the time that he thought shooting the president would impress Foster, who was then 18 years old. Foster rose to fame as a teenager, playing a child prostitute in Martin Scorsese’s 1976 film “Taxi Driver.”

Representatives for Foster, best known for her role in “The Silence of the Lambs,” did not immediately return a request for comment.

Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity and spent several decades in a psychiatric hospital. In 2016, he was released and allowed to live with his elderly mother in Williamsburg, Virginia, under conditions that included attending therapy and restrictions on where he could travel.

A federal judge granted him full freedom from court oversight in 2022. U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman said at the time that Hinckley had shown no symptoms of active mental illness, no violent behavior and no interest in weapons since 1983.

Hinckley was 25 when he shot Reagan in front of the Hilton Hotel. That same hotel was in the news again for another presidential assassination attempt in April, after a gunman charged through security at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. The incident was the third attempt on President Donald Trump’s life.

Matt Lavietes I’m a reporter on NBC News’ breaking news team, covering crime, extreme weather, pop culture and more. I recently covered Hurricane Milton, which devastated the Tampa, Florida, metropolitan area, and the student-led protests at Columbia University.