Clarice Starling Clarice Starling Clarice M. Starling is a fictional character who appears in the novels "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Hannibal" by Thomas Harris. In the film adaptation of "The Silence of the Lambs", she was played by Jodie Foster, while in the film adaptation of "Hannibal", she was played by Julianne Moore. Clarice Starling, as portrayed by Foster, was ranked the sixth greatest protagonist in film history on AFI's "100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains", making her the highest-ranking heroine. In 1991, for her portrayal of Starling she also received the Academy Award for Best Actress. In "The Silence of
Clarice Starling information, which Crawford has specifically warned her to keep secret from Lecter. She tells Lecter that she was raised in a small town in West Virginia with her father, a town marshal. When she was 10 years old, her father was shot when responding to a robbery; he died a month after the incident. Her mother subsequently worked as a hotel chambermaid, but was unable to support her entire family without a life insurance settlement from her husband's death. Starling was sent to live with her uncle on a Montana sheep and horse farm, from which she ran away in