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Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American film actor and director, also known for being a
political activist. He is a two-time
Academy Award winner for his roles in
Mystic River and
Milk, as well as the recipient of a
Golden Globe Award for the former and a
Screen Actors Guild Award for the latter.
Early life
Penn was born in
Los Angeles County,
California,
the son of
Leo Penn, an actor and director, and
Eileen Ryan (
née Annucci), an actress. He has one living brother, musician
Michael Penn. Another brother, actor
Chris Penn, died in 2006. His paternal grandparents were
Jewish immigrants from
Lithuania and
Russia,
[Jews Flop in Big Oscar Award Wins. Jewish Journal.com. 5 March 2004.][Sean Penn Genealogy.] while his mother is a
Catholic of
Italian and
Irish descent.
According to Penn's mother, Leo Penn may have had distant
Spanish ancestry, as the family's surname was originally "Piñón".
Penn was raised in a
secular home
and is an
agnostic.
Acting career
Penn appeared in a 1974 episode of the
Little House on the Prairie television series as a then blond-haired extra when his father, Leo, directed some of the episodes.
Penn launched his film career with the 1981 film
Taps, where he played a key role as a military high school cadet opposite protagonist
Timothy Hutton. Tom Cruise also made one of his first film appearances as another cadet in the action-drama. A year later, he appeared in the hit comedy
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (in the role of surfer-stoner
Jeff Spicoli). In 1983, Penn turned in one of his best early performances as Mick O'Brien, a troubled youth in the drama
Bad Boys. It earned Penn favorable reviews and jump started his career as a serious actor.
In 1985, Penn gave a memorable performance in the role of
Andrew Daulton Lee in
The Falcon and the Snowman, which closely followed an actual criminal case. Lee was a former drug dealer by trade, convicted of
espionage for the
Soviet Union and was originally sentenced to life in prison. Lee was paroled in 1998. In an interview for the
The Guardian in April, 2005, it was stated that Penn later hired Lee as his personal assistant, partly because he wanted to reward Lee for allowing him to play Lee in the film, and also because he was a firm believer in rehabilitation and thought Andrew Lee should be successfully reintegrated into society since he was a free man again.
[When Sean's having fun, it's hard to imagine having more fun. Guardian Unlimited. April 8, 2005.]
In 1986 he starred in the drama
At Close Range, opposite
Christopher Walken. The film featured his then wife
Madonna's single "
Live to Tell". The music video for the song, which featured clips from the film, played heavily on
MTV and helped promote the film.
[
Penn Filming Milk in 2008.jpg|thumb|left|Filming [[Milk (film)|Milk], 2008]]
Penn has been nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Actor five times and won the award twice. The academy first recognized his work playing a racist murderer on death row in
Tim Robbins' 1995 drama
Dead Man Walking. Penn was noted in 1999 for his comedic performance as an egotistical jazz guitarist in
Woody Allen's
Sweet and Lowdown. He received his third nomination in 2001 after portraying a mentally-handicapped father in
I am Sam. In 2003, Penn finally won for his role in
Clint Eastwood's
Boston crime-drama
Mystic River. In 2004, he played a disturbed man bent on killing the president in
The Assassination of Richard Nixon. He received his fifth nomination and second win for his role as
Harvey Milk in the 2008 film
Milk. He was invited to join the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2004.
In 2006 he portrayed populist governor Willie Stark (based on
Huey Long) in an adaptation of the classic American novel
All the King's Men, though the film was a critical and commercial failure. In November 2008, Penn earned rave reviews for his portrayal of real-life gay rights icon and politician
Harvey Milk in the biopic
Milk and was nominated for best actor for the 2008
Independent Spirit Awards.
Director
In 1991, Penn made his directorial debut with
The Indian Runner, a film based on
Bruce Springsteen's song "Highway Patrolman" from the
Nebraska album. He also directed
music videos, such as
Shania Twain's "
Dance with the One That Brought You" in 1993 and
Peter Gabriel's "The Barry Williams Show" in 2002. He has since directed three more films, all of which were well-received by critics:
The Crossing Guard in 1995,
The Pledge in 2001, and
Into the Wild in 2007.
Personal life
[
Wright & Sean Penn (cropped).jpg|right|thumb|Penn with [[Robin Wright] in 2006]]
Penn was supposedly engaged to actress
Elizabeth McGovern, his co-star in 1984's
Racing with the Moon, after which he dated
Susan Sarandon. Penn's personal life began to attract media attention when he married
pop star Madonna in 1985. The relationship was marred by violent outbursts against the press, including one incident for which he was arrested for assaulting a
photographer on a film set; Penn was sentenced to 60 days in jail in mid-1987, of which he served 33 days.
[Ciccone, Christopher (2008). Life with My Sister Madonna, Simon & Schuster, pp. 144-150. ISBN 1416587624.] It is also suggested that when Penn discovered the paparazzo in his hotel room, he hung him by his ankles from the ninth-floor balcony.
[Somaiya, Ravi. Mister Congeniality. The Times. December 27, 2007.] Madonna dedicated her third studio album,
True Blue to Penn, referring to him in the liner notes as "the coolest guy in the universe". Later in the marriage, Penn was charged with
felony domestic assault, a charge for which he pleaded to a
misdemeanor. Penn and Madonna divorced in 1989.
He soon began a relationship with
Robin Wright, and their first child, a daughter named Dylan Frances, was born in 1991. Their second child, a son named Hopper Jack, was born in 1993. Penn and Wright married in 1996 and lived in
Ross, California. The relationship has gone through on-and-off again periods in recent years. Divorce plans and separation have been announced, beginning in December 2007,
and again in April 2009,
only to be withdrawn,
most recently in May 2009.
. On August 12, 2009, Robin Wright Penn filed for divorce,
declaring she has no plans to reconcile.
During a separation from Wright in the mid 1990s, Penn dated singer and songwriter
Jewel. He was also the director of the original video for Jewel's hit song "
You Were Meant for Me".
Recently, Penn has been linked with model
Jessica White.
Penn's younger brother,
Chris, died from an enlarged heart in his
Santa Monica condominium on January 24, 2006.
Along with
Johnny Depp,
Mick Hucknall, and
John Malkovich, Penn was a part-owner of the
Parisian restaurant-bar
Man Ray.
Political and social causes
Penn has been active in supporting several political and social causes. On June 10, 2005, Penn made a visit to
Iran. Acting as a journalist on an assignment for the
San Francisco Chronicle, he attended a
Friday prayer at
Tehran University.
[Penn, Sean. Sean Penn in Iran. San Francisco Chronicle. August 23, 2005.]
On January 7, 2006, Penn was a special guest at the
Progressive Democrats of America, he was joined by author and media critic
Norman Solomon,
Democratic congressional candidate
Charles Brown, and activist
Cindy Sheehan. The "Out of Iraq Forum", which took place in
Sacramento, California, was organized to promote the anti-war movement calling for an end to the
War in Iraq.
In August 2008, Penn made an appearance at one of
Ralph Nader's "Open the Debates" Super Rallies. He protested the political exclusion of Nader and other third parties.
In October 2008, Penn traveled to
Cuba, where he met with and interviewed President
Raúl Castro.
Criticism of President Bush
On October 18, 2002, Penn placed a US$56,000 advertisement in the
Washington Post asking then
President George W. Bush to end a cycle of violence. It was written as an
open letter and referred to the
planned attack on Iraq and the
War on Terror.
[Bowles, Scott (18 Sept 2006). Sean Penn plays politics. USA Today.] In the letter, Penn also criticized the
Bush administration for its "deconstruction of
civil liberties" and its "simplistic and inflammatory view of good and evil."
Penn visited Iran briefly in December 2002.
This advertisement was cited as a primary reason for the development of his relationship with
Venezuelan president
Hugo Chávez. Chávez used and read aloud an open letter Penn wrote to Bush in one of his televised speeches.
The letter condemned the Iraq War, called for Bush to be
impeached, and also called Bush, Vice President
Dick Cheney and Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice "villainously and criminally obscene people.".
[James, Ian. Sean Penn Praised by Venezuela's Chavez. Breitbart.com. August 2, 2007.] In August 2007, Penn met with Chávez in
Caracas for two hours, after which Chávez praised him for urging Americans to impeach Bush. Penn also visited a new film studio on the outskirts of Caracas, though he did not speak publicly.
On April 19, 2007, Penn appeared on
The Colbert Report and had a "Meta-Free-Phor-All" versus
Stephen Colbert that was judged by
Robert Pinsky. This stemmed from some of Penn's criticisms of Bush. His exact quote was "We cower as you point your fingers telling us to support our troops. You and the smarmy pundits in your pocket– those who bathe in the moisture of your soiled and blood-soaked underwear– can take that noise and shove it."
He won the contest with 10,000,000 points to Colbert's 1.
On December 7, 2007, Penn said he supported
Ohio Congressman
Dennis J. Kucinich for U.S. President in 2008, and criticized Bush's handling of the Iraq war. Penn questioned whether Bush's twin daughters supported the war in Iraq.
[An Open Letter to the President...Four and a Half Years Later Huffington Post.com. March 24, 2007.]
Hurricane Katrina
In September 2005, Penn traveled to
New Orleans,
Louisiana, to aid
Hurricane Katrina victims. He was physically involved in rescuing people.
[Many celebrities have helped with New Orleans recovery efforts. International Herald Tribune. December 14, 2007.] although there was criticism that his involvement was a PR stunt as he hired a photographer to come along with his entourage.
[Penn's rescue attempt springs a leak. The Sydney Morning Herald. September 5, 2005.]
Director
Spike Lee interviewed Penn for his documentary
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, about Hurricane Katrina.
LGBT Civil Rights
On February 22, 2009, Penn received the Best Actor
Academy Award for the film
Milk. In his acceptance speech, Penn said "...I think that it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect and anticipate their great shame and the shame in their grandchildren's eyes if they continue that way of support. We've got to have equal rights for everyone!"
[www.mahalo.com/sean-penn-oscar-speech]
Filmography and awards
On December 18, 2006, Penn received the
Christopher Reeve First Amendment Award from the
Creative Coalition.
[ The Creative Coalition Announces Presenters for 2006 Christopher Reeve First Amendment Award and 2006 Spotlight Awards. The Creative Coalition. December 2006.]
Actor
Director
