Sean Penn and Ray Walston in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High".
Gallery of Sean Penn
1982
Sean Penn in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High".
Gallery of Sean Penn
1984
Sean Penn and Elizabeth McGovern in "Racing with the Moon".
Gallery of Sean Penn
1984
Sean Penn in "Crackers".
Gallery of Sean Penn
1985
Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn in "The Falcon and the Snowman".
Gallery of Sean Penn
1985
Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn in "The Falcon and the Snowman".
Gallery of Sean Penn
1986
Sean Penn in "At Close Range".
Gallery of Sean Penn
1986
Sean Penn in "At Close Range".
Gallery of Sean Penn
1986
Sean Penn, Madonna, and George Harrison in "Shanghai Surprise".
Gallery of Sean Penn
1988
Sean Penn in "Colors".
Gallery of Sean Penn
1989
Sean Penn in "Casualties Of War".
Gallery of Sean Penn
1989
Sean Penn in "Casualties Of War".
Gallery of Sean Penn
1989
Sean Penn in "Casualties Of War".
Gallery of Sean Penn
1989
Robert De Niro and Sean Penn in "We're No Angels".
Gallery of Sean Penn
1990
Gary Oldman and Sean Penn in "State of Grace".
Gallery of Sean Penn
1993
Al Pacino and Sean Penn in "Carlito's Way".
Gallery of Sean Penn
1995
Sean Penn in "Dead Man Walking".
Gallery of Sean Penn
1995
Sean Penn in "Dead Man Walking".
Gallery of Sean Penn
1997
Jennifer Lopez and Sean Penn in "U Turn".
Gallery of Sean Penn
1997
Sean Penn in "The Game".
Gallery of Sean Penn
1997
Sean Penn and Robin Wright in "She's So Lovely".
Gallery of Sean Penn
1998
Sean Penn in "The Thin Red Line".
Gallery of Sean Penn
1998
Kevin Spacey and Sean Penn in "Hurlyburly".
Gallery of Sean Penn
1999
Uma Thurman and Sean Penn in "Sweet and Lowdown".
Gallery of Sean Penn
2003
Sean Penn in "Mystic River".
Gallery of Sean Penn
2003
Sean Penn in "Mystic River".
Gallery of Sean Penn
2003
Kevin Bacon and Sean Penn in "Mystic River".
Gallery of Sean Penn
2003
Sean Penn in "21 Grams".
Gallery of Sean Penn
2004
Sean Penn and Naomi Watts in "The Assassination of Richard Nixon".
Gallery of Sean Penn
2006
Sean Penn in "All the King's Men".
Gallery of Sean Penn
2008
Sean Penn in "Milk".
Gallery of Sean Penn
2008
Sean Penn in "Milk".
Gallery of Sean Penn
2010
Sean Penn and Naomi Watts in "Fair Game".
Gallery of Sean Penn
2011
Sean Penn in "This Must Be The Place".
Gallery of Sean Penn
2011
Sean Penn in "The Tree of Life".
Gallery of Sean Penn
2011
Frances McDormand and Sean Penn in "This Must Be the Place".
Gallery of Sean Penn
2013
Sean Penn and Josh Brolin in "Gangster Squad".
Gallery of Sean Penn
2015
Sean Penn and Ray Winstone in "The Gunman".
Gallery of Sean Penn
2018
Sean Penn in "The First".
Gallery of Sean Penn
2019
Sean Penn in "The Professor and the Madman".
Achievements
Membership
Awards
Cannes Film Festival Award
1997
Sean Penn receives the Cannes Film Festival Award.
Academy Awards
2009
Hollywood, California, United States
Sean Penn holds up his Oscar for best actor for his role in "Milk" at the 81st Academy Awards in Hollywood, California on February 22, 2009.
BAFTA/LA Britannia Awards
2013
9876 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90210, United States
From left to right: actor Idris Elba accepts the Britannia Humanitarian Award from Zindzi Mandela and actor Sean Penn onstage during the 2013 BAFTA/LA Jaguar Britannia Awards, presented by BBC America at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on November 9, 2013.
9876 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90210, United States
From left to right: actor Idris Elba accepts the Britannia Humanitarian Award from Zindzi Mandela and actor Sean Penn onstage during the 2013 BAFTA/LA Jaguar Britannia Awards, presented by BBC America at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on November 9, 2013.
(A man, heading to Vegas to pay off his gambling debt befo...)
A man, heading to Vegas to pay off his gambling debt before the Russian mafia kills him, is forced to stop in an Arizona town, where everything, that can go wrong, does go wrong.
(After being released from a psychiatric institution, a ma...)
After being released from a psychiatric institution, a man tries to redeem himself in the eyes of his now-ex wife from the events, that led up to his incarceration.
(A mentally handicapped man fights for custody of his 7-ye...)
A mentally handicapped man fights for custody of his 7-year-old daughter and in the process teaches his cold-hearted lawyer the value of love and family.
(Political intrigue and deception unfold inside the United...)
Political intrigue and deception unfold inside the United Nations, where a United States Secret Service agent is assigned to investigate an interpreter, who overhears an assassination plot.
(Based on the Robert Penn Warren's novel. The life of popu...)
Based on the Robert Penn Warren's novel. The life of populist Southerner Willie Stark, a political creature, loosely based on Governor Huey Long of Louisiana.
(After graduating from Emory University, top student and a...)
After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters, that shape his life.
(The story of Harvey Milk and his struggles as an American...)
The story of Harvey Milk and his struggles as an American gay activist, who fought for gay rights and became California's first openly gay elected official.
(CIA operative Valerie Plame discovers her identity is all...)
CIA operative Valerie Plame discovers her identity is allegedly leaked by the government as payback for an op-ed article her husband wrote, criticizing the Bush administration.
(Cheyenne, a retired rock star, living off his royalties i...)
Cheyenne, a retired rock star, living off his royalties in Dublin, returns to New York City to find the man responsible for a humiliation, suffered by his recently deceased father during World War II.
(A sniper on a mercenary assassination team, kills the min...)
A sniper on a mercenary assassination team, kills the minister of mines of the Congo. Terrier's successful kill shot forces him into hiding. Returning to the Congo years later, he becomes the target of a hit squad himself.
Sean Penn is a notable American film actor, capable of intensely moving work, filmmaker and director. He gained prominence for his starring roles in such films, as "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", "Mystic River" and "Milk". Sean is the recipient of two Academy Awards.
Besides, Penn has drawn much media attention for his stormy private life and political viewpoints.
Background
Ethnicity:
His paternal grandparents were Ashkenazi Jewish emigrants from Lithuania and Russia, while his mother is a Catholic of Irish and Italian descent.
Penn was born on August 17, 1960, in Santa Monica, California to actor and director Leo Penn, and actress Eileen Ryan (née Annucci). His older brother is musician Michael Penn. His younger brother, actor Chris Penn, died in 2006.
Education
Penn was raised in a secular home and attended Santa Monica High School. He began making short films with some of his childhood friends, including actors Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen, who lived near his home.
Penn briefly attended Santa Monica College in California where he studied auto mechanics and speech.
Penn chose to forgo college and instead joined the Los Angeles Repertory Theater. After a few television appearances, including a role in an episode of Barnaby Jones (1979), he moved to New York City in 1980. Well-received performances in the Off-Broadway Heartlands and the film Taps (both 1981) paved the way for Penn’s fame-making role as the underachieving surfer Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). He followed with a variety of roles that showcased his intensity and versatility - including a teenage delinquent in Bad Boys (1983), a punk rocker-burglar in Crackers (1984), a World War II marine about to ship out in the romance Racing with the Moon (1984), and a spy selling U.S. government secrets to the KGB in The Falcon and the Snowman (1985) - garnering favourable notices from critics even when the vehicle he performed in was not as well liked. Penn’s career took a downturn, however, during his relationship with pop star Madonna, whom he married in 1985. There were frequent confrontations with paparazzi, a number of them combative, and Penn spent a month in jail in 1987. The marriage ended in 1989 - but not before the couple had costarred in Shanghai Surprise (1986), a film reviled by most critics.
Penn’s subsequent movies did better, however, and he also branched out, writing and directing Indian Runner (1991) and directing The Crossing Guard (1995). He earned his first Academy Award nomination for Dead Man Walking (1995), starring opposite Susan Sarandon as a death-row inmate. He appeared with Robin Wright Penn in She’s So Lovely (1997), for which he was named best actor at the Cannes film festival, and later garnered Oscar nominations for Sweet and Lowdown (1999) and I Am Sam (2001). Another impressive directorial effort came with The Pledge. The drama featured Jack Nicholson as a police detective who vows to find a child killer. In 2003 Penn won the best actor honours at the Venice Film Festival for 21 Grams (2003), and the following year he received the best actor Oscar for his role as the grief-stricken father of a murdered young woman in Mystic River (2003).
Penn’s subsequent films include The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004), based on an actual attempt on the president’s life; The Interpreter (2005); and All the King’s Men (2006), an adaptation of Robert Penn Warren’s novel about a populist politician. Penn returned to directing with Into the Wild (2007). The film - based on Jon Krakauer’s best-selling book of the same name - chronicles the journey of Christopher McCandless, an idealistic college graduate who repudiates materialistic society as he hitchhikes through the American West and ventures alone into the Alaskan wilderness. In 2008 Penn played the lead role in Milk, which depicts the life of Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States. His ebullient portrayal of Milk earned him a second Academy Award for best actor. Penn played another real-life figure, retired U.S. diplomat Joseph C. Wilson, in Fair Game (2010). The thriller was based on the 2003 scandal in which White House officials leaked the identity of Wilson’s wife - Valerie Plame, a covert CIA agent - in an alleged attempt to discredit his criticism of the U.S.-led Iraq War. In Terrence Malick’s impressionistic drama The Tree of Life (2011), Penn appeared as a man haunted by memories of his childhood. He later portrayed a former rock star turned Nazi hunter in This Must Be the Place (2011), mid-20th-century mob boss Mickey Cohen in the noir drama Gangster Squad (2013), and a reformed assassin whose past catches up with him in The Gunman (2015). Penn also voiced characters in animated fare, including Persepolis (2007) and Angry Birds (2016).
In 2018 Penn published his first novel, Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff, a satire about a divorced assassin.
(Based on the Robert Penn Warren's novel. The life of popu...)
2006
Religion
Sean Penn is agnostic. He thinks there's something out there, but he's not sure what it is:
"I feel like it’s respectful enough of God to say I believe in the mystery. But meanwhile, there is some kind of design to all this thing... Either our experience in life is one of tremendous coincidence, or there’s a design. We may have a part in creating it or not... I think we kind of get born and we step into a chair and the roller coaster starts and we don’t have an enormous amount to say about where it’s going to go."
Politics
Penn has been outspoken in supporting numerous political and social causes. On December 13–16, 2002, he visited Iraq to protest the Bush Administration's apparent plans for a military strike on Iraq. 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. On January 7, 2006, Penn was a special guest at the Progressive Democrats of America, where 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.
On December 18, 2006, Penn received the Christopher Reeve First Amendment Award from the Creative Coalition for his commitment to free speech. 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. In February 2012, he stood beside Hugo Chávez while Venezuela supported the Syrian government during the 2011–2012 Syrian uprising.
Views
Sean Penn is supporting same-sex marriages. On February 22, 2009, Penn received the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film Milk. In his acceptance speech, he 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!"
Quotations:
"Child-rearing is my main interest now. I'm a hands-on father."
"So if we have anything original to offer, it's to speak from our own life about the society we're in."
"I think we all have light and dark inside us."
"Marriage ain't easy, but it's great most of the time."
"That on a romantic level, if you feel it about somebody and it's pure, it means that they do too."
"Well, look at all of these summer blockbusters. You can't help but laugh a little, because you've already seen a lot of these movies 482 times."
Personality
Penn claims to smoke four packs of cigarettes a day. He quit smoking at age 40 due to health concerns but that did not last long and he picked the habit back up.
Interests
Sport & Clubs
One of Sean Penn’s favorite past-times is surfing on his beloved beaches of California.
Connections
Penn was engaged to actress Elizabeth McGovern, his co-star in Racing with the Moon (1984).
Sean met pop singer Madonna in February 1985, and they married that August on her birthday. The two starred in the panned and much-derided Shanghai Surprise (1986), directed by Jim Goddard, and Madonna dedicated her third studio album True Blue (1986) to Penn, referring to him in the liner notes as "the coolest guy in the universe". The relationship was marred by violent outbursts against the press, including one incident when Penn 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. Madonna filed for divorce in December 1987 but later withdrew the papers, only to file them again in January 1989. Madonna reportedly filed an assault complaint that she was beaten in her Malibu, California home by her estranged husband, but in January 1989, the Associated Press reported that she had "dropped assault charges." Penn was alleged to have struck Madonna on multiple occasions, but in 2015 Madonna stated the allegations were "completely outrageous, malicious, reckless, and false."
At the end of his first marriage, Penn moved in with actress Robin Wright, and their first child, a daughter named Dylan Frances, was born April 13, 1991. Their second child, son Hopper Jack, was born on August 6, 1993.
Penn and Wright separated in 1995, during which time he developed a relationship with Jewel, after he spotted her performing on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. He invited her to compose a song for his film The Crossing Guard (1995) and followed her on tour.
Penn and Wright reconciled and married on April 27, 1996, and lived in Ross, California. The couple filed for divorce in December 2007 but reconciled several months later, requesting a court dismissal of their divorce case.
In April 2009, Penn filed for legal separation, only to withdraw the case once again when the couple reconciled in May. On August 12, 2009, Wright Penn filed for divorce again. The couple's divorce was finalized on July 22, 2010; the couple reached a private agreement on child and spousal support, division of assets, and custody of Hopper, who was almost 17 at the time.
In December 2013, Penn began dating actress Charlize Theron. The two announced their engagement in December 2014. Theron ended their relationship in June 2015.
Sean Penn: His Life and Times
Illustrated with over seventy-five black and white photographs and drawing on exclusive interviews with Penn and his family, friends and colleagues (Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, Woody Allen, Susan Sarandon, Bono, Christopher Walken, Angelica Huston and many more), Richard T. Kelly, the author of this work, creates an engaging, richly detailed and multi-faceted portrait of an uncompromising American artist in this exclusive and engrossing authorized biography.
Sean Penn
This book features some of Sean's acting highlights, including his roles in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Dead Man Walking, Hurly Burly, The Thin Red Line and most recently, his Oscar-nominated performance in The Sweet and Lowdown. It also includes personal insight into the life, mystery and aura, surrounding this legendary actor.
2000
Sean Penn
The book is written by Simon Laisney. French Edition.