| Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor and film director. He was an “Oscar” winner in 2004 for his role in the film “Mystic River” and also won an “Oscar” in 2009 for his role in the film “Milk”.
Biography:
Sean Penn was born on August 17, 1960 in Santa Monica (California) in the family of director Leo Penn and actress Eileen Ryan. The parents of his father Leo (Leonard) Z.Penn (1921-1998) immigrated to the United States from Lithuania. At school, Penn studied with Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen and Rob Lowe, who also subsequently became actors. Sean Penn’s younger brother, Chris Penn is also an actor.
At the age of 19, Sean Penn moved to New York. He started his film career acting in various television series. Sean Penn first appeared in the 1981 film “Taps” (“Cadets”), where he shared screen time with Tom Cruise and Timothy Hutton. He gained popularity after doing a comedy film “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”(1982). He became more popular after portraying characters in the films “Bad boys” (1983) and “The Falcon and the Snowman”(1985). Sean Penn once again acted alongside Timothy Hutton in the film “The Falcon and the Snowman”.
In 1985, Sean Penn’s marriage to pop-singer Madonna attracted the attention of media. Along with Madonna, he acted in the film “Shanghai Surprise”, which is considered to be one of his most unsuccessful films. In 1989, Sean Penn and Madonna separated.
In 1991, Sean Penn debuted as director, making the film “The Indian Runner” with the script written by him. In 1995, he played in the Tim Robbin’s drama “Dead Man Walking” with Susan Sarandon and he was nominated for an “Oscar” for his role in the film. “The Crossing Guard” was his second film as a director, in which Jack Nicholson played protagonist.
In 1996, Sean Penn married actress Robin Wright, with whom he met during the shooting of the film “State of Grace” (1990). In 1997, he acted in the films Oliver Stone's “U Turn” and “The Game” by David Fincher.
In 1997, Sean Penn received the “Best Actor” award at the Cannes Film Festival for his role in the film “She’s So Lovely” by Nick Cassavetes. He starred in this film along with his wife Robin Wright and John Travolta. In 1999, he received his second “Oscar” nomination for his role in the Woody Allen film “Sweet and Lowdown”.
In 2003, he received the “Volpi Cup” at the Venice Film Festival for the Best Male Actor for his role in the film “21 Grams”.
In May 2010, he was conditionally sentenced for 3 yrs for assaulting a journalist (the incident took place in October, 2009).
Social activity:
On October 18, 2002 Penn paid $56000 to publish an open letter addressing George Bush in “The Washington Post” newspaper. In the letter, published as an advertisement, Penn criticized American policy towards Iraq. In December, 2002, Penn paid a visit to Iraq. During his three day tour he visited a hospital in Baghdad, where he met children who were victims of American sanctions against Iraq. He also met the Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and the Health Minister.
In June 2005 Penn toured Iran as a correspondent from the newspaper the “San Francisco Chronicle” where he met the Iranian cultural workers in Teheran’s Museum of Cinematography. Penn prepared the report about the presidential elections and Iran’s Nuclear Program. He visited the mosque and the University of Teheran and met the son of the former President of Iran Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
In September 2005, Penn personally participated in rendering assistance to victims of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
Interesting facts:
* Sean Penn’s mother is an Irish-Catholic and his father is a Jew, “on one side Russian, on the other Lithuanian blood” as is appears in Penn's biography. His grandmother and grandfather had a Jewish cookery shop in New York;
* Penn is the ex-husband of Madonna, with whom he acted in the film “Shanghai Surprise”. During a post marriage dinner on a lawn, while getting out of a helicopter, he became furious at the presence of paparazzi and started firing at them from a gun;
* For assaulting a respectable journalist, he was jailed for one month and one day;
* In 1993, Penn's house in Malibu was completely destroyed by fire;
* For the role of a neurotic-musician in “Sweet and Lowdown” by Woody Allen, Sean Penn mastered the art of playing the guitar;
* Sean Penn has a strong friendship with Mickey Rourke and admires Marlon Brando;
* Sean Penn is the brother of Chris Penn
* Sean Penn is the son of director Leo Penn and actress Eileen Ryan
|
American actor Sean Penn is celebrating his 50th birthday today. America loves Sean and it's hard to believe he's already half a century old. It seems like not long ago he was married to Madonna, and anyone who spends more than 5 minutes with Madonna should be handsomely rewarded. Sean was married to her for 4 years. Well done Sean.
Penn entertained us with many great roles, having won two Oscars of his own for Best Actor and probably stolen and melted down countless others as a warning to anyone in Hollywood who tries to cross him.
More than just an actor, Penn is also a true comedian and prankster, naming his first publicly acknowledged son Hopper Jack after the tool used to lift bins, which irritated his best friends Jack Nicholson
and Dennis Hopper enormously, as you can imagine.
