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Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an Academy Award-winning American
film actor and director who is best known for playing intense, often humorless and
unsympathetic characters.
 Early
life
Penn was born in Santa Monica, California, to Leo Penn, an actor, director, and
Eileen Ryan, an actress. Penn's father was the son of Elizabeth Melincoff and
Maurice Daniel Penn, Jewish immigrants of Russian and Lithuanian descent who owned
a delicatessen. His mother, born "Eileen Annucci", is a Roman Catholic of Italian
and Irish descent. The Penn surname was originally Piñon, but it was changed when
his grandfather immigrated to the United States. Penn has one living brother,
musician Michael Penn. Another younger brother, actor Chris Penn, died on January
24, 2006 from "nonspecific cardiomyopathy" (heart disease).
Education
Sean attended Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, studying auto
mechanics and speech, but did not graduate with a degree.
Career
Penn launched his career with the 1981 film Taps, followed a year later with the
comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High in the role of Jeff Spicoli (his only
successful comedic role) and has since starred in over 40 movies. He was awarded an
Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in Mystic River. Penn has also been
nominated for three other Academy Awards in recognition of his roles in the films I
Am Sam, Sweet and Lowdown and Dead Man Walking.
In 1985, Penn gave a memorable performance in the role of Andrew Daulton Lee in The
Falcon and the Snowman. Lee was a former drug dealer by trade, who was convicted of
espionage for the Soviet Union and was originally sentenced to life in prison. Lee
was paroled in 1998. According to a April 8, 2005 interview in The Guardian, 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 reintegrated into society now
that he is a free man again.
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 has since
directed two more films: The Crossing Guard in 1995 and The Pledge in 2001. Both of
these films starred Jack Nicholson. He also directed Shania Twain's music video
"Dance with the One That Brought You" in 1993 and Peter Gabriel's music video "The
Barry Williams Show" in 2002. He also appeared on an episode of Viva La Bam in 2004
with his son Hopper.
Personal
life
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 beating a photographer.
In the early days of their marriage, Madonna had said Penn was "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. After a divorce in 1989,
Penn started a relationship with Robin Wright, with whom he had two children,
daughter Dylan Frances (1990) and son Hopper Jack (1993), before they married in
1996. They live in Ross, California. (On The Daily Show for January 18, 2007, Robin
said she and Sean had been together "almost 20 years".)
On April 10, 2003, Penn's 1987 Buick Grand National was stolen in Berkeley,
California with two firearms in the trunk. Sean also has a 1968 Chevrolet El
Camino.
Along with Johnny Depp and Mick Hucknall, Sean Penn is a part-owner of the Parisian
restaurant-bar Man Ray.
His younger brother, Chris, who was famous for playing Nice Guy Eddie in Reservoir
Dogs, was found dead in his Santa Monica condominium on January 24, 2006.
Source : Some of the information on this page came
from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU Documentation
License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Sean
Penn - Generator - Biography
