Sean Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an actor, director, writer and producer. He he has won two Academy Awards for his roles in Mystic River and Milk (2008), respectively.
Career[edit | edit source]
Sean Penn began his early acting career in films such as Taps and Fast Times at Ridgemont High in the early 1980s. In 1986 he starred in At Close Range with Christopher Walken. He has been nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards five times, and has won the award twice.
Following his film debut in Taps and a diverse range of film roles in the 1980s, Penn subsequently emerged as a prominent leading actor with the 1995 drama film Dead Man Walking, for which he earned his first Academy Award nomination and the Best Actor Award at the Berlin Film Festival. Penn subsequently received another two Oscar nominations for Sweet and Lowdown and I Am Sam, before winning his first Academy Award for Best Actor in 2003 for Mystic River and a second one in 2008 for Milk. He has also won a Best Actor Award of the Cannes Film Festival for She's So Lovely, and two Best Actor Awards at the Venice Film Festival for Hurlyburly and 21 Grams.
Penn made his feature film directorial debut with The Indian Runner, followed by the drama film The Crossing Guard and the mystery film The Pledge (2001). In 2002, Penn directed one of the 11 segments of 11'09"01 September 11, a compilation film made in response to the September 11th attacks. In 2007, Penn directed his fourth feature film Into the Wild, which garnered critical acclaim and two Academy Award nominations.
- 1960 births
- 20th-century American male actors
- 20th-century American writers
- 21st-century American male actors
- 21st-century American writers
- Film directors
- American film directors
- American film producers
- American male film actors
- American male stage actors
- American male television actors
- American male writers
- Writers
- American people of Irish descent
- American people of Italian descent
- American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent
- American people of Russian-Jewish descent
- Screenwriters
- American screenwriters
- Best Actor Academy Award winners
- Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film) winners
- Film directors from California
- Film directors from Los Angeles, California
- Film producers from California
- Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead winners
- Male actors from California
- Male actors from Burbank, California
- Male actors from Santa Monica, California
- Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners
- Silver Bear for Best Actor winners
- Volpi Cup winners
- American expatriates in Haiti
- Living people