Sean Penn
Acting
- Born:
- 1960-08-17
- Place of birth:
- Santa Monica, California, USA
Biography
Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his intense leading man roles in film. His accolades include three Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and nominations for three British Academy Film Awards, an Emmy Award, and a Grammy Award. He received the Honorary César in 2015 and the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award in 2022. Penn made his feature film debut in the drama Taps (1981), before taking roles in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Bad Boys (1983), and At Close Range (1986). He has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice, for playing a grieving father in Mystic River (2003) and the gay rights activist Harvey Milk in Milk (2008). He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing the ruthless military officer Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw in One Battle After Another (2025). He was Oscar-nominated for Dead Man Walking (1995), Sweet and Lowdown (1999), and I Am Sam (2001). He also acted in Casualties of War (1989), State of Grace (1990), Carlito's Way (1993), The Game(1997), The Thin Red Line (1998), Hurlyburly (1998), 21 Grams (2003), Fair Game (2010), The Tree of Life (2011), Licorice Pizza (2021) and Daddio (2023). Penn made his directorial film debut with the crime drama The Indian Runner (1991), followed by The Crossing Guard (1995), The Pledge (2001), and Into the Wild (2007). On stage, he acted in the Broadway plays Heartland (1981) and Slab Boys (1983). On television, he portrayed an astronaut in the Hulu drama series The First (2018) and John N. Mitchell in the Starz political thriller miniseries Gaslit (2022). Penn has also engaged in political and social activism, including his criticism of the George W. Bush administration, his contact with the presidents of Cuba and Venezuela, his humanitarian work in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and his support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy amidst the Russian-Ukrainian war. Description above from the Wikipedia article Sean Penn, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Filmography
Red Rue Express
Samuel Bayer Beyond the Frame
Learning, Studying… Always Perfecting: The Making of One Battle After Another
Variety & CNN Actors on Actors
Animals in War
In Thanks We Trust
One Battle After Another
aka Charlie Sheen
Everybody's Live with John Mulaney
Becoming Madonna
Bruce Springsteen: The America Whisperer
Daddio
BRATS
Sean Penn, l'enfant terrible de l'Amérique
Asphalt City
Gonzo Girl
Superpower
Gaslit
Licorice Pizza
Flag Day
Val
Charles Bronson: The Spirit of Masculinity
Citizen Penn
Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A Virtual Table Read
Lights Out with David Spade
The Professor and the Madman
The First
Firing Line with Margaret Hoover
Sound of Sun
Mad Hannans
The Angry Birds Movie
El Chapo & Sean Penn: Bungle in the Jungle
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
The Human Experiment
The Gunman
Sweet Micky for President
Beaver Trilogy Part IV
Return to the Wild: The Chris McCandless Story
Holbrook/Twain: An American Odyssey
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to the Beatles
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Gangster Squad
Americans
Haiti Untold
Woody Allen: A Documentary
This Must Be the Place
The Tree of Life
Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune
I'm Still Here
Fair Game
The People Speak
Deflating the Elephant
Milk
What Just Happened
Witch Hunt
VH1 Rock Honors: The Who
Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis
War Made Easy
Brando
Brando: The Documentary
The Graham Norton Show
Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride
All the King's Men
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts
VH1 Rock Honors
Iconoclasts
The Reichen Show
The Interpreter
The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing
Jack Nicholson: The Joker Is Wild
Mystic River: Beneath the Surface
The Assassination of Richard Nixon
Dennis Hopper: The Decisive Moments
21 Grams: In Fragments
21 Grams
Mystic River: From Page to Screen
Viva La Bam
Mystic River
Two and a Half Men
Inside Björk
Celebrities Uncensored
Pauly Shore Is Dead
Real Time with Bill Maher
Dennis Hopper: Create (or Die)
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Bukowski: Born Into This
It's All About Love
This So-Called Disaster
Rosy-Fingered Dawn: A Film on Terrence Malick
Searching for Debra Winger
Dogtown and Z-Boys
I Am Sam
The Weight of Water
Curb Your Enthusiasm
A Constant Forge
Before Night Falls
Beaver Trilogy
Up at the Villa
Reliving Our Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Sweet and Lowdown
The Early Show
Being John Malkovich
Where Are They Now?
Family Guy
Hurlyburly
The Thin Red Line
Hugo Pool
Loved
U Turn
The Game
She's So Lovely
The View
Dead Man Walking
Robbie Robertson: A Retrospective - From the Band to the Rock'n'Roll Hall Of Fame
Friends
Inside the Actors Studio
Carlito's Way
The Last Party
Madonna: The Name of the Game
Cruise Control
The Larry Sanders Show
State of Grace
The Word
Cool Blue
Casualties of War
We're No Angels
Judgment in Berlin
Colors
Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam
Shanghai Surprise
At Close Range
The Falcon and the Snowman
Racing with the Moon
Crackers
Risky Business
Summerspell
Bad Boys
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Taps
The Beaver Kid 2
The Killing of Randy Webster
Hellinger's Law
Saturday Night Live
Little House on the Prairie
aspekte
The Oscars
Golden Globe Awards
Snake Island