92 Facts About Sean Penn

Sean Penn is known for his intense leading man roles in film.

Sean Penn later won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice for playing a grieving father in Mystic River and Harvey Milk in Milk.

Sean Penn was Oscar-nominated for his roles in Dead Man Walking, Sweet and Lowdown and I Am Sam.

Sean Penn made his directorial film debut with the crime drama The Indian Runner, followed by the films The Crossing Guard, The Pledge, and Into the Wild.

Sean Penn was born in Santa Monica, California, to actor and director Leo Sean Penn and actress Eileen Ryan.

Sean Penn's father was a Jew whose parents were emigrants from Merkine in Lithuania, and his mother was a Catholic of Irish and Italian descent.

Sean Penn was raised in a secular home in Malibu, California, and attended Malibu Park Junior High School and Santa Monica High School.

Sean Penn began making short films with some of his childhood friends including actors Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen, who lived near his home.

Sean Penn appeared in a 1974 episode of the Little House on the Prairie television series as an extra when his father, Leo, directed some of the episodes.

Sean Penn launched his film career with the action-drama Taps, where he played a military high school cadet.

Sean Penn returned to Broadway that same year acting in the John Byrne play Slab Boys acting alongside Kevin Bacon, Val Kilmer, Jackie Earl Haley, and Madeleine Potter at the Playhouse Theatre.

Sean Penn played Andrew Daulton Lee in the film The Falcon and the Snowman, which closely followed an actual criminal case.

Sean Penn later hired Lee as his personal assistant, partly because he wanted to reward Lee for allowing him to play Lee in the film; Sean Penn was a firm believer in rehabilitation and thought Lee should be successfully reintegrated into society, since he was a free man again.

Sean Penn starred in the drama At Close Range which received critical acclaim.

Sean Penn stopped acting for a few years in the early 1990s, having been dissatisfied with the industry, and focused on making his directing debut.

In 1990, Sean Penn portrayed Detective Terry Noonan in the neo-noir State of Grace opposite Ed Harris and Gary Oldman.

Sean Penn directed the indie thriller The Crossing Guard starring Jack Nicholson.

Critic Roger Ebert wrote "Sean Penn proves again that he is the most powerful actor of his generation".

Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly compared the film to the works of John Cassavetes and wrote that Sean Penn's performance "is so full of heart and talent".

Sean Penn won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor.

In 2000, Sean Penn acted in Julian Schnabel's drama Before Night Falls opposite Javier Bardem and Kathryn Bigelow's thriller The Weight of Water with Elizabeth Hurley.

Sean Penn appeared in two episodes in the eighth season.

Sean Penn's performance led him to his third nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Sean Penn acted alongside Tim Robbins, Laura Linney, Marcia Gay Harden, and Kevin Bacon.

Sean Penn is in top form as the reformed hood whose basic instincts overtake him.

In 2004, Sean Penn played Samuel Bicke, a character based on Samuel Byck, who in 1974 attempted and failed to assassinate President Richard Nixon, in The Assassination of Richard Nixon.

Sean Penn gained acclaim for directing the biographical drama survival film Into the Wild.

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly praised wrote, "Sean Penn has written and directed with magnificent precision and imaginative grace".

In November 2008, Sean Penn earned positive reviews for his portrayal of real-life politician and gay rights activist and icon Harvey Milk in the Gus Van Sant directed biographical drama film Milk.

Sean Penn won his second Academy Award for Best Actor and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role.

In Fair Game, Penn starred as Joseph C Wilson, whose wife, Valerie Plame, was outed as a CIA agent by Bush advisor Scooter Libby in retaliation for an article Wilson wrote debunking Bush's claim that Iraq was building a nuclear bomb as a rationale for invading the country.

Sean Penn reunited with Terrence Malick drama The Tree of Life, which won the at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

In 2015, Sean Penn starred in The Gunman, a French-American action thriller based on the novel The Prone Gunman, by Jean-Patrick Manchette.

Sean Penn claimed that he no longer had "a generic interest in making films", and being a writer will "dominate my creative energies for the foreseeable future".

In 2018 Sean Penn starred in his first leading role in a television series portraying Tom Hagerty, an astronaut chosen to be one of the first people to visit Mars in the Hulu science fiction drama series The First created by Beau Willimon.

In 2020 Sean Penn played himself in a cameo role in the Curb Your Enthusiasm season 10 episode "The Spite Store".

In 2021, Sean Penn portrayed Jack Holden, an actor based on William Holden, in the Paul Thomas Anderson directed coming of age comedy-drama Licorice Pizza.

Ben Travers of IndieWire wrote of his performance, "Sean Penn manages to bring life to his makeup-constructed character" adding "Even his manner of speech, spitting curse words while clenching his wooden pipe, befits the boil of a man that John Mitchell becomes".

In 2023 Sean Penn directed his first documentary film, Superpower, profiling the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Sean Penn starred as a cab driver in Christy Hall's directorial debut Daddio acting opposite Dakota Johnson.

Sean Penn was engaged to actress Elizabeth McGovern, his co-star in Racing with the Moon.

Sean Penn met singer-songwriter Madonna on set of her "Material Girl" music video in January 1985.

In January 1989, Madonna filed for divorce again and reportedly withdrew an assault complaint against Sean Penn following an incident at their Malibu, California, home during the New Year weekend.

Sean Penn was alleged to have struck Madonna on multiple occasions during their marriage in the book Madonna Unauthorized.

In 1989, Sean Penn began dating actress Robin Wright, and their first child, a daughter named Dylan Frances, was born April 13,1991.

Sean Penn invited her to compose a song for his film The Crossing Guard and followed her on tour.

Sean Penn reconciled with Wright and they married on April 27,1996.

In December 2013, Sean Penn began dating South African actress Charlize Theron.

In 2016, Sean Penn began a relationship with Australian actress Leila George, daughter of actors Vincent D'Onofrio and Greta Scacchi.

In June 2023, Sean Penn began a relationship with Ukrainian Olga Korotyayeva.

In October 1985, Sean Penn pled no contest to charges that he assaulted two journalists when they tried to photograph him and Madonna in Nashville in June 1985.

Sean Penn was fined $50 on each of two misdemeanor charges of assault and battery.

In January 1986, Sean Penn was charged for allegedly assaulting Leonel Borralho, Macau correspondent for the Hong Kong Standard newspaper, after he photographed Madonna and Sean Penn as they arrived at their hotel room.

In June 1986, Sean Penn was charged with misdemeanor battery for assaulting songwriter David Wolinski at Helena's nightclub in Los Angeles.

Wolinski said Sean Penn accused him of trying to kiss Madonna.

Sean Penn was sentenced to 60 days in jail for this assault and reckless driving in June 1987, of which he served 33 days.

In May 2010, Sean Penn pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge stemming from an altercation with photographer Frank Mateljan in October 2009.

Sean Penn was sentenced to perform 300 hours of community service and undergo 36 hours of anger management counseling.

Sean Penn dropped the lawsuit in May 2016 after Daniels retracted his statement and apologized.

Sean Penn has been outspoken in supporting numerous political and social causes.

On June 10,2005, Sean Penn visited Iran, where, acting as a journalist on an assignment for the San Francisco Chronicle, he attended a Friday prayer at Tehran University.

On January 7,2006, Sean Penn was a special guest at the Progressive Democrats of America, where he was joined by author and media critic Norman Solomon and activist Cindy Sheehan at their "Out of Iraq Forum" in Sacramento, California, organized to support and promote the anti-Iraq War movement.

On December 18,2006, Sean Penn received the Christopher Reeve First Amendment Award from the Creative Coalition for his commitment to free speech.

In October 2008, Sean Penn visited Cuba, where he met with and interviewed then Cuban president Raul Castro.

In 2021, Sean Penn denounced cancel culture, describing it as "ludicrous".

On October 18,2002, Penn placed a $56,000 advertisement in The Washington Post, publicly asking then President George W Bush to end military hostilities in Iraq and elsewhere.

In one of his televised speeches, Chavez used and read aloud an open letter Sean Penn wrote to Bush.

On December 7,2007, Penn said he supported Ohio Congressman Dennis J Kucinich in the 2008 US presidential election, and again criticized Bush's handling of the Iraq War.

Sean Penn questioned whether Bush's daughters, Jenna and Barbara, supported the war in Iraq.

In September 2005, Sean Penn traveled to New Orleans, to aid Hurricane Katrina victims.

Sean Penn was physically involved in rescuing people, although there was criticism that his involvement was a PR stunt as he hired a photographer to come along with his entourage.

Sean Penn denied such accusations in an article he wrote for HuffPost.

On January 31,2012, due largely to his visibility as an on-the-ground advocate for rescue and aid efforts in the aftermath, Sean Penn was designated by then Haitian president Michel Martelly as Ambassador-at-Large for Haiti, the first time a non-Haitian citizen has held the position in the country's history.

Also in 2012, at the 12th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, Sean Penn was recognized with the Peace Summit Award.

On February 22,2009, Sean Penn received the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film Milk.

Sean Penn gained significant attention in Pakistan media when he visited Karachi and Badin in 2012.

On March 23,2012, accompanied by US Consul General William J Martin, Penn visited flood-stricken villages in Karim Bux Jamali, Dargah Shah Gurio, and Peero Lashari in the Badin District, where he distributed blankets, quilts, kitchen items, and other goods to flood survivors.

On March 24,2012, during his visit to Pakistan, Sean Penn visited Bilquis Edhi Female Child Home and met Pakistani humanitarian worker Abdul Sattar Edhi and his wife Bilquis Edhi and laid floral wreaths at the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi in honor of him.

Sean Penn is believed to have played a role in securing the release of American entrepreneur Jacob Ostreicher from a Bolivian prison in 2013, and was credited by Ostreicher for having personally nursed him back to health after his release.

Sean Penn is the founder of the nonprofit organization Community Organized Relief Effort, which distributed aid in Haiti following the country's 2010 earthquake and Hurricane Matthew and administered free COVID-19 diagnostic tests in the US during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In February 2012, during the Syrian civil war, Sean Penn stood beside Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez as Venezuela supported the government of Syria, led by Bashar al-Assad.

In March 2010, Sean Penn called for the imprisonment of journalists who referred to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as a dictator.

Sean Penn's was criticized by conservative and libertarian media sources, including National Review and Reason.

Actress Maria Conchita Alonso, who co-starred with Penn in Colors, issued an "Open Letter to Sean Penn", attacking his views on Chavez.

In October 2020, Sean Penn tweeted support for Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh war between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

In 2022, Sean Penn visited Ukraine to film a documentary about the Russian invasion of that country.

Sean Penn attended press briefings in Kyiv, met with officials and spoke to journalists and military personnel about the Russian invasion.

Sean Penn praised the response from the Ukrainian government and its citizens.

Sean Penn later claimed his comments were misrepresented in British press and that his criticism of "colonialism" was a reference to the deployment of Prince William as an air-sea rescue pilot, describing it as a "message of pre-emptive intimidation".

Sean Penn has appeared in over 50 films and won several awards during his career as an actor and director, including two Academy Awards for Best Actor for Mystic River in 2003 and Milk in 2008, and was nominated three more times in the same category for Dead Man Walking, Sweet and Lowdown, and I Am Sam.

Sean Penn received a Directors Guild of America nomination for directing Into the Wild.

In 2015, Sean Penn received the Honorary Cesar for lifetime achievement.