Sean Penn biography

The film also did well with audiences, grossing more than $80 million worldwide.

That same year, he wrote, produced and directed The Crossing Guard, a dark drama starring his boyhood idol, Jack Nicholson. The film received positive reviews from critics, as well as a Golden Globe nomination.

Notable Roles

Penn next starred as a lovesick, jealous husband in Nick Cassavetes's She's So Lovely (1997), co-starring John Travolta and Penn's real-life wife, Robin Wright Penn. Although Penn (who also served as executive producer) won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival, She's So Lovely did not attract a wide audience.

Penn appeared in two other major films in 1997: the poorly received U-Turn, directed by Oliver Stone, and the hit action-thriller The Game, starring Michael Douglas. In Hurlyburly (1998), Penn reprised a role he played on the Los Angeles stage in 1988. That same year, he also starred in the critically acclaimed World War II drama, The Thin Red Line, directed by Terrence Malick.

In 1999, the unpredictable Penn took Hollywood by surprise when he garnered a second Academy Award nomination for best actor, turning in another searing, darkly complex performance as the dissolute jazz guitarist at the center of Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown. In 2000, he starred in the romantic Up in the Villa with Kristen Scott Thomas, and in The Weight of Water.

His third directorial feature, the thriller The Pledge, starred Nicholson and Robin Wright Penn. In 2002, Penn starred opposite Michelle Pfeiffer in I Am Sam, playing a mentally disabled man who fights to regain custody of his young daughter.

The following year, he starred in Clint Eastwood's small town drama Mystic River, for which he earned an Academy Award for best actor. In 2006, Penn starred as Willie Stark, a fictional character based loosely on Louisiana governor Huey Long, in All the King's Men.

Recent Projects

His third directorial feature, the thriller The Pledge (2001), starred Nicholson and Robin Wright Penn. In 2002, Penn starred opposite Michelle Pfeiffer in I Am Sam, playing a mentally disabled man who fights to regain custody of his young daughter.

The following year, he starred in Clint Eastwood's small town drama Mystic River, for which he earned an Academy Award for best actor. In 2006, Penn starred as Willie Stark, a fictional character based loosely on Louisiana governor Huey Long, in All the King's Men. He went on to direct the true-life story of a young man living in rural Alaska in Into the Wild starring Emile Hirsch.

Stepping back in front of the cameras, Penn won his second Academy Award for best actor for his portrayal of the first openly gay politician, Harvey Milk, in the film Milk (2008). The film, directed by Gus Van Sant, received more than 40 award nominations and performed well at the box office. Penn had a supporting role in the Terrence Malick film Tree of Life (2011). That same year, he starred in the independent drama This Must Be the Place.