People

Sean Penn

Acting · follow into films and chains

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.

Notable films

Where to start

Highlights from credits and KinoChain journeys.

The Game

Appears in a KinoChain journey

Carlito's Way

Appears in a KinoChain journey

The Tree of Life

Appears in a KinoChain journey

One Battle After Another

As Col. Steven J. Lockjaw

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

As Sean O'Connell

Mystic River

As Jimmy Markum

Into the Wild

Directed

The Angry Birds Movie

As Terence (voice)

Chains

KinoChain journeys

Public chains that pass through their films — or name them as a bridge.

Browse all chains

When the Cartoon Fights Back: Slapstick Meets Liability

What happens when simulated harm, comic violence, or staged ordeals crash into real-world consequences? This collection explores the unsettling borderland where...

8 films

It was Miss Scarlet, in the cinema...

Celebrating Lesley Ann Warren's 80th birthday with a journey through board game adaptations, from the witty whodunit of Clue to the explosive naval warfare of B...

8 films

The Vincent Pastore Top Five

A tribute to Vincent Pastore, whose death today invites us to trace Pastore's arc from background wiseguy to recognisable character actor, without leaning on Th...

5 films

The Summer Was Never Going To Last

From the last sun-drenched days of July to the first rustle of October, this chain follows the slow turn of the season through films that understand the ache of...

7 films

Topics