Sean Penn

Next, Penn portrayed governor Willie Stark (based on Huey Long) in an adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's classic 1946 American novel All the King's Men (2006).

Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor and film director.

Penn began his acting career in television, with a brief appearance in episode 112 of Little House on the Prairie on December 4, 1974, directed by his father Leo Penn.

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.

Following his film debut in the drama Taps (1981), and a diverse range of film roles in the 1980s, including Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) and Bad Boys (1983), Penn garnered critical attention for his roles in the crime dramas At Close Range (1986), State of Grace (1990), and Carlito's Way (1993).

Penn launched his film career with the action-drama Taps (1981), where he played a military high school cadet.

A year later, he appeared in the hit comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), in the role of surfer-stoner Jeff Spicoli; his character helped popularize the word "dude" in popular culture.

Next, Penn appeared as Mick O'Brien, a troubled youth, in the drama Bad Boys (1983).

The role earned Penn favorable reviews and jump-started his career as a serious actor.

Penn played Andrew Daulton Lee in the film The Falcon and the Snowman (1985), which closely followed an actual criminal case.

Penn starred in the drama At Close Range (1986) which received critical acclaim.

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

Penn made his feature film directorial debut with The Indian Runner (1991), followed by the drama film The Crossing Guard (1995) and the mystery film The Pledge (2001); all three were critically well received.

He became known as a prominent leading actor with the drama Dead Man Walking (1995), for which he earned his first Academy Award nomination and the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin Film Festival.

The Academy Awards first recognized his work in nominating him for playing a racist murderer on death row in the drama film Dead Man Walking (1995).

He has also won a Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival for the Nick Cassavetes-directed She's So Lovely (1997), and two Volpi Cups for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival for the indie film Hurlyburly (1998) and the drama 21 Grams (2003).

Lee was a former drug dealer, convicted of espionage for the Soviet Union and originally sentenced to life in prison, but was paroled in 1998.

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

Penn received another two Oscar nominations for Woody Allen's comedy-drama Sweet and Lowdown (1999) and the drama I Am Sam (2001), before winning his first Academy Award for Best Actor in 2003 for Mystic River and a second one in 2008 for Milk.

He was nominated again for his comedic performance as an egotistical jazz guitarist in the Woody Allen film Sweet and Lowdown (1999).

He received his third nomination after portraying a mentally handicapped father in I am Sam (2001).

Penn directed one of the 11 segments of 11'09"01 September 11 (2002), a compilation film made in response to the September 11 attacks. His fourth feature film, the biographical drama survival movie Into the Wild (2007), garnered critical acclaim and two Academy Award nominations.

He has won Academy Awards for his roles in the mystery drama Mystic River (2003) and the biopic Milk (2008).

Penn won a role in the Boston crime drama Mystic River (2003).

In 2004, 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 (2004).

The same year, he was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In addition to his film work, Penn has engaged in political and social activism, including his criticism of the George W. Bush administration, his contact with the Presidents of Cuba and Venezuela, and his humanitarian work in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Penn was born in Santa Monica, California, to actor and director Leo Penn and actress Eileen Ryan (née Annucci).

His older brother is musician Michael Penn.

His younger brother, actor Chris Penn, died in 2006.

His father was Jewish whose parents were emigrants from Merkinė in Lithuania, and his mother was a Catholic of Irish and Italian descent.

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

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

The film is based upon Plame's 2007 memoir Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House.

In November 2008, Penn earned positive reviews for his portrayal of real-life politician and gay rights icon Harvey Milk in the biopic Milk (2008), and was nominated for Best Actor for the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards.

The film also earned Penn his fifth nomination and second win for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

The film was a critical and commercial failure, named by a 2010 Forbes article as the biggest flop in the last five years.

In Fair Game (2010), 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.

He co-starred in the drama The Tree of Life (2011), which won the Palme d'Or at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

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