Sean Penn
Acting
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.
Animals in War
In Thanks We Trust
Self
One Battle After Another
Col. Steven J. Lockjaw
Becoming Madonna
Self (archive footage)
Bruce Springsteen – The America whisperer
Self : Actor, Director & Writer (Archive footage)
Daddio
Clark
BRATS
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Sean Penn, l'enfant terrible de l'Amérique
Self
Asphalt City
Gene Rutkovsky
Gonzo Girl
Superpower
Self
Licorice Pizza
Jack Holden
Flag Day
John Vogel
Citizen Penn
Himself
Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A Virtual Table Read
Pizza Guy
The Professor and the Madman
Dr. William Chester Minor
Sound of Sun
Man
Mad Hannans
The Angry Birds Movie
Terence (voice)
El Chapo & Sean Penn: Bungle in the Jungle
Self
The Gunman
Jim Terrier
Beaver Trilogy Part IV
Himself (archive footage)
Sweet Micky for President
Self
Return to the Wild: The Chris McCandless Story
Himself
Holbrook/Twain: An American Odyssey
Self
The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to the Beatles
Self
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Sean O'Connell
The Human Experiment
Narrator
Gangster Squad
Mickey Cohen
Americans
Commie
Haiti Untold
Woody Allen: A Documentary
Self
This Must Be the Place
Cheyenne
The Tree of Life
Jack
Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune
Self
I'm Still Here
Sean Penn (uncredited)
Fair Game
Joseph Wilson
The People Speak
Self
Deflating the Elephant
Narrator
Milk
Harvey Milk
What Just Happened
Sean Penn
Witch Hunt
Himself (Narrator)
VH1 Rock Honors: The Who
Self
War Made Easy
Self - Narrator (Voice)
Brando
Self
Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride
Self
All the King's Men
Willie Stark
The Interpreter
Tobin Keller
The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing
Self
Jack Nicholson: The Joker Is Wild
Self(archive footage) (uncredited)
Mystic River: Beneath the Surface
Self
The Assassination of Richard Nixon
Samuel Bicke
Dennis Hopper: The Decisive Moments
Self
21 Grams: In Fragments
Self
Mystic River: From Page to Screen
Self
Mystic River
Jimmy Markum
21 Grams
Paul Rivers
Inside Björk
Self
Pauly Shore Is Dead
Sean Penn
Dennis Hopper: Create (or Die)
Self
Bukowski: Born Into This
Self
It's All About Love
Marciello
This So-Called Disaster
Ray
Rosy-Fingered Dawn: A Film on Terrence Malick
Self
Searching for Debra Winger
Self (uncredited)
Dogtown and Z-Boys
Narrator
I Am Sam
Sam Dawson
The Weight of Water
Thomas Janes
A Constant Forge
Self
Before Night Falls
Cuco Sanchez
Beaver Trilogy
"Groovin' Larry" Huff
Up at the Villa
Rowley Flint
Reliving Our Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Sweet and Lowdown
Emmet Ray
Being John Malkovich
Sean Penn (uncredited)
Hurlyburly
Eddie
The Thin Red Line
1st Sgt. Edward Welsh
Hugo Pool
Strange Hitchhiker
Loved
Man on the Hill (Michael)
U Turn
Bobby Cooper
The Game
Conrad Van Orton
She's So Lovely
Eddie Quinn
Dead Man Walking
Matthew Poncelet
Carlito's Way
David Kleinfeld
The Last Party
Self
Madonna: The Name of the Game
Self
Cruise Control
State of Grace
Terry
Cool Blue
Phil the Plumber (uncredited)
Casualties of War
Sgt. Tony Meserve
We're No Angels
Jim
Judgment in Berlin
Guenther X
Colors
Danny McGavin
Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam
(voice)
Shanghai Surprise
Glendon Wasey
At Close Range
Bradford 'Brad' Whitewood Jr.
The Falcon and the Snowman
Daulton Lee
Racing with the Moon
Henry 'Hopper' Nash
Crackers
Dillard
Risky Business
Passenger in Car (uncredited)
Summerspell
Buddy
Bad Boys
Mick O'Brien
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Jeff Spicoli
Taps
Cadet Captain Alex Dwyer
The Beaver Kid 2
Groovin' Larry
The Killing of Randy Webster
Don Fremont
Hellinger's Law
Bit Part (uncredited)