Christopher Shannon "Chris" Penn (October 10, 1965 – January 24, 2006) was an American film and television actor known for his roles in such films as The Wild Life, Reservoir Dogs, Footloose, True Romance, All the Right Moves, Mulholland Falls, and Pale Rider.
Personal life
Penn was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Leo Penn, an actor and director, and Eileen Ryan (née Annucci), an actress. His paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Lithuania and Russia,[1] and his mother was a Roman Catholic of Italian and Irish descent.[2] According to Penn's mother, Leo Penn may have had distant Spanish ancestry, as the family's surname was originally "Piñón".[2] He had two older brothers, actor Sean Penn, and musician Michael Penn.
Penn never married, but from 1993 to 1999 he dated and lived with Filipino-American model Steffiana de la Cruz.
Career
Penn started acting at the age of 12 at the Loft Studio and made his film debut in 1979’s Charlie and the Talking Buzzard starring Christopher Hanks. In 1983, he was featured in Francis Ford Coppola’s youth drama Rumble Fish and appeared in the high school football drama All the Right Moves as a soon-to-be high school father and the best friend of Tom Cruise's character. He also appeared in the hit dance movie Footloose in 1984; played a villain in the Clint Eastwood western Pale Rider (1985); and co-starred with his brother, Sean Penn, and mother Eileen Ryan in At Close Range (1986).
Penn was typically cast as a tough character, featured as a villain or a working-class lug, or in a comic role. Two of his more memorable performances came in Reservoir Dogs as Nice Guy Eddie and True Romance as Nicky Dimes (both characters in scripts written by Quentin Tarantino). In 1996 he won the award for Best Supporting Actor at the Venice Film Festival for The Funeral. He appeared as the cocky fighter Travis Brickley in the film Best of the Best and its sequel.
In Robert Altman's ensemble film Short Cuts, Penn played a troubled swimming pool cleaner who is disturbed by his wife’s profession (a telephone sex worker who takes calls from clients at home) to which Penn’s character is obliged to listen. He also appeared as the couch-potato, drug-dealing, high school janitor in Murder by Numbers alongside Sandra Bullock.
Penn was meant to appear in American Pie 2 as Stifler's father, but the scenes featuring him were eventually cut as there was not sufficient time to include him in the film's plot. However, they did appear on the deleted scene reel from the movie's DVD.
Penn was featured in an episode of the television crime drama Law and Order: Criminal Intent (Death Roe) during the 2004–2005 season. He was also featured on the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as the voice of Officer Eddie Pulaski. Penn played himself on a 2005 episode of the HBO series Entourage.
He appeared in The Darwin Awards, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival one day before his death.
Penn also appeared on Jay-Z's "Can I Get A..." music video as the bartender mixing drinks and dancing.
Death
Penn was found dead in his Santa Monica condominium on January 24, 2006, at the age of 40. Although Penn had used multiple drugs in the past, an autopsy performed by a Los Angeles County medical examiner revealed the primary cause of death was "nonspecific cardiomyopathy" (heart disease), with the prescription drug promethazine with codeine and an enlarged heart being possible contributing circumstances. Sean Penn has said publicly in a TV interview on Larry King Live that his brother probably died because of his weight.[3]
There is conflicting information about Chris Penn's age at the time of death, with some obituaries giving 1962 as his year of birth.[4] His mother indicated that his date of birth was October 10, 1965, in the book about one of his brothers, Sean Penn: His Life and Times by Richard T. Kelly (2004).
Penn is interred next to his father Leo in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.
Filmography
Charlie and the Talking Buzzard (1979)
All The Right Moves (1983)
Rumble Fish (1983)
The Wild Life (1984)
Footloose (1984)
Pale Rider (1985)
At Close Range (1986)
Made in USA (1987)
Return from the River Kwai (1989)
Best of the Best (1989)
Mobsters (1991)
Future Kick (1991)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Leather Jackets (1992)
Best of the Best 2 (1993)
The Pickle (1993)
Beethoven’s 2nd (1993)
Josh and S.A.M. (1993)
The Music of Chance (1993)
True Romance (1993)
Short Cuts (1993)
Imaginary Crimes (1994)
Fist of the North Star (1995)
Sacred Cargo (1995)
To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995)
Under the Hula Moon (1995)
Dead Mans Walk (1996
Mulholland Falls (1996)
The Funeral (1996)
The Boys Club (1997)
Papertrail (1997) (a.k.a. Trail of a Serial Killer)
Deceiver (1997)
One Tough Cop (1998)
Rush Hour (1998)
Family Attraction (1998)
Cement (1999)
The Florentine (1999)
Kiss Kiss (Bang Bang) (2000)
American Pie 2 (2001) {as Stifler's Dad in a deleted storyline}
Corky Romano (2001)
Murder by Numbers (2002)
Redemption (2002)
Stealing Harvard (2002)
Masked and Anonymous (2003)
Shelter Island (2003)
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (voice of Eddie Pulaski) (2004)
Starsky and Hutch (2004)
After the Sunset (2004)
Pauly Shore is Dead (2004)
The Darwin Awards (2006)
King of Sorrow (2006)
Holly (2006)
Aftermath (2010)
References
1.^ Jews Flop in Big Oscar Award Wins. Jewish Journal.com. March 5, 2004.
2.^ Kelly, Richard T. Sean Penn: His Life and Times. Canongate U.S. 2004. 3.^ "Sean Penn: Chris's Weight Killed Him". People.com.
4.^ "Reservoir Dogs' Penn found dead". BBC News. 25 January 2006.
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