January 25, 2006

Chris Penn, 1965 - 2006.

Chris Penn
Actor Chris Penn, the younger brother of Sean Penn, has been found dead at his home in Santa Monica, California.

The BBC.

I'll always remember him from Reservoir Dogs, of course, but also in Short Cuts (as Jennifer Jason Leigh's husband) and the underrated The Music of Chance, not to mention At Close Range and in his much younger days, All the Right Moves and Footloose - in which he was quite sympathetic and realistic as a rural teen in need of a reawakening. Unlike his brother, he was destined to be a character actor, with his doughy build, but was a pretty darned good one.

Craig Phillips.



Bookmark and Share

Posted by dwhudson at January 25, 2006 2:12 AM

Comments

Holy shit. This took me completely by surprise.

I'll remember him best from Ferrara's The Funeral. Such a wild, tragic figure.

Posted by: Matt at January 25, 2006 3:36 AM

The scene of Penn dancing in "The Funeral" is a memorable image.

Posted by: Peter Nellhaus at January 25, 2006 5:42 AM

His performance in The Funeral was great. Probably the most memorable of his career. Check the dates, I think he was born in 1965.

Posted by: William at January 25, 2006 8:02 AM


At Close Range, Footloose and Reservoir Dogs...Chris Penn is irreplaceable in all of these.

Posted by: Ju-osh: the paleface ghostface at January 25, 2006 8:37 AM

I just posted some short remembrances of Penn on my site.

Posted by: Edward Copeland at January 25, 2006 8:52 AM

Thanks, William. It seems a lot of early reports took the date from the IMDb - which has changed now, too.

This really is terribly sad and unexpected.

Posted by: David Hudson at January 25, 2006 9:01 AM

"It's casual."

Posted by: Chris Okum at January 25, 2006 9:21 AM

Oh good, someone other than myself thinking of his oft-repeated line from The Wild Life. [g] Not a great movie but he had a presence in quite a few otherwise junky films. As well as some good ones. Why wasn't he in LA Confidential? He should have been. (He was in the earlier, similar, inferior Mulholland Falls.)

May he R.I.P.

C

Posted by: Craig P at January 25, 2006 5:08 PM