That was my favorite movie in high school. I heard somewhere that he was really an accomplished dancer. He was delightful…“No fighting, Willard!”
I was reading on IMDB the other day how the Penn brothers, Sheen/Estevez and Rob & Chad Lowe were all pals in high school and used to make amateur films together.
Also remember in his brief role in Rush Hour he was looking fairly bloated, but I thought it was maybe just the role.
What the hell? I love Chris Penn, and have always appreciated him as an actor independent of his familial ties to Sean (who’s also great.)
We just watched Resevoir Dogs the other day (for the 5th time) and I was thinking then what an underrated talent he is.
Damn. 
RIP Chris.
Just what I was thinking when I saw the news blurb “Sean Penn’s brother dies”. I thought, if they mean Chris Penn, the actor, why don’t they just say “Chris Penn dies”. He had a career of his own, it really isn’t very nice or fair to refer to him just as Sean Penn’s brother. If they had to include the connection then say, “Chris Penn, Sean’s brother, dies”. It would be one thing if Chris was an auto mecahnic and his only connection to celebrity was that he was related to one but he was an actor, too, dammit.
Damn, this sucks.
I agree that Short Cuts was his best work. Everybody does a great job in that film, but his transformation from pathetic frustrated husband to raging killer is awesome.
Does that make singer/songwriter Michael Penn “Sean Penn’s brother’s brother”?
Our local news reported that his latest film is scheduled to premier today at the Sundance Film Festival.
Thudlow, I only realized today that Michael Penn is related to these Penns. How did I not know that before?
I don’t know if this was directed at me or not, but I meant no disrespect I included it because I didn’t want people to think that it was Sean Penn who had died. I initially had the brain wires crossed and made this mistake, so I was trying to avoid that from happening to others.
Reading too many books and not enough “People” magazines? 
Toss sister-in-law Aimee Mann in there too (Michael’s wife).
I know what you mean, I can’t tell you how many people were upset to hear that James Earl RAY died. I was astonished until I realized they thought it was James Earl JONES that had died. :smack:
Lol - yeah. And it just happened to me again. I read the names as you wrote them and I immediately went “James Earl Jones died? When did this happen!?” sigh I wish I was smart sometimes.
Nailed it in one, I guess.
IMHO Michael is the one whose talent is the most understated of the three brothers. Nice Guy Eddie is gone way too young. Hope K Billy plays his request.
He played himself on Entourage on HBO this past fall, probably his most recent appearance or close to it, and he was not looking well. Seriously overweight and sweaty, Farley like in a way. We’ll see what the cause was in due time I’m sure.
I always enjoyed watching him, more so than his brother thats for sure, and usually liked the roles and films he made.
[sub]Frustrated that I didn’t remember any of this while making my Death Pool list[/sub]
It may be revealed to be at least slightly ironic (depending on the details of his death) that the film is called The Darwin Awards.
The coroner was pretty blunt on ET -
“Chris Penn was forty years old and weighed 318 lbs. There will be a toxicology report pending.”
I liked his character so much in Footloose, I always thought he was underrated as well.
I had no idea he was that heavy. I knew he was big, of course, but the 318 surprises me.
Still, I’ve known people heavier than that who made it into their 80s. (I didn’t know Marlon Brando, but he had a very long life and once topped 400 lbs…) OD sounds unfortunately likely.