Robin Penn

Actress Robin Wright Penn’s earliest credits – a stint as a teen model and an Emmy-nominated turn on the daytime soap “Santa Barbara” (NBC, 1983-1994) – belied her status as one of the most dependable and versatile actresses of the late 1990s and early 2000s. She achieved the dream of many performers by balancing regular appearances in Hollywood blockbusters like “The Princess Bride” (1987) and “Forrest Gump” (1994), with more independent-minded features like “The Crossing Guard” (1995), “The Pledge” (2001) and “Nine Lives” (2005). Penn’s co-star in several of these projects was acclaimed actor-director Sean Penn, with whom she shared what seemed to be one of the entertainment industry’s most enduring relationships until its dissolution in late 2007.

The daughter of a pharmaceutical executive and a sales director for the Mary Kay cosmetics firm, Penn was born Robin Gayle Wright in Dallas, TX on April 8, 1966. Her parents divorced when she was only two, leading the family to relocate to San Diego, CA with her mother Gayle and brother Richard. Tall, willowy, and blonde, she was a natural for teen modeling, and began working abroad while only 14. After graduating high school, Penn’s manager encouraged her to explore acting, and she made her debut on the primetime drama, “The Yellow Rose” (NBC, 1983-84). She was soon snapped up for the role of Kelly Capwell, the lead ingénue on “Santa Barbara,” where she was nominated for three Daytime Emmys and won a 1986 Soap Opera Digest award. While on the soap, she made her film debut in the low-budget thriller “Hollywood Vice Squad” (1986), where she began a relationship with her co-star, Dane Witherspoon, which led to a 1986 marriage.

In 1987, Penn was tapped by director Rob Reiner to play Princess Buttercup in “The Princess Bride,” a charming romantic comedy-fantasy which developed a considerable fan base on home video and DVD. The film’s release coincided with the end of her contract on “Santa Barbara,” so she departed the show to explore her options in film and television. A role in experimental film director Peter Greenaway’s “A TV Dante” (1989), based on Dante’s “Inferno” preceded her third film, “Denial” (1990) with Jason Patric. Penn and Patric were a brief off-screen item before she met actor Sean Penn on Phil Joanou’s Irish mobster drama, “State of Grace” (1990). Though the film was overwrought in terms of direction and script, it showed off the grittier side of Penn’s talent, and foreshadowed many of her future film roles. The picture also marked the beginning of her relationship with Sean Penn, by whom she was pregnant the following year.

Penn was thankfully forced to turn down the role of Maid Marian in Kevin Costner’s ill-fated “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” (1991) due to the birth of her daughter, Dylan Francis, but she returned to movies the following year with a spirited supporting role as the object of both Aidan Quinn and Albert Finney’s affections in “The Playboys” (1992). She then returned to the Hollywood side of filmmaking for Barry Levinson’s comedy “Toys” (1992), but the end result was muddled and obscured her abilities behind a flurry of special effects and mugging by star Robin Williams. Penn was pregnant with her second child following the Levinson film, and gave birth to a son, Jack Hopper (so named for Sean Penn’s friend, actor Dennis Hopper) in 1993.

Penn returned to acting in 1994 as Jenny, the object of Tom Hanks’ affections in Robert Zemeckis’ blockbuster “Forrest Gump.” The massive project gave Penn a substantial role which required her to age several decades over the course of the film. For her efforts, she was nominated for several awards, including a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award. Penn later offset the massive pop culture crush that surrounded “Gump” by her first role as an actress in a film directed by her significant other; “The Crossing Guard” (1995), in which she played an artist who becomes entangled with Jack Nicholson’s revenge-seeking main character. Penn followed this with the title role in Pen Densham’s unconventional take on Daniel Defoe’s “Moll Flanders” (1996) opposite Morgan Freeman and Stockard Channing. That same year, after a brief separation from Sean Penn, she married him and added his surname to her professional name.

The year 1997 saw Penn shift her focus to a string of independent features, starting with the largely unseen “Loved,” about a woman traumatized by an abusive relationship, which earned her an Independent Spirit Award nod. It marked the first of three on-screen pairings with her husband, and was soon followed by “She’s So Lovely,” a character study of a headstrong woman (Wright Penn) and the men who vie for her hand (Sean Penn and John Travolta). The film, directed by Nick Cassavetes and penned by his late father, indie film saint John Cassavetes, earned the actress Screen Actors Guild and Independent Spirit Award nominations for Best Actress. The Penns followed this with the disappointing film version of David Rabe’s “Hurlyburly” (1998).

Penn returned to the Hollywood fold for three lackluster features, the romantic fantasy “Message in a Bottle” (1998) with Kevin Costner; the prison drama “The Last Castle” (2001), in an uncredited turn as Robert Redford’s daughter; and “Unbreakable” (2001, as Bruce Willis’ wife, in M. Night Shymalan’s offbeat take on the superhero movie. Her indie effort during this period, the black comedy “How To Kill Your Neighbor’s Dog” (2000), with Kenneth Branagh, went largely unseen by moviegoers.

Penn took the female lead in her husband’s crime drama “The Pledge” (2001), starring as Jack Nicholson’s love interest, before teaming with a trio of heavyweight actresses – Michelle Pfeiffer, Renee Zellwegger, and Alison Lohman – for the ponderous film adaptation of Janet Fitch’s bestseller, “White Oleander” (2002). Penn played Ingrid, a born-again, alcoholic stripper who takes in the film’s narrator (Lohman), only to shuttle her off to another foster mother after her boyfriend (Cole Hauser) becomes romantically intrigued by her. It was followed by several hit-or-miss indies, including the film version of “The Singing Detective” (2003), with Penn in three roles, including that of lead Robert Downey Jr.’s estranged wife and a shadowy femme fatale; the little-seen “Virgin” (2003), with Penn as the mother who believes her daughter has experienced immaculate conception; and “A Home at the End of the World” (2004), with Penn as Colin Farrell’s love interest. “Virgin” also marked Penn’s debut as executive producer.

From 2005, Penn was a staple in independent, character-driven fare. She was top-billed in a cast of powerful actresses – including Glenn Close, Sissy Spacek, and Holly Hunter – in Rodrigo Garcia’s anthology feature “Nine Lives” (2005), and shared nominations with them from the Gotham Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, and other organizations. She followed this with “Sorry, Haters” (2005), an eclectic drama about a divorcee (Penn) who turns the life of a Syrian cab driver upside down. Penn’s intense performance netted her another Independent Spirit nomination. She also enjoyed a choice role as Ed Harris’ lovelorn mother (in flashbacks) in the HBO miniseries “Empire Falls,” which brought her a Screen Actors Guild nomination. In 2006, she co-starred as Jude Law’s girlfriend, as well as the mother of an emotionally unstable child in Anthony Minghella’s unusual mystery-drama “Breaking and Entering,” which yielded a British Independent Film Award nomination for her.

Penn’s on-screen efforts in 2007 could not have been further apart in regard to subject matter or substance – she was the mysterious Strange Lady, who dallies with Dakota Fanning’s father in the controversial “Hounddog” (which reunited her with “Virgin” director Deborah Kampmeier), and she provided the voice and physical movements (as well as two songs) for Danish Queen Wealthow in Robert Zemeckis’ CGI-animated take on “Beowulf.” The latter proved a box office (if not a critical) hit, but it was largely overshadowed by the news at year’s end that Penn was ending her long relationship with Sean Penn, citing "irreconcilable differences." Considering their rollercoaster relationship, Penn surprised no one when she withdrew her petition to divorce in April 2008. Meanwhile, she appeared in the same film with her husband, “What Just Happened?” (2008), Barry Levinson’s Hollywood satire about an aging producer struggling to maintain his career while battling his ex-wife (Penn) and his suddenly grown-up daughter (Kristen Stewart).