In Memoriam

It would be foolish to say that Chris Penn never escaped from the shadow of his brother, Sean, especially since Chris Penn worked with Robert Altman, one of the best directors of movies. On January 24, the actor died of reported natural causes, ending an acting career that started in the late 1970's. Penn was only 40 when he passed away, but he was as famous as his brother, thanks to roles in movies like Footloose, All the Right Moves, Reservoir Dogs, and Short Cuts.
Comparing the Penn brothers is like comparing, well, apples and oranges.
Like most Hollywood siblings, they hardly ever worked together. But when they did, it was one of the greatest crime movies ever, At Close Range, based on actual events. Chris and Sean Penn played brothers, who admire their father played by Christopher Walken, who is a criminal. They work for him and then are betrayed by him. Chris Penn has a good scene with Walken in which they have gone out to a field. Walken is going to kill him and bury him. When asked if he will testify against his father, Penn's character obviously lies. Then in a last moment of sympathy, he yells, "Daddy!" and is shot.
It was Penn's performance as a daddy's boy that would make him an icon in the independent film craze of the early 1990's. Penn was cast as Nice Guy Eddie Cabot, a second generation criminal who is more bark than bite. Just listen to him yell, "Larry, stop pointing that fucking gun at my dad!"
Penn has a good piece of dialogue when he is telling a revenge story of a cocktail waitress to his fellow criminals. But Nice Guy Eddie was a daddy's boy and Penn played him too a T, with all that bad jewelry. Nice Guy Eddie was just sleazy and worse, a wannabe.
Of course, Reservoir Dogs brought a big discussion of "Who Shot Nice Guy Eddie?" because of malfunctioing special effects.
Sadly, Penn never was cast in many leading role. He was often portrayed as the buddy in movies like Footloose, All the Right Moves, and Made in U.S.A. It's sad that his weight kept him from getting many bigger roles. He was often playing either bad guys or police officers in movies.
Quite possibly, his best performance was in Short Cuts as Jerry Kaiser, a pool cleaner who listen to his wife, Jennifer Jason Leigh, talk dirty as a phone sex operator.
Like many actors, he found one of his performance on the cutting room floor. It's a shame that the filmmakers of American Pie 2 cut Penn's performance as Stifler's dad. It could have brought him a whole new audience.
Rest in Peace
10-10-1965 to 1-24-2006