Chris Penn, 41, was found dead last night in California.
Chis was son of director Leo Penn and actress Eileen Ryan. His brothers are actor Sean Penn and musician Michael Penn.
The picture above is from Footloose.
The character "Willard" in Footloose was written specifically for Chris. When the producers found out that he actually did not know how to dance, the famous "learning how to dance" screen with Kevin Bacon (Ren) was written and added to the movie.
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
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5 comments:
Weird...I think my comment disappared here.
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Phoenix posted the following, to which I replied "He seemed like a nice guy" -- both Phoenix' comment and my reply have vanished -- don't know why -- Jim
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He was so young...it's a tragedy.
I remember the song "Let's Hear It for the Boy" playing when he was dancing in "Footloose."
He really could NOT dance...even after those Kevin Bacon lessons, he was good with the acrobatic moves - as Chris was pretty athletic back then. But he danced like a wounded duck. He was perfect for the part.
I also remember him in a late 80s movie called "Best of the Best." He was a karate cowboy with an attitude.
I hadn't heard that he had passed. Forty years as much too short to walk this realm. Hopefully he is teaching others to dance now in another.
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fuzz -- that's nice
I remember seeing him in Rush Hour, and thinking that he looked familiar. It was a couple of years later when I was doing an IMDb search on him (because of that short-lived TV show he did) that I realized that he was the same guy who played Willard.
I've seen him in other things, and thought that he was a pretty good actor. Sad to see him go.
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I think most guys could identify with Willard rather than Ren -- and no matter what Chris did, he would always be introduced as "Sean's brother"
I was shocked to hear of his death but even more shocked by his appearance (they showed a picture of him on the news). I wouldn't have recognized him! :(
and I didn't know that about 'Footloose'. That's cute.
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as of this date they still do not know the cause of death -- he does not look healthy in recent photos -- the Sheen brothers and Penn brothers were best friends growing up -- Martin Sheen arrived just after Chris' mother and took charge of helping the family
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