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Actors Sean Penn and Dakota Fanning are shown in a scene from the new drama film "I Am Sam," a compelling story of a retarded father raising his daughter Lucy with the help of a unique group of fr

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-01-03 15:29

Once best known for his marriage to pop star Madonna, his divorce was last week announced with his wife of 11 years, "Forest Gump" actress Robin Wright Penn with whom he has two children aged 14 and 16.

Born in Los Angeles to actress Eileen Ryan and director Leo Penn, he dreamt of being a lawyer but then took up acting, debuting as a military cadet in "Taps" (1981) and winning some fame as a "surfer dude" in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (1982).

But it was his stormy four-year marriage to "Material Girl" Madonna that made the headlines until he took starring roles and enthused critics as a cop in "Colors" (1988) or a brutal sergeant in Vietnam in Brian de Palma's 1989 film "Casualties of War."

In 1991 he made his directorial debut with "The Indian Runner", a Vietnam war-themed drama inspired by a song from his friend Bruce Springsteen.

It was also in the 1990s that he won a first Oscar nomination for "Dead Man Walking" (1995) and another for "Sweet and Lowdown" (1999).

A performer with a keen social conscience who makes no bones about his criticism of the Bush administration, Penn last year paid a visit to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and in 2005 penned his thoughts on Iran after a visit there.

His 2004 Oscar was seen as marking his acceptance as a major talent by an industry that seldom rewards its unruliest sons.

Penn, the Cannes festival's artistic director Thierry Fremaux told AFP, "represents the independent American cinema as well as a vision of America which we like."

The brooding actor had snubbed the Oscars on the three previous occasions he was nominated -- the third was for "I Am Sam" in 2001 -- and was an absent focus of the awards in 2003 after paying a controversial pre-war visit to Iraq to condemn the looming war.

"I never thought I'd be sitting here today missing Richard Nixon," he said in Cannes in 2004.

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