On September 11, 2004, he received the John Steinbeck award at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. The award is given out by the San Francisco Chronicle and benefits San Jose State University. The evening included film clips and discussion with Peter Coyote. The biggest surprise of the night was that Bruce Springsteen (a longtime friend of Sean's and the first recipient of the award) presented it to him.
His father was a Jew of Russian and Lithuanian blood and his mother was Irish-Catholic. His grandparents ran a Jewish deli for some time in New York.
In October 2002, bought a $56,000 ad in the Washington Post to publish an open letter to President Bush asking him to slow down the march of war towards Iraq. He wrote it as a father of two children and as a son of a WW II veteran.
His father, Leo Penn, had been blacklisted in the 50s Hollywood.
He and his family moved out of Hollywood to Marin County, San Francisco because he was "tired of a lot of aspects of Los Angeles, the main one being raising the kids in a company town".
His car, a limited-edition 1987 Buick Grand National, was stolen in Berkeley months after his return from Iraq. Among the lost contents were 2 guns.
He and Director Clint Eastwood discussed the posibility of Penn starring in 'Blood Work'. Though it didn't work out, they got the opportunity to work together later in 'Mystic River'.
Andy Warhol was a guest during his August 16, 1985 marriage to Madonna.
A popular indie-band in The Netherlands is called "Seanpenn".
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