NAME: Sean Penn

AGE: 43

NATIONALITY: American

CLAIM TO FAME: The Hollywood rebel finally wins the Oscar

FEW believed that Sean Penn would turn up for the Academy Awards ceremony this year, and even fewer had faith in Penn winning the Best Actor trophy. But the actor, who is considered kind of a rebel among his peers in Hollywood surprised everyone by turning up for the Awards and the Academy added to it by voting in favour of him. Sean Penn won the Oscar for his highly acclaimed role as the grief-stricken Jimmy Markum, whose daughter is murdered in Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River.

Penn’s impressive performance in Mystic River, coupled with another masterpiece effort this year in 21-Grams was hard to ignore by Hollywood heavyweights. As an uncharacteristically smiling and shy Penn went to the stage to collect his award, he got a standing ovation. But Penn, who said he had not prepared a speech on the grounds that this was “presumptuous and embarrassing,” did not leave his politics far behind.

“If there’s one thing that actors know, other than that there weren’t any WMDs (weapons of mass destruction),” he said, to cheers and scattered applause, “it’s that there is no such thing as best in acting and that’s proven by these great actors I was nominated with.”

Many had believed that the brooding actor might be overlooked because of his outspoken political views — particularly against the Iraq War — and his penchant for shunning ceremonies and the press. This was the fourth time that he was nominated for an Oscar and the first time that he had turned up at the ceremony as a nominee. His first Oscar nomination was for Dead Man Walking while is other two nods have been for Sweet and Lowdown (1999) and for the 2001, I am Sam.

Penn has come to be regarded as one of Hollywood’s finest actors, specializing in intense characters who are often aggressive or disturbed. War movies such as The Thin Red Line and Casualties of War, and crime thrillers have seen an action-packed Penn making a mark for himself.

Sean has always had a love/hate relationship with Hollywood, primarily because he prefers to work on the fringes of the industry than bask in the spotlight for the big bucks. His enduring artistic integrity has been called arrogance by some, but it has also allowed him to hang onto the “best-of-his-generation” tag he earned during his early days on the screen. It was not his acting that propelled him to global celebrity, but his 1985 marriage to pop star Madonna, with whom he co-starred in the universally-panned 1986 mega-flop Shanghai Surprise. While Madonna actively courted press attention, the private Penn made his loathing for the media quite clear; his run-ins with the paparazzi quickly became the stuff of legend. After four turbulent years of marriage the pair divorced, leaving Penn’s talent overshadowed by his famously tempestuous outbursts and superstar ex-wife.

But Penn has been lucky the second time round in his private life as his marriage, in 1996, to actress Robin Wright Penn is the epitome of tranquillity. The couple has two children.