Chris Penn made tough men look liable to lose control, with a restless physical energy that could be funny and uncomfortable at once. His ensemble work rewards attention, even when the writing is too quick to condemn the people he plays.
Fi1m perspective
In Reservoir Dogs (1992), Chris Penn's Eddie Cabot bounces about in a tracksuit top while Lawrence Tierney, playing his crime-boss father, barks. Penn makes an untidy, excitable figure among the men arguing in Quentin Tarantino's warehouse. We found him funny and unsettling, because that restless movement belongs to the boss's volatile son, who is hardly there to calm things down. Tarantino gets good work from the contrast between Penn's physical bustle and the other actors' ways of holding their ground. It is a supporting performance worth watching even when somebody else is speaking.
The early supporting parts included Rumble Fish (1983), Footloose (1984) and Pale Rider (1985). The breakthrough came with Reservoir Dogs and Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993), two films that give their ensembles plenty to do. He was frequently cast as tough, volatile working-class men, but brought vulnerability to the menace. That mattered more than making each character look formidable, and helps explain why these ensembles suited him.
In Short Cuts, he plays Jerry Kaiser, a troubled pool cleaner. Penn recalled Altman asking for a cowardly, emotionally overwhelmed man whose feelings did not quite connect, which is more useful direction than simply asking an actor to be threatening. It also suggests why Penn's toughness could be uncomfortable: there was a weakness there that the character could not manage. We rate the film highly for its absorbing ensemble, while finding the writing occasionally too ready to judge the people in it. That caveat matters with an actor whose usefulness lies partly in making an unpleasant man worth a closer look.
True Romance (1993) gave him another Tarantino-scripted part as Nicky Dimes, and The Funeral (1996) offered further intense dramatic work as Chez. He continued across drama, action and comedy without fully establishing himself as a leading man. We would not treat supporting billing as a disappointment: the work with Tarantino and Altman gives us no reason to. Start with Reservoir Dogs, then try Short Cuts, allowing for Altman's occasional harshness towards characters his actors have made worth knowing.
Biography
Chris Penn was an American actor. Born Christopher Shannon Penn in Los Angeles in 1965, he was the son of director and actor Leo Penn and actress Eileen Ryan, and the brother of actor Sean Penn and musician Michael Penn. He began acting as a teenager and made his film debut in the late 1970s.
Penn appeared in films including Footloose (1984), Pale Rider (1985) and At Close Range (1986). He played Nice Guy Eddie Cabot in Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1992) and Nicky Dimes in True Romance (1993). Other credits include Short Cuts (1993) and Rush Hour (1998). In 1996 he won the Volpi Cup for Best Supporting Actor at the Venice Film Festival for The Funeral.
Penn died in Santa Monica, California, in 2006 at the age of 40.
