American producer and director
Was an early contender to direct The Stunt Man and used elements from that films source, the Paul Brodeur novel of the same name, in the story of Night Moves .
He directed 8 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Patty Duke , Anne Bancroft , Estelle Parsons , Warren Beatty , Faye Dunaway , Gene Hackman , Michael J. Pollard and Chief Dan George. Duke, Bancroft and Parsons won Oscars for their performances in one of Penns movies.
Won Broadways 1960 Tony Award as Best Director for "The Miracle Worker." He was also Tony-nominated two other times: in 1958 as Best Director for "Two for the Seesaw." and in 1961 as Best Director for "All the Way Home."
Older brother is renowned photographer Irving Penn.
Interviewed in "The Directors Event: Interviews with Five American Filmmakers," by Eric Sherman and Martin Rubin.
[July 14, 2009] Hospitalized with pneumonia in a New York hospital.
Father of Matthew Penn (born 1959) and Molly Penn with Peggy Maurer.
The protagonists in his films often tend to be outsiders, either as outlaws (Billy the Kid, Bonnie & Clyde), or cut off from society through circumstance (Little Big Man), disability (Helen Keller) or paranoia (Mickey One).
First worked in television studios as a floor manager. Began to write and direct plays for the theatre in 1953. Directed his first Broadway play in 1956 and his first motion picture in 1958. Made only ten films during the first 25 years of his career. His most productive period was 1965-70, when he averaged one movie per year.
Studied under Michael Chekhov and at the Actors Studio in Los Angeles.
Son of a nurse and a watchmaker.
Served in the U.S. Army, 1943-46.
[on acting] A look, a simple look, will do it.
[on Bonnie and Clyde (1967) ] I thought that if were going to show,this (violence), we should SHOW it. We should show what it looks like,when somebody gets shot. TV coverage of Vietnam was every bit, perhaps,even more, bloody than what we were showing on film.
