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Sean Astin extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Sean Astin
Astin at UIUC, 2009
Born	Sean Patrick Duke February 25, 1971 (1971-02-25) (age 39) Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, director, producer
Years active	1985–present
Spouse(s)	Christine Harrell (1992–present)
Official website

Sean Astin (born February 25, 1971) is an American film actor, director, and producer best known for his film roles as Mikey Walsh in The Goonies, the title character of Rudy, and Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In television, he appeared as Lynn McGill in the fifth season of 24. Most recently, he provided the voice for the title character in Disney's Special Agent Oso.

Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 2.1 Early career 2.2 Lord of the Rings 2.3 Post-LOTR career 3 Personal life 4 Filmography 4.1 Films 4.2 Television 5 References 6 External links

Early life and education

Astin was born Sean Patrick Duke in Santa Monica, California, the son of actress Patty Duke.¹ At the time, it was reported that Desi Arnaz, Jr. was his biological father; in 1994, he discovered that he was fathered by Michael Tell, a music promoter and writer who edits and publishes the Jewish newspaper The Las Vegas Israelite.²³⁴ Tell's marriage to Patty Duke was annulled shortly before her marriage in 1972 to actor John Astin, who adopted Sean. Although Patty Duke and John Astin divorced in 1982, Sean Astin has written as an adult that he has always considered John his "real" father and continues to do so. In 1973, Duke gave birth to Astin's half-brother Mackenzie Astin, also an actor.

Astin graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in History and English (American literature and culture). He is an alumnus of Los Angeles Valley College and now serves on the school's Board of Directors of the Patrons Association and the Arts Council. He attended St. Paul the Apostle Elementary School, Bellagio Road Elementary, and the Crossroads High School for the Arts, and participated in master classes at the Stella Adler Conservatory in Los Angeles.

Career

Early career

Astin's first acting role was in a 1981 television movie titled Please Don't Hit Me, Mom, in which he played a child with an abusive mother (portrayed by his real-life mother Patty Duke). He made his silver screen debut at age 13 as Mikey in The Goonies (1985).

Following The Goonies, Sean Astin appeared in several more films, including Like Father Like Son (1987), The War of the Roses (1989), the World War II film Memphis Belle (1990), Toy Soldiers (1990), Encino Man (1992) and the college football biopic Rudy (1993), about the life changing struggles and rewards of the titular character, Daniel Ruettiger.

In 1994, Astin directed and co-produced (with his wife, Christine Astin) the short film Kangaroo Court, which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short Film. Astin continued to appear in films throughout the 1990s, including the Showtime science fiction film Harrison Bergeron (1995), the Gulf War film Courage Under Fire (1996), and the Warren Beatty political satire Bulworth (1998).

Lord of the Rings

In the early 2000s, Astin experienced a career breakthrough with his role as Samwise Gamgee in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, released in 2001, 2002 and 2003. Along with the many awards bestowed upon the trilogy, particularly its final installment The Return of the King (winner of eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture), Astin received many award nominations for his own performance in Return of the King, taking home the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor and awards from the Las Vegas Film Critics Society, the Seattle Film Critics, the Utah Film Critics Association, and the Phoenix Film Critics Society. As an ensemble, the Return of the King cast received awards from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures and the Screen Actors Guild.

While working on Lord of the Rings, Astin persuaded a number of fellow cast and crew members, including director Peter Jackson, to assist him in making his second short film, The Long and Short of It. The film takes place on a street in Wellington, New Zealand. The Long and Short of It premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and appears on the DVD for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, along with a "making of" video.

In 2004, Astin released There and Back Again (ISBN 0-312-33146-0), a memoir (co-written with Joe Layden) of his film career with emphasis on his experiences with the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The title is derived from the subtitle of The Hobbit, by Lord of the Rings author J. R. R. Tolkien; the title also appears in the film Return of the King.

Post-LOTR career

Since Lord of the Rings, Astin has continued to work in film and television. His film roles have included the Adam Sandler comedies 50 First Dates and Click.

In television, Astin guest-starred as Lynn McGill throughout the fifth season of the Fox drama 24. He also appeared in the made-for-TV films Hercules and The Colour of Magic and in episodes of Monk, Las Vegas, My Name is Earl (in which he parodied his 1993 film Rudy with co-stars Charles S. Dutton and Chelcie Ross), and Law & Order, among other shows. He directed a 2003 episode of the TV series Angel, titled "Soulless".

Astin's career has also expanded to include voice-over roles. He narrated the American version of the Animal Planet series Meerkat Manor, and voices the title character in the animated Disney Channel series Special Agent Oso.⁵ His other voice work includes Balto III: Wings of Change and the video game Kingdom Hearts.

In 2010, he joined the Stella Adler Los Angeles Theatre Collective acting company.⁶

Personal life

Astin married Christine Harrell on July 11, 1992. They have three daughters: Alexandra (born November 27, 1996), Elizabeth (born August 6, 2002), and Isabella (born July 22, 2005), all with the middle name Louise. His wife held the Miss Indiana Teen USA title in 1984.

Astin has a tattoo on his ankle of the Elvish word for "nine," commemorating his Lord of the Rings involvement and his character's membership in the Fellowship of the Ring. Of the other Fellowship actors (Elijah Wood, Sean Bean, Billy Boyd, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan, Viggo Mortensen, Orlando Bloom, and John Rhys-Davies), all have the same tattoo except Rhys-Davies, whose stunt double was tattooed instead.⁷

During the 2004 United States presidential election, Astin backed Senator John Kerry and participated in Kerry's campaign rally in Portland, Oregon, as the opening speaker.⁸ In the 2008 presidential election, Astin lent his support to Senator Hillary Clinton and made multiple campaign appearances on her behalf, including joining Clinton's daughter Chelsea Clinton at some stops.⁹

Astin is a vegetarian.¹⁰

Filmography

Films

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1985	The Goonies	Mikey Walsh
1986	The B.R.A.T. Patrol	Leonard Kinsey
1987	Like Father Like Son	Clarence
	White Water Summer	Alan
1989	The War of the Roses	17's Josh
	Staying Together	Duncan McDermott
1990	Memphis Belle	Sergeant Richard "Rascal" Moore
1991	Toy Soldiers	William Tepper
	The Willies	Michael
1992	Where the Day Takes You	Greg
	Encino Man	Dave Morgan
1993	Rudy	Daniel Ruettiger
1994	Safe Passage	Izzy Singer
1995	The Low Life	Andrew
	Harrison Bergeron	Harrison Bergeron
1996	Courage Under Fire	Patella
1998	Boy Meets Girl	Mike
	Bulworth	Gary
1999	Deterrence	Ralph
	Kimberly	Bob
2000	Dish Dogs	Morgan
	The Last Produce	Bo Pomerantz
	Icebreaker	Matt Foster
	The Sky is Falling	Schwartz
2001	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	Samwise Gamgee
2002	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	Samwise Gamgee
2003	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	Samwise Gamgee	Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor LVFCS Award for Best Supporting Actor MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Team (shared with Elijah Wood and Gollum/Andy Serkis) NBR Award for Best Acting by an Ensemble SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture SFCA Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated - CFCA Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated - OFCS Award for Best Supporting Actor Won - PFCS Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated - PFCS Award for Best Ensemble Acting
2004	Balto III: Wings of Change	Kodi	Voice
	Elvis Has Left the Building	Aaron
	50 First Dates	Doug Whitmore
2005	Smile	Matthews
	Bigger Than the Sky	Ken Zorbell
	Slipstream	Stuart Conway
	Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing & Charm School	Kip Kipling
	Into The West	Martin Jarrett
	Hercules	Linus
	Borderland	Randall
	Thanks to Gravity	Coach Amal
2006	What Love Is	George
	Asterix and the Vikings	Justforkix	English voice
	Click	Bill
2007	The Final Season	Kent Stock
2008	Forever Strong	Marcus
	Spirit of the Forest	Furi (voice)
2009	Stay Cool	Big Girl

Television

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1981	Please Don't Hit Me, Mom	Brian Reynolds	Appeared with his mother, Patty Duke, who also played his mother
1986	The B.R.A.T. Patrol	Leonard Kinsey
2003	Angel	Director	4th season episode "Soulless"
2003	Jeremiah	Mister Smith	Directed season 2 episode "A Face in the Mirror"
2005	Meerkat Manor	Narrator	USA; Seasons 1-3
2006	24	Lynn McGill	10 episodes
2007	Masters of Science Fiction	Charlie Kramer	Watchbird
	Monk	Paul Buchanan
	My Name Is Earl	Sales Clerk
2008	Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic	Twoflower	United Kingdom
	Law & Order	Pastor Hensley	18th season episode Angelgrove
2009	Special Agent Oso	Agent Oso	(voice)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sean Astin

• Sean Astin at the Internet Movie Database
• Sean Astin at Allmovie
• Official website