Nice Guy Eddie

So Chris Penn died last night of as-yet unknown causes. I’m not generally in the habit of eulogizing or paying tribute to dead celebrities, but I feel a little more comfortable in this instance. This isn’t like Katherine Hepburn or Lloyd Bridges; I was actually alive and culturally conscious for the length of this guy’s career. I was there when it all began, in that magical movie called Footloose—wherein Kevin Bacon took Chris Penn’s can’t dance farmboy and, after a grueling training montage backed by “Let’s Hear it For the Boy,” taught him gymnastic tumbling as if was a legitimate thing to do at the school dance.

I heard the news and I though about his career. In my mind, his heyday was the first half of the nineties, but checking out imdb he only had two really good roles in there. First, there’s Nice Guy Eddie in Reservoir Dogs. I won’t go so far as to say it he went all method, but it was a balls-out bit of acting where he was unafraid to spit when he talked or groan ugly when he died. Next is True Romance, where he and Tom Sizemore played charismatic, shit-talking cops that bring the final scene to a boil. In both movies, Chris Penn was cast to type—he looked like a hardcase, he swore real nice, and he was great in the part. His resume after that? Not much there. I mean, I recognize these title as movies and I’ve even seen a few (To Wong Foo, Mulholland Falls, Rush Hour,) but I don’t remember him being in any of them.

The only other movie I really remember him in is something called The Boys Club. It’s about three teenage kids who find Penn’s character shot and bleeding in their fort in the woods. He claims he’s a cop, and while the kids buy it and see it as an adventure it’s not true and this doesn’t bode a good ending. The only reason I know this flick is because it has the distinction of being shot in my hometown of Georgetown (an honour shared with such other timeless classics as The Recruit, and Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird). I remember the hullabaloo when the Georgetown Independent announced the shooting. People (okay, me and about three other guys) were really excited because Chris Penn was coming! In the end, although the town was featured pretty prominently in the feature, Penn’s scenes were shot somewhere else. We felt snubbed and our asses were chapped.

I guess the point of all this is that the majority of people shouldn’t really know who Chris Penn is anymore. He certainly never stopped acting, but he hadn't done anything noteworthy for at least the past decade. And yet, his death is all over the major media and we all immediately knew who they’re talking about. I feel like a bit of a dick writing this about him, but I’m sure that Sean Penn will find me and punch me in the mouth before the week is through, and then karmic balance will be restored.