Sci-Fi Expo Guests
Sean Astin is an American film actor, director, and Oscar-nominated 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 starred as Lynn McGill on the fifth season of 24.
Astin was born Sean Patrick Duke in Santa Monica, California. He is the son of actors Patty Duke and John Astin, although his biological father is Michael Tell, a music promoter and writer whose marriage to Patty Duke was annulled shortly before her marriage to Astin. At the time of his birth, it was widely assumed that his biological father was Desi Arnaz, Jr., although this was later proven false. Astin is the older brother of Mackenzie Astin, also an actor (in The Facts of Life).
He graduated with honors from UCLA with B.A.s in history and English (American literature and culture). He is an alumnus of and now serves on the Board of Directors of the Patrons Association and the Arts Council for Los Angeles Valley College. He also attended St. Paul the Apostle Elementary School and the Crossroads High School for the Arts and participated in master classes at the Stella Adler Conservatory in Los Angeles.
At age thirteen, he debuted on the silver screen as Mikey in The Goonies (1985). He had a small role in 1989’s The War of the Roses and in 1990 he appeared in the WWII film Memphis Belle. In 1993 he received a memorable part as the title character in Rudy and in 1998 starred in the romantic comedy Boy Meets Girl. Astin also played Samwise Gamgee in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. He also played the brother of Lucy (Drew Barrymore) in the Adam Sandler film 50 First Dates.
In 1994, he directed and co-produced the Academy Awards nominated short film, Kangaroo Court, with his wife, Christine.
While working on The Two Towers, he persuaded a number of fellow cast and crew members, including director Peter Jackson, to act in or work as crew on his short film, The Long and Short of It (2003), which takes place on a street in Wellington, New Zealand. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, 2003, and appears on the “standard edition” DVD of The Two Towers as an extra feature together with a “making of” video.
His book, There and Back Again: An Actor’s Tale, co-written by Joe Layden, is an account of his experiences before, during and after filming the Lord of the Rings movies. The title is derived from the subtitle of The Hobbit by Lord of the Rings author J. R. R. Tolkien. He jumped at the chance to work in New Zealand again in 2004, as the mythical “Linus”, tutor of Hercules, in Robert Halmi, Sr.’s Hallmark-sponsored remake.
Astin has a tattoo of the Elvish word for "nine", a reference to his involvement in the Lord of the Rings and the fact that his character was one of the nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring. The other actors of "The Fellowship" (Elijah Wood, Sean Bean, Billy Boyd, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan, Viggo Mortensen, and Orlando Bloom) got the same tattoo with the exception of John Rhys-Davies whose stunt double got the tattoo instead. |
