Chris Penn

Born: June 10 1962

Where: Los Angeles, California, USA

Died: January 24 2006. Santa Monica, California.

The actor was best known as Nice Guy Eddie Cabot in Quentin Tarantino's classic Reservoir Dogs.

He also had featured roles as Manetti in the big screen adaptation of Starsky & Hutch and starred alongside Jackie Chan in the martial arts comedy Rush Hour.

With his burly build and protruding chin, he worked regularly in Hollywood, portraying regular, working class characters.

The brother of Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn and musician Michael Penn, his parents were director Leo Penn and actress Eileen Ryan.

He began acting at the age of 12 at the Loft Studio and made his feature debut in 1983 in Francis Ford Coppola's youth drama Rumble Fish.

The same year he had a small role in the high school football drama All the Right Moves starring Tom Cruise.

In 1984, he appeared in the hit dance musical Footloose with Kevin Bacon in 1984 and played a villain in the Clint Eastwood western Pale Rider.

He co-starred with his brother, Sean, and mother Eileen Ryan in At Close Range and went on to enjoy regular supporting roles.

His career took an upswing when Quentin Tarantino cast him in Rservoir Dogs in 1992. (he had to shoot one scene with blood gushing from his neck after co-star Michael Madsen's rottweiler attacked him.)

Penn went on to small part in Robert Altman's Short Cuts and teamed up with hellraiser Tom Sizemore for True Romance, the pair enjoying a scene-stealing performance as a couple of cops.

In 1996, he had a featured role in the crime thriller Mulholland Falls alongside Nick Nolte and Melanie Griffith.

The same year, he won the best-supporting actor at the Venice Film Festival for Chris Walken crime drama The Funeral.

Subsequent appearances included Rush Hour, Kiss Kiss (Bang Bang), Stealing Harvard and Starsky & Hutch.

Offscreen, he achieved a degree of notoriety when allegedly got involved in a poolside fight with a midget at Hollywood's Skybar.

One of his last performances was in the 2004 comedy thriller After The Sunset with Pierce Brosnan.

Penn, 43, was found dead in a Santa Monica apartment in January 2006. There were no suspicious circumstances.