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Sean Astin

Sean Patrick Astin was born February 25, 1971 in Santa Monica, California to John Astin (famous for playing Gomez on The Addams Family, among other things) and Patty Duke, both actors.

He graduated from UCLA with honors & a B.A. in History & English.

Although you may think that his first acting job was in The Goonies in 1985, it wasn't. In 1981, at age 9, Sean starred with his mother in the after school special Please Don't Hit Me Mom. The Goonies followed and since then he has had a steady stream of good roles, including that of Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.

His career in film has expanded much further than just acting. He directed and co-produced the short film Kangaroo Court which was nominated in the Best Short Film category at the 67th Annual Academy Awards in 1995. Interestingly enough, Sean's father was nominated for the same award in 1969.

Sean is now married to Christine Astin, and they have two daughters, Alexandra Louise, born Nov. 27, 1996, and Elizabeth Louise born Aug 6, 2002.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS

Sean gained 30 pounds for his role as Samwise. While filming the scene where Sam rushes through the river after Frodo, Sean Astin stepped on a branch that was sticking up from the riverbed. It pierced his foot, even through the prosthetic foot, which bled so much he had to be airlifted to hospital.

Says Astin: “Despite all the rigors, all of us wanted our Hobbits to be as real and as human as possible, so it's almost beside the point that we have big huge furry feet and long curly hair and big ears and we're only half the size of the humans. I wanted all the emotions, all the interplay, to be real, honest and grounded in a sense of authenticity. When people refer to LOTR as a fantasy, it almost makes me wince because, to me, it was real. I approached the portrayal and the interpretation of the character as a very real, human-like specimen.” (from ‘My Life as a Hobbit’ interview)

On December 4, 2001, Sean had his image as Samwise Gamgee immortalized on a 90 cent New Zealand postage stamp that he shares with Lord of the Rings co-star Elijah Wood ('Frodo Baggins'). However, Sean's last name is spelled incorrectly on the presentation pack of the stamps (Austin instead of Astin).

Of his LOTR character, Astin stated: "Sam is the personification- I should say the Hobbitification- of loyalty and goodness," ( E! Special)