SYDNEY'S BIOGRAPHY

Sydney Penny was born in Nashville, Tennessee on August 7, 1971 to Hank Penny, comedian and pioneer of Western  Swing music and his wife, Shari, an operatically trained singer.  

It was at the age of three and a half that Sydney began her career.  While her parents were taking a break between sets at a club where they were performing, Sydney slipped away from her elder sister, Patti and began reciting her father’s jokes to the crowd.   From time to time, she was allowed to join her parents on stage, singing with Shari or her father playing straight man for her. 

Growing up in Los Angeles, California, Sydney rode horses, studied acting, ballet, jazz, tap, gymnastics, acrobatics, and ice-skated.  Her career began in earnest at the age of six when she appeared in a commercial for a ballerina doll, “Dancerella”.  Sydney went on to do scores of commercials pitching products such as Barbie, McDonald’s and Pop Tarts.  

Sydney’s first role was in “Through the Magic Pyramid,” directed by Ron Howard.  Several television movies followed including playing the voice of “Lucy” in the animated film, “It’s Magic Charlie Brown.” 

At age 10, Sydney was chosen to portray “Young Meggie” in the ABC mini-series, “Thorn Birds”.  She held her own opposite heavyweights Richard Chamberlain, Barbara Stanwyck, and Jean Simmons, earning her critical acclaim and a Youth in Film Award.  Her performance also inspired a personal note from Burt Reynolds who called her “the most beautiful girl on the silver screen.”    

In 1985, Clint Eastwood cast Sydney as “Megan Wheeler,” the young girl who falls in love with the enigmatic preacher in “Pale Rider”;  his return to westerns and her first feature film role.  For her work, Sydney was awarded a second Youth in Film Award.  

While following a demanding school curriculum, Sydney shared her first on-screen kiss with Rick Schroeder in the telefilm “Two Kinds of Love,” was given hope to live by Art Carney in O. Henry’s classic, “The Last Leaf,” and was bought out of slavery by Martin Sheen in “The Fourth Wiseman,” who would also play her father in “News at Eleven.”  In 1986, Sydney took to the beach as “Danni Collins” in the popular syndicated series, “The New Gidget”.  

Famed French director, Jean Delannoy chose Sydney to portray Bernadette Soubirous in “Bernadette,” the story of the 15 year old visionary from Lourdes.  Although she did not speak French at the time, the film was shot in both English and French.  Sydney worked with a coach to learn her lines phonetically, eventually becoming fluent.   

Delannoy and Penny followed up with “La Passion de Bernadette,” the story of Bernadette’s life in the convent, in French only.  Both films were lauded by Pope John Paul II for the accurate portrayal of her life, were critically well received and play in perpetuity in Lourdes, France.  Ignatius Press has recently released both films on DVD in the US. 

One of the most influential people in Sydney’s life was Sophia Loren, with whom she worked in “Running Away,” a remake of the 1961 film for which Loren had won an Oscar.  Penny played Loren’s daughter, Rosetta who is raped on their way back to Rome after World War II.  Sophia Loren’s professionalism and talent made a lasting impression on seventeen-year-old Sydney. 

Sydney appeared daily as “BJ Walker,” in NBC’s daytime series, Santa Barbara. Her portrayal of a young woman living with the secret of incest earned her a nomination for a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Younger Leading Actress. 

Penny moved to New York to appear as “Julia Santos” on the ABC daytime drama, All My Children.  Over three years, “Julia” was scarred by a falling chandelier, was raped by a drug dealer, kidnapped, shot at, married in a Cinderella ceremony, and finally entered the Witness Protection Program.  Penny and co-star Keith Hamilton Cobb were dubbed Soap Opera Digest’s hottest couple and Sydney earned a second Emmy nomination. 

In 1995, Sydney trod the boards for the first time since childhood, portraying “Cecily” in an off-Broadway production of Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest”.    September 30 of that same year she and her fiancé, Robert L. Powers,  were married in Corona del Mar, California 

Penny soon began another romance with the city of Wilmington, North Carolina where she filmed “Enchanted,” a romantic comedy written, directed and produced by co-star, John Ward.  In 1999, Penny returned to be crowned Queen of the 52^nd Wilmington Azalea Festival, joining the ranks of Esther Williams and former AMC castrate, Kelly Ripa. 

Sydney returned to television in the WB series, “Hyperion Bay,” created by “Thirtysomething” writer, Joe Dougherty, followed up by a recurring role as “Josie Oliver,” a cocaine-addicted kidnapper on “Beverly Hills 90210”.

Penny portrayed ex-CIA agent “Joy Arden” in the syndicated series, “Largo,” co-produced by Paramount and M6, and filmed in Montreal and Paris.  For the role she learned kickboxing and martial arts and wielded a number of weapons.  

Sydney returned to Los Angeles to portray interior designer “Samantha Kelly” on CBS’ “The Bold and the Beautiful”. 

Recent projects also include the McBride mystery “The Doctor is Out, Really Out”, with John Larroquette in which Penny played a psychologist suspected of murdering her mentor, as well as the telefilm “Hidden Places”, the story of a woman’s struggle to keep her orange farm during the Great Depression, co-starring Shirley Jones and Jason Gedrick, both airing on the Hallmark Channel. 

In July 2005 Sydney returned to New York City and All My Children to reprise her role of “Julia Santos”.   Breaking free of the Witness Protection Program, “Julia” returns to Pine Valley to hunt down the man who killed her husband and reclaim her life.

Penny is also an advisory director of Kidsingers, a non-profit organization which provides an after-school choral music program for inner city children as well as scholarships for college. Sydney lives in New York City with her husband, Robert L. Powers who is an artist. Together they have restored two homes in California and are currently renovating an 1890’s Victorian.  Sydney and Robert live with two Siamese cats, Slinky and Yo-yo.  In her free time, Sydney enjoys playing tennis, riding horses, growing tomatoes, hiking, knitting, reading, listening to all types of music and watching classic films.  Sydney sings, speaks French fluently and loves to travel anywhere there is good food.

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