Twenty-year Wilmington resident Sydney Penny started her acting career as a child performer singing alongside her father, Hank Penny, a Western swing musician.
She was just 10 when she scored a prominent role in 1983 ABC miniseries “The Thorn Birds” starring Richard Chamberlain, playing the heart-capturing younger version of lead character Meggie Cleary, who was played in adulthood by Rachel Ward.
Just a couple of years later, Penny appeared alongside Clint Eastwood in the actor-director’s 1985 western “Pale Rider” after Penny was recommended to Eastwood by the actor Burt Reynolds, who was a fan of Penny’s work.
Sydney Penny with Clint Eastwood on the set of the actor-director’s 1985 western “Pale Rider.”
Penny appeared in a number of well-known ’80s TV titles as a pre-teen and teenager, including “Fame,” “T.J. Hooker,” “St. Elsewhere,” “Silver Spoons” and even an episode of “The Twilight Zone.”
She then did two seasons of TV beach sitcom “The New Gidget” before playing Bernadette Soubirous — a young French woman whose religious visions led to her eventual sainthood — in two films: “Bernadette” (1988) and sequel “The Passion of Bernadette” (1989).
Sydney Penny (at right) in ’80s beach sitcom “The New Gidget.”
Penny also appeared opposite screen icon Sophia Loren in 1989 TV movie “Running Away.”
She then spent two seasons on TV soap opera “Santa Barbara” in the early ’90s, eventually jumping over to another soap, “All My Children,” in 1993 for what might be her best-known role: Julia Santos, a character who was put through the wringer (disfigured by debris in a tornado, raped by a drug dealer) before being killed off in the mid ’90s, brought back in 2005 and killed off again (for good?) in 2008.
Sydney Penny with Richard Chamberlin in 1983 ABC mini-series “The Thorn Birds.”
The role that first brought her to Wilmington was in 1998 indie film “Enchanted,” and she also had a guest spot in “Beverly Hills, 90210” in 2000 and appeared in soap operas “The Bold and the Beautiful” and “Days of Our Lives.”
Sydney Penny with screen icon Sophia Loren in 1989 TV movie “Running Away.”
Penny’s soap opera work earned her two Daytime Emmy Awards nominations: in 1993 for “Santa Barbara” (Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series) and 1995 for “All My Children” (Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series).
Sydney Penny (front and center) with the cast of ’90s soap opera “Santa Barbara.”
Penny had a short arc (two episodes) in beloved TV mystery drama “Pretty Little Liars,” and she has appeared in several movies for the Hallmark Channel, including “Hidden Places” (2006) and “The Wish List” (2010).
In 2022, Penny returned to the screen for the first time after a five-year absence to play a prominent role in Wilmington-shot indie golf comedy “Birdies.”
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: What TV shows and movies has actress Sydney Penny appeared in?
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