Astin's parents are the actor and director John Astin and the actress Patty Duke, with whom he made his television debut in 1981. Inevitably, as a young actor, he was also played a number of sons, including Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner's boy in Danny DeVito's The War of the Roses and Izzy, Sam Shepard and Susan Sarandon's son in Safe Passage.
Since his first film role as Mikey in Richard Donner's teen adventure, The Goonies. Astin has demonstrated considerable dramatic talent in a filmography that ranges from zany comedies (Dudley Moor's Like Father, Like Son) to hard-edged dramas such as Where the Day Takes You. His more than thirty feature film appearance include Staying Together, Encino Man, Memphis Bell, Courage Under Fire, Bulworth and the title role in Rudy. He recieved the Best Actor award for Low Life at the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival.
In addition to acting, Astin has embarked on a parallel career as a director with two short films: On My Honor, about an American and a Vietnamese soldier, and Kangaroo Court, an inner-city drama starring Gregory Hines and Michael O'Keefe, which recieved considerable critical acclaim and an Academy Award nomination.
The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy offered Astin the opportunity to take on a role that was unlike any he had played previously: "You have got these characters who are facing larger-than-life obstacles, innocent little big-footed people who are in a way over their heads. Except that I don't think the Hobbits see themselves as btine little until they are standing next to something that's daunting and intimidationg. So I've tried to apprach the character as being as real and human as possible.
Sam begins his journey as Frodo's manservant. He comes from a lower class and is not so well educated as his master. However, as the adventure unfolds, their relationship deepens into one of love and mutual dependence: "To me there is nothing to admirable as a passionate love-bond between two human beings. Sam loves Frodo and wants to protect him, and Frodo is extremely protectice of Sam. So what you have are these two people locked into this journey together. They don't need to explain what they are to each other; they don't need to talk about it; they just are."
Summing up his apprach to the role of Sam, Sean Astin says: "I just wanted to allow whatever essence of goodness where is withint me to come forth and to inhabit the role of Sam, because that's what he is: he's goodness, loyalty, decency. That, I think, is his functions in the book."
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