Silver Fox Alert! ‘Gangster Squad’ Nick Nolte, 84, Sean Penn, 64, and Josh Brolin, 57, Step Out in Rare Reunion
The ‘Gangster Squad’ stars are back together—and 84-year-old Nolte is glowing
Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, and Nick Nolte reunited for dinner in Malibu, California, this past weekend. The three actors previously worked together on the 2013 hit film Gangster Squad and have since maintained a close friendship with one another. We take a closer look at their 12-year-long relationship, as well as discover the must-know details about why this outing was so important for Nolte, 84, below!
A look at Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, and Nick Nolte’s friendship
Penn, 64, Brolin, 57 and Nolte first worked together on the 2013 romantic thriller Gangster Squad, which also starred Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Anthony Mackie and Giovanni Ribisi. It was directed by Ruben Fleischer and grossed over $105.2 million at the worldwide box office, and the plot followed a Los Angeles mobster named Mickey Cohen (Penn) in the 1940s as he deals with things like politics, gambling, drugs and more.
“Sean wrote me an email that I read a couple of years ago. He said, ‘I’m watching you in Bed of Roses right now and I can’t believe it didn’t make you a huge star.’ That was a joke obviously. I was very fortunate that I got to be in this business a long time before anyone took any kind of notice,” Brolin told Collider in 2012. “Working with Sean is always the greatest. Sean and I are always looking for things to do together because we enjoy each other. We’re veterans in our own right.”
Since that film was released, Brolin has gone on to reach new heights of fame thanks to his performance as Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Nolte was also in the MCU thanks to his role as Bruce Banner’s (Eric Bana) father in the 2003 film Hulk; however, that was before the franchise became a billion-dollar box office industry, and he has never reprised that role.
That just leaves Penn, the only member of the trio not to be in the MCU, and according to Collider, he never will, because he thinks that the superhero films have “claimed so much time in the careers of so many talented people.”
Along with them, several other members of the Gangster Squad cast have been in superhero movies, with Stone starring as Gwen Stacy alongside Andrew Garfield in both The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014). Mackie is also in the MCU and plays Sam Wilson/The Falcon/Captain America, a role that he is reportedly going to revive in the 2026 film Avengers: Doomsday.
What to know about Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Nick Nolte’s most recent reunion
Penn, Brolin and Nolte recently went out for dinner in Malibu, California, and while Nolte might be the oldest one of the trip, we have to say he looked great in his halfway buttoned-up green shirt, silver hair and gorgeous tan—something that Brolin has made fun of him for in the past.
“I love that he came to the [Gangster Squad] premiere with a tan,” Brolin told The Hollywood Reporter in 2013. “He’s been really healthy, he’s been running four miles a day, he’s been in Haiti, he’s been doing all these things. And, you know, he doesn’t have time to put on makeup and go to a premiere, so he just shows up.”
Nolte was born in 1941 and has been nominated for three Oscars. His most recent role was in the 2025 film Die My Love. He has two children and has been married to his wife Clytie Lane since 2016.
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