The Santa Monica Daily Press interviewed neighbors outside Chris Penn's condo on Ocean Avenue yesterday who claimed (not for attribution, apparently) that they weren't surprised by the actor's death.

Prior to news of his death being confirmed, many of them suspected that their neighbor Penn had died and weren’t surprised once the news was released.

“I just knew it,” said one neighbor, who declined to give her name. “I had a feeling.”

Many neighbors said they had been watching Penn’s health decline for several months.

“There was a lot of erratic behavior, and I would see him in the middle of the day totally wasted,” said a neighbor, who only identified himself as Mike. “He’d get pretty amped up.”

The neighbor added that Penn, the younger brother of actor Sean Penn, had gained a lot of weight and was barely recognizable.

“I never saw him healthy,” said a neighbor who lives next door. “You knew he was hurting.”

An employee at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel, located just a block away from Penn’s oceanview condo, said he saw Penn frequently at the hotel in the morning drinking.

When Penn's mother arrived at the scene about 6:30 p.m., there was apparently some tussling with paparazzi.

Yesterday on LA Observed:
Chris Penn, 40, dead in Santa Monica