Angelina Jolie’s dad Jon Voight makes shock comments on Luigi Mangione and Daniel Penny cases

Jon Voight left little doubt about where he stands on the respective cases involving Luigi Mangione And Daniel Penny dominates today’s headlines.

Voight, 85, the father of A-list Angelina Jolie, 49, chats Tuesday with TMZ about both cases, and why his opinion of each man differs drastically.

Voight, also known for his roles in the films Midnight Cowboy (1969), Deliverance (1972) and The Champ (1979), initially did not want to talk about 26-year-old Mangione, who has been charged in the fatal shooting of United’s CEO Healthcare Brian Thompson in Manhattan on December 4.

“Please let’s not get into that, that’s sick — let’s leave it as it is,” said Voight, the Academy Award-winning star of 1978’s Coming Home.

Voight, who recently appeared in Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, was dismayed by the public’s apparently favorable opinion of Mangione, amid widespread resentment of the business practices of American insurance companies.

“Look, it’s very important that people have some kind of sense of right and wrong,” Voight said. ‘And we have come away from that a bit… and people have to become good citizens again and set high standards for their behavior.

“And then they can make judgments about what’s happening in front of them.”

Voight, a staunch supporter of President-elect Donald Trump, said the public’s sensibilities seemed warped.

“Right now we have a lot of confused people who have been given the microphone every now and then,” he said. ‘Good and evil is very important and we have lost our way a bit, but let’s say a little prayer again before we go to bed.’

Voight had a much more favorable view of Penny, the 26-year-old military veteran who was acquitted of murder this week after fatally strangling Jordan Neely, 30, on a New York City subway train on May 1, 2023.

Passengers who witnessed the incident said Neely – who was homeless and schizophrenic and had attacked people on the subway in the past – had threatened to kill people and had no fear of death or incarceration.

The outburst prompted Penny to apply a chokehold to the man for six minutes, which proved fatal.

“Well, he’s a hero — listen to his testimony, you know,” Voight said of Penny, whose acquittal sparked protests from people who thought Penny went too far in the confrontation.

Voight added, “When you’re in that situation, I can easily put myself in that situation… I don’t know if I would have had the guts to confront him, if someone says, ‘I’m going to get killed here someone’… and you know the other people can’t defend themselves.’

Mangione, 26, has been charged in the fatal shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson on December 4 in Manhattan

Voight said Mangione wasn’t worthy of praise, but Penny was

“Holy smokes, that’s a big deal – I don’t know if I’d be as brave as him… there are people in the military who are supposed to stand up to things, and here’s an example of someone who does that did.’

Voight, who was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President-elect Donald Trump in 2019, was noncommittal about Penny being honored by Trump upon his return to the White House in January.

“I don’t know about that stuff,” Voight said. “I just know that man did something extraordinary – it’s good for people to have – there are heroes among us.”

Penny, who has been a Marine for four years, told Fox News on Monday that he had no regrets about putting himself in a “very vulnerable position physically and legally” to thwart the potential attack Neely threatened.

“I’m going to have to go through a million court hearings and people calling me names and people hating me, just to keep one of those people from getting hurt or killed,” Penny said.

Penny said he is “not a confrontational person” but would have felt guilty if Neely “did what he threatened to do” and he didn’t take action.

“If I just let him go, I’m on my back right now, he could just turn around and start doing what he told me to do… kill, hurt,” he added.