Martin Sheen

Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez (born August 3, 1940), better known by his stage name Martin Sheen, is an American actor who achieved fame with roles in the films Badlands (1973) and Apocalypse Now (1979). Sheen has made notable appearances in films, including Wall Street (1987), Gettysburg (1993), The Departed (2006), and The Amazing Spider-Man (2012). He has also appeared in television, notably as President Josiah Bartlet in The West Wing (1999–2006), and in the Mass Effect video game trilogy. He is considered one of the best actors never to be nominated for an Academy Award despite his acclaimed performances. In film he has won the Best Actor award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival for his performance as Kit Carruthers in Badlands. His portrayal of Capt. Willard in Apocalypse Now earned a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor. Sheen has worked with a wide variety of film directors, such as Richard Attenborough, Francis Ford Coppola, Terrence Malick, David Cronenberg, Mike Nichols, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Oliver Stone. He has had a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame since 1989. In television he has won both a Golden Globe and two Screen Actors Guild awards for playing the lead role of President Bartlet inThe West Wing, and an Emmy for guest acting in the sitcom Murphy Brown. Born and raised in the United States from immigrant parents, he adopted the stage name Martin Sheen to help him gain acting parts. He is the father of four children (Emilio, Ramon, Carlos (later known as Charlie Sheen) and Renée), all of whom are actors, as is his younger brother Joe Estevez. Although known as an actor, Sheen has also directed one film, Cadence (1990), appearing alongside sons, Charlie and Ramon. He has also narrated, produced and directed in documentary television, earning two Daytime Emmy awards in the 1980s. In addition to film and television, Sheen has also become notable for his activism in liberal politics. --- Sheen was born in Dayton, Ohio, the son of Mary-Ann (née Phelan; 1903–1951) and Francisco Estévez Martinez (1898–1974). During birth, Sheen's left arm was crushed by forceps, giving him limited lateral movement of his left arm, which is three inches shorter than his right. Both of Sheen's parents were immigrants, his father from Parderrubias, Galicia, Spain; and his mother from Borrisokane, County Tipperary, Ireland. After moving to Dayton in the 1930s, his father was a factory worker/machinery inspector at the National Cash Register Company. Sheen grew up on Brown Street in the South Park neighborhood, one of ten children (nine boys and a girl). Due to his father's work, the family lived in Bermuda on St. John's Road, Pembroke where five of his brothers were born. Martin was the first child to be born in Dayton, Ohio after the family returned from Bermuda. He graduated from Chaminade High School (now Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School) and was raised Catholic. Sheen was the first of the children born in the United States. At age 14 he organized a strike of golf caddies while working at a private golf club in Dayton, Ohio. He complained about the golfers: "They often used obscene language in front of us. . . . we were little boys and they were abusive . . . anti-Semitic . . . And they, for the most part, were upstanding members of the community." Sheen was drawn to acting at a young age, but his father disapproved of his interest in the field. Despite his father's opposition, Sheen borrowed money from a Catholic priest and moved to New York City in his early 20s, hoping to make it as an actor. It was there that he met the legendary Catholic activist Dorothy Day. Working with her Catholic Worker Movement, he began his commitment to social justice, and would one day go on to play Peter Maurin, cofounder of the Catholic Worker Movement, in Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story. Sheen deliberately failed the entrance exam for the University of Dayton so that he could pursue his acting career. He adopted his stage name, Martin Sheen, from a combination of the CBS casting director, Robert Dale Martin, who gave him his first big break, and the televangelist archbishop, Fulton J. Sheen. In a 2003 Inside the Actors Studio interview, Sheen explained, "Whenever I would call for an appointment, whether it was a job or an apartment, and I would give my name, there was always that hesitation and when I'd get there, it was always gone. So I thought, I got enough problems trying to get an acting job, so I invented Martin Sheen. It's still Estevez officially. I never changed it officially. I never will. It's on my driver's license and passport and everything. I started using Sheen, I thought I'd give it a try, and before I knew it, I started making a living with it and then it was too late. In fact, one of my great regrets is that I didn't keep my name as it was given to me. I knew it bothered my dad." --- Sheen married art student Janet Templeton on December 23, 1961, and they have four children, three sons and a daughter, all of whom are actors: Emilio, Ramón, Carlos, and Renée. All but one decided to keep their own names when they began acting – Carlos made the decision to use his father's stage name, and is known as Charlie Sheen. Sheen became a grandfather at age 43 when his son, Emilio, had a son named Taylor Levi with his girlfriend, Carey Salley. Sheen has nine other grandchildren, Paloma Rae (from Emilio), Cassandra, Sam J, Lola Rose, Bob and Max (from Charlie) and Katherine, Luis Jr. and Christopher (from Ramon). He celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary in 2011.