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Martin Sheen (born Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez; August 3, 1940) is an American actor who earned recognition for his performances as Captain Willard in the film Apocalypse Now and President Josiah Bartlet on the NBC political drama series The West Wing. Apart from the recognition he earned as an actor, he has gained visibility as an activist.
n was born in Dayton, Ohio, the son of Mary Ann (née Phelan), an immigrant from County Tipperary, Ireland, and Francisco Estévez, a factory worker/machinery inspector from Parderrubias, Galicia, Spain.
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Quotations
I am not a politician or a public servant. I am still a journeyman actor and a peace and justice activist. I'm a pilgrim trying to win my freedom and serve as best I can in the time I have, with this gift I've been given.
If all of the issues that I have worked on were depending on some measure of success, it would be a total failure. I don't anticipate success. We're not asked to be successful, we are only asked to be faithful. I couldn't even tell you what success is.
Encyclopedia
Martin Sheen (born Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez; August 3, 1940) is an American actor who earned recognition for his performances as Captain Willard in the film Apocalypse Now and President Josiah Bartlet on the NBC political drama series The West Wing. Apart from the recognition he earned as an actor, he has gained visibility as an activist.
Biography
Early life
Sheen was born in Dayton, Ohio, the son of Mary Ann (née Phelan), an immigrant from County Tipperary, Ireland, and Francisco Estévez, a factory worker/machinery inspector from Parderrubias, Galicia, Spain. Sheen's mother fought in the Irish War of Independence due to her family's connections to the Irish Republican Army. Sheen adopted his stage name in honor of the Catholic archbishop and theologian, Fulton J. Sheen. Sheen lived on Brown Street in the South Park neighborhood, and was one of 10 siblings (nine boys and one girl). One of his brothers is actor Joe Estévez. He attended Chaminade High School (now Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School) and was raised as a Roman Catholic.
During the 1930s, his family lived in Bermuda, where Sheen's father was a representative of IBM, selling cash registers and early computing and copying equipment to businesses and to the U.S. Air Force. The family lived on St. John's Road, Pembroke, just outside Hamilton and Sheen and his siblings attended the Mount Saint Agnes school, an institution operated by the Sisters Of Charity, a religious order of the Roman Catholic Church. Sheen was the first of the ten Estevez children who was not born in either Bermuda or Ireland.
Career
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 headed to New York City. It was there that he met the legendary Catholic activist Dorothy Day. It was working with her Catholic Worker movement that began his commitment to social justice. However, 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 … racist. And they, for the most part, were upstanding members of the community." While Sheen claims he deliberately failed the entrance exam for the University of Dayton so that he could pursue his acting career, he still has an affinity for UD, and is seen drinking from a "Dayton Flyers" coffee mug during several episodes of The West Wing. He also has a great affinity for the University of Notre Dame and was awarded the Laetare Medal, the highest honor bestowed on American Catholics, in May 2008 at the school's commencement. Sheen has said that he was greatly influenced by the actor James Dean. He developed a theater company with other actors in hopes that a production would earn him recognition. In 1963, he made an appearance in Nightmare, an episode of the television science fiction series The Outer Limits. The following year, he starred in the Broadway play The Subject Was Roses, which he recreated in the 1968 film of the same name. In 1969 "Live Bait" (Mission Impossible) 3rd season of the TV series, played Albert, assistant to the Col. interrogating an America Agent that IM was tasked to free. Sheen was a co-star in the controversial, Emmy-winning 1972 television movie That Certain Summer, said to be the first television movie to portray homosexuality in a sympathetic, non-judgmental light. His next important feature film role was in 1973, when he starred with Sissy Spacek in the crime drama Badlands - which he has said in many interviews is his best film.
In 1974, Sheen portrayed a hot rod driver in the TV movie The California Kid, and that same year received an Emmy Award nomination for Best Actor in a television drama for his portrayal of Pvt. Eddie Slovik in the made-for-television film, The Execution of Private Slovik. Based on an incident that occurred during World War II, the film told the story of the only U.S. soldier to be executed for desertion since the American Civil War. It was Sheen's performance in this film that ultimately led to Francis Ford Coppola choosing him for a starring role in 1979's Apocalypse Now, a film that gained him wide recognition. Sheen admitted that during filming, he was not in the greatest shape and was drinking heavily. On location, he had a heart attack and crawled out to a road for help.
After his heart attack, his younger brother Joe Estevez stood in for him in a number of long shots and in some of the voice-overs.
Sheen has performed voice-over work as the narrator for the Eyewitness Movie series.
NUI Galway
After the end of filming of The West Wing, Sheen announced plans to further his education: "My plan is to read English literature, philosophy and theology in Galway, Republic of Ireland, where my late mother came from and where I'm also a citizen". Speaking after an honorary arts doctorate was conferred on him by the National University of Ireland, Sheen joked that he would be the "oldest undergraduate" at the National University of Ireland (NUI), Galway when he started his full-time studies there in the autumn of 2006. Although expressing concern that he might be a "distraction" to other students at NUIG, he attended lectures like everyone else. Speaking the week after filming his last episode of The West Wing, he said, "I'm very serious about it." He once said, "I never went to college when I was young and am looking forward to giving it a try... at age 65!" On September 1, 2006, Sheen was among the first to register as a student at NUI Galway. He left the University after completing a semester.
Political activism
Martin Sheen is no stranger to politics, both as an actor and in real life. He has played U.S. President John F. Kennedy (in the miniseries Kennedy — The Presidential Years), Attorney General Robert Kennedy in the television special The Missiles of October, White House Chief of Staff A.J. McInnerney in The American President, sinister future president Greg Stillson in The Dead Zone, and fictional Democratic president Josiah Bartlet in the acclaimed television drama The West Wing.
Although he did not attend college, Sheen credited the Marianists at University of Dayton as a major influence on his public activism. Sheen is known for his robust support of liberal political causes, such as opposition to United States military actions and a toxic-waste incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio. Sheen has resisted calls to run for office, saying: "There's no way that I could be the president. You can't have a pacifist in the White House … I'm an actor. This is what I do for a living." Sheen is an honorary trustee of the Dayton International Peace Museum.
He supported the 1965 farm worker movement with Cesar Chavez in Delano, California. He is a proponent of the Consistent Life ethic, which advocates against abortion, capital punishment and war. He also supports the Democrats for Life of America's Pregnant Women Support Act. In 2004, along with fellow actor Rob Reiner, Sheen campaigned for Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean. He later campaigned for nominee John Kerry.
In 1992, Sheen and several others were unsuccessful in their attempt to convince a judge to impose no jail or prison time for those who were convicted of pulling innocent motorists from their vehicles and beating them during the 1992 Los Angeles Riots.
On May 16, 1995, Martin Sheen and Paul Watson from the non-profit environmental organization, Sea Shepherd, were attacked in a hotel on Magdalen Islands by a number of Canadian sealers, who were upset that they had come there to protest against the annual seal hunt and promote non-lethal alternatives. Sheen was trying to negotiate with the angry mob while Watson was escorted to the airport by police and had to spend the night in the hospital. On August 28, 2005, he visited anti-Iraq War activist Cindy Sheehan at Camp Casey. He prayed with her and spoke to her supporters. He began his remarks by stating, "At least you've got the acting President of the United States," referring to his role as fictional President Josiah Bartlet on The West Wing. Cindy Sheehan had been demanding to speak with the President, George W. Bush.
Sheen endorsed marches and walkouts called by the civil rights group, By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), to force the state of California to honor the Cesar Chavez holiday. On March 30, the day of the protests, thousands of students, primarily Latino from California and elsewhere, walked out of school in support of the demand. Sheen also stated that he participated in the massive immigration marches in Los Angeles in 2006 and 2007.
On April 10, 2006, the New York Times reported that members of the Democratic Party in Ohio had contacted Sheen, attempting to persuade him to run for the U.S. Senate in Ohio. Sheen declined the offer, stating that "I'm just not qualified," he said. "You're mistaking celebrity for credibility." On November 26, 2006, the Sunday Times in the Republic of Ireland, where Sheen was then living due to his enrolment in NUI Galway, reported on him speaking out against mushroom farmers exploiting foreign workers by paying them as little as €2.50 an hour in a country where the minimum wage was €7.65.
On April 1, 2007, Sheen was arrested, with 38 other activists, for trespassing at the Nevada Test Site at a Nevada Desert Experience event protesting the Nevada Test Site.
On October 27, 2007, Martin Sheen echoed his son Charlie Sheen's doubts about the public account of the September 11, 2001 attacks. He stated: "Up until last year, I was very dubious, I did not want to believe that my government could possibly be involved in such a thing, I could not live in a country that I thought could do that - that would be the ultimate betrayal. However, there have been so many revelations that now I have my doubts, and chief among them is Building 7 - how did they rig that building so that it came down on the evening of the day?"
His latest activism includes several attendances at meetings of the environmentalist group Earth First!. Sheen has also endorsed and supported Help Darfur Now, a student run organization to help aid the victims of the genocide in Darfur, the western region in Sudan.
Sheen has appeared in television and radio ads urging Washington State residents to vote no on Initiative 1000, a proposed assisted suicide law before voters in the 2008 election.
Sheen initially endorsed New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson in the 2008 US Presidential Election, and helped raise funds for his campaign. After Richardson had dropped out of the campaign, Sheen stated in a BBC Two interview that he was supporting Barack Obama.
Personal life
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 (better known as Charlie Sheen) and Renée. Sheen became a grandfather at age 43 when his son, Emilio, had a son named Taylor Levi with his girlfriend, Carey Salley. Other than Taylor Levi, Sheen has four other grandchildren. Sheen's daughter-in-law, Brooke Mueller (wife of Charlie), is currently pregnant with Sheen's twin grandsons, due in April 2009.
Sheen starred in the Vietnam war film Apocalypse Now, and his son, Charlie Sheen, also starred in a film about Vietnam: Platoon. Charlie Sheen once stated that he wanted to star in a film similar to one his father was in because he wanted to know what it feels like. They jointly parodied their respective previous roles in the 1993 movie Hot Shots Part Deux: their river patrol boats passed each other, at which point they both shouted, "I loved you in Wall Street!", a film they both starred in as father and son in 1987.
In the Spring of 1989, Sheen was named Honorary Mayor of Malibu, California. He promptly marked his appointment with a decree proclaiming the area "a nuclear-free zone, a sanctuary for aliens and the homeless, and a protected environment for all life, wild and tame". Some local citizens were angered by the decree, and the Malibu Chamber of Commerce met in June of that year to consider revoking
his title, but voted unanimously to retain him.
Sheen has limited lateral movement of his left arm, which is three inches shorter than his right, due to its being crushed by forceps during his birth. This restricts him from putting on a coat in the typical manner; instead, he flips it up and over his head from the front, as clearly demonstrated throughout the run of The West Wing.
Over the years, he has played the father of sons Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen in various projects: he played Emilio's father in The War at Home and In the Custody of Strangers, and Charlie's father in Wall Street, No Code of Conduct, and two episodes of Spin City. He also appeared as a guest star in one episode of Two and a Half Men playing the father of Charlie's neighbor Rose (Melanie Lynskey), and another as guest star Denise Richards' father; at the time that episode aired, Richards was still married to Charlie. Martin also played a "future" version of Charlie in a VISA TV commercial. Martin has played other characters with his sons and his daughter.
Awards
Sheen received six Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his performance on The West Wing, for which he won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in TV-Drama, as well as two SAG Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series, and was part of the cast that received two SAG Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.
In his acting career, Sheen has been nominated for ten Emmy Awards, winning one. He has also earned eight nominations for Golden Globe Awards. Sheen has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 1500 Vine Street.
Sheen was the 2008 recipient of the Laetare Medal, an annual award given by the University of Notre Dame for outstanding service to the Roman Catholic Church and society.
Sheen was the 2003 recipient of the Marquette University Degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa for his work on social and Catholic issues.
Filmography
Documentaries
Television and Video
External links
- Actor's Photo Gallery focusing on over 100 film and television roles and Library of articles and interviews.
- including Sheen's views on faith, civil disobedience, abortion and pacifism.
- about Sheen's fears of an Obama assassination attempt, his views about the causes of Sept. 11th, and his opposition to an initiative in Washington state that would legalize physician assisted suicide.
- article at AmericanCatholic.org
- : Martin Sheen on Poverty, Faith and Social Activism
- about his experiences filming Apocalypse Now
- Video and audio of
- in the "confessional" on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, February 14 2005
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