Martin Sheen Biography

MARTIN SHEEN

Date of Birth: August 3, 1940

Birth name: Ramon Estevez

If you were writing a test and got seven out of 10 you might think that was pretty good. But if you were the seventh out 10 children like Martin Sheen was you might not have the same feeling about those numbers.

Born in Dayton, Ohio to a Spanish immigrant father and Irish mother, Sheen headed to New York straight out of high school and began his career off-off Broadway while supporting himself as janitor, car washer, soda jerk and messenger boy. He first garnered critical notice at 24 when he played the lead on Broadway in The Subject Was Roses, a role he later reprised for the screen version.

His most memorable early screen role was playing teenage serial killer Charlie Starkweather in the Terence Malick film Badlands (1973). But the role he's probably most closely identified with is his performance as the army captain in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979) who's sent upriver to Cambodia to assassinate a renegade Green Beret (Marlon Brando). Sheen suffered a heart attack during the demanding Philippines shoot and the opening scene of the movie features his own blood as he's cut after punching out the mirror in his hotel room after drinking to excess.

Sheen's first Golden Globe nomination was for his supporting role in The Subject was Roses (1968). He received his first Emmy nomination in 1974 for his outstanding lead performance in the TV movie The Execution of Private Slovik. The same year he won Best Actor at the San Sebastian International Film Festival for Badlands (1974). In 1978 he won a Saturn Award for Best Actor in The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976), co-starring Jodie Foster. Although he's had seven Emmy award nominations throughout his long career, he's won only once, in 1994 for a guest appearance on the sitcom Murphy Brown. In 1999, he took on the role of the President of the United States in the weekly TV drama The West Wing, and won his first Golden Globe. He continues to land roles in big-name films, like Marc Webb's 2012 blockbuster The Amazing Spider-Man. He recently appeared in the documentary film Salinger (2013), played Matthew in the TV movie Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, based on the beloved Canadian classic, and worked with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin on the comedy series Grace and Frankie.

In 2016, appeared in the comedy Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping with Andy Samberg and Rules Don't Apply with Warren Beatty.

He and his wife, Janet, to whom he's been married since 1961, have four children, all of whom have become actors: Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen, Renée Estevez and Ramon Estevez. Sheen has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in motion pictures.

Filmography:

Rules Don't Apply (2016)
Anne of Green Gables (TV) (2016)
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)
Rules Don't Apply (2016)
The Double (2011) (2013)
Salinger (2013)
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
Eco-Pirate: The Story of Paul Watson (2011)
The Way (2011)
The End of Poverty? (2010)
Imagine That (2009)
Love Happens (2009)
Talk To Me (2007)
Bobby (2006)
The Departed (2006)
Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion (2004)
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Apocalypse Now Redux (2001)
O (2000)
Lost And Found (1999)
The Believers (1987)
Wall Street (1987)
Firestarter (1984)
The Dead Zone (1983)
Man, Woman and Child (1983)
That Championship Season (1982)
Gandhi (1982)
Enigma (1982)
The Final Countdown (1980)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976)
Sweet Hostage (1975)
The Legend of Earl Durand (1974)
The Story of Pretty Boy Floyd (1974)
The Execution of Private Slovik (1974)
Conflict (1973)
Badlands (1973)
Catch-22 (1970)
The Subject Was Roses (1968)
The Incident (1967)