Martin Sheen

Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez (born August 3, 1940), known professionally as Martin Sheen, is an American actor. He first became known for his roles in the films The Subject Was Roses (1968) and Badlands (1973), and later achieved wide recognition for his leading role as Captain Benjamin Willard in Apocalypse Now (1979), as U.S. President Josiah Bartlet in the television series The West Wing (1999–2006), and as Robert Hanson in the Netflix television series Grace and Frankie (2015–2022).

In film, Sheen has won the Best Actor award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival for his performance as Kit Carruthers in Badlands. Sheen's 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, including Richard Attenborough, Francis Ford Coppola, Terrence Malick, David Cronenberg, Mike Nichols, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Oliver Stone. Sheen received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1989. In television, Sheen has won a Golden Globe and two Screen Actors Guild awards for playing the role of President Josiah Bartlet in The West Wing, and an Emmy for guest starring in the sitcom Murphy Brown. In 2012, he portrayed Uncle Ben in The Amazing Spider-Man directed by Marc Webb.

Born and raised in the United States by a Spanish father and an Irish mother, he adopted the stage name Martin Sheen to help him gain acting parts. He is the father of four children, all of whom are actors.

Sheen has directed one film, Cadence (1990), in which he appears alongside his sons Charlie and Ramón. He has narrated, produced, and directed documentary television, earning two Daytime Emmy awards in the 1980s.

Family

Sheen married Janet Templeton on December 23, 1961, and they have three sons and a daughter, all of whom are actors: Emilio, Ramón, Carlos, and Renée. Carlos, however, decided to change his name when he began acting, calling himself Charlie Sheen after making the decision to anglicize his first name and take his surname from his father's stage name, although he was already known only as Charlie throughout his elementary school years.

Charlie and his father parodied their roles in the 1993 movie Hot Shots! Part Deux; when their river patrol boats passed each other, they both shouted, "I loved you in Wall Street!" a film they both starred in as father and son in 1987.

He has played the father of sons Emilio and Carlos in various projects: he played Emilio's father in The War at Home, In the Custody of Strangers and The Way, and Charlie's father in Wall Street, No Code of Conduct, two episodes of Spin City, and Anger Management. 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's father; at the time that episode aired, Richards was married to Charlie. Martin also played a "future" version of Charlie in a Visa commercial. Martin has played other characters with his children. He starred in the film Bobby, which was directed by Emilio, who also starred in the movie alongside his father. Renée had a supporting role in The West Wing, as a White House staff secretary. Emilio also appeared, uncredited, in an episode of The West Wing portraying his father's character, President Bartlet, in home movie footage.

Sheen became a grandfather at age 43 when Emilio had a son with his girlfriend, Carey Salley. Sheen has a total of ten grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

He celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary in 2011.

In 2012, Sheen was a guest on the U.S. version of Who Do You Think You Are?, tracing his Irish and Galician ancestry.

He underwent a quadruple heart bypass operation in December 2015.