67 Facts About Martin Sheen

1.

Martin Sheen first became known for his roles in the films The Subject Was Roses and Badlands, and later achieved wide recognition for his leading role as Captain Benjamin Willard in Apocalypse Now, as US President Josiah Bartlet in the television series The West Wing, and as Robert Hanson in the Netflix television series Grace and Frankie.

2.

In film, Sheen has won the Best Actor award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival for his performance as Kit Carruthers in Badlands.

3.

Martin Sheen received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1989.

4.

Martin Sheen is the father of four children, all of whom are actors.

5.

Martin Sheen has directed one film, Cadence, in which he appears alongside his sons Charlie and Ramon.

6.

Martin Sheen has narrated, produced, and directed documentary television, earning two Daytime Emmy awards in the 1980s, and has been active in liberal politics.

7.

Martin Sheen grew up on Brown Street in the South Park neighborhood, the seventh of ten children.

8.

Martin Sheen was the first child to be born in Dayton, Ohio, after the family returned from Bermuda.

9.

Martin Sheen contracted polio as a child and had to remain bedridden for a year.

10.

When he was eleven years old, Martin Sheen's mother died, and the children faced the possibility of living in an orphanage or foster homes.

11.

Martin Sheen was drawn to acting at a young age, but his father disapproved of his interest in the field.

12.

Martin Sheen spent two years in the Living Theatre company.

13.

Martin Sheen deliberately failed the entrance examination for the University of Dayton so that he could pursue his acting career.

14.

Martin Sheen 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 Catholic archbishop and broadcaster, Fulton J Sheen.

15.

Martin Sheen starred in the television production Ten Blocks on the Camino Real, an adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play Camino Real directed by Jack Landau and presented by NET, a PBS predecessor.

16.

Martin Sheen had a recurring role as "Danny Morgan" on Mod Squad.

17.

Martin Sheen portrayed Dobbs in the 1970 film adaptation of Catch-22.

18.

Martin Sheen then co-starred in the controversial Emmy Award-winning 1972 television film That Certain Summer, said to be the first television movie in America to portray homosexuality in a sympathetic light.

19.

Martin Sheen has stated that his role in Badlands was one of his two favorites, the other being his role as a US Army special operations officer in Apocalypse Now.

20.

In 1974, Martin Sheen portrayed a hot rod driver in the television film The California Kid and that same year received an Emmy Award nomination for Best Actor in a television drama for his portrayal of Pvt.

21.

Twelve months into filming, Martin Sheen suffered a minor heart attack and had to crawl out to a road for help.

22.

Martin Sheen was able to resume filming a few weeks later.

23.

In 1979, Martin Sheen acted in The Final Countdown with Kirk Douglas, another actor with family connections to Bermuda.

24.

Martin Sheen played fictional Democratic president Josiah "Jed" Bartlet in the acclaimed television drama, The West Wing.

25.

Martin Sheen plays Captain Hollister In Firestarter opposite Drew Barrymore and David Keith.

26.

In November 2010, Martin Sheen was cast as Uncle Ben in Sony's 2012 reboot of the Spider-Man film series, The Amazing Spider-Man, directed by Marc Webb.

27.

Martin Sheen provided the voice of Emilio in the English language version of the 2011 animated film Arrugas.

28.

Martin Sheen is the host of In Focus, a television program whose Facebook page claims airs on PBS affiliate stations on Public Television, but in fact does not, according to the company's spokesperson, as reported in The Washington Post on December 27,2012.

29.

In 2009, Martin Sheen travelled to Mexico City to star in Chamaco with Kirk Harris, Alex Perea, Gustavo Sanchez Parra and Michael Madsen.

30.

Martin Sheen plays parish priest Daniel Barry, whose love of movies leads him to help set up a cinema in Borrisokane.

31.

Martin Sheen played a starring role in Netflix's Grace and Frankie.

32.

In December 2019 Sheen signed on to play legendary FBI director J Edgar Hoover alongside Lakeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons, and Daniel Kaluuya in Judas and the Black Messiah.

33.

Martin Sheen has been active in countless nonviolent acts of civil disobedience and arrested 66 times as he stood up for peace and against nuclear power, nuclear weapons testing, dangerous arms buildup, abuse of farmworkers, Canadian sealclubbing and other causes.

34.

Martin Sheen is known for his outspoken support of liberal political causes, such as opposition to United States military actions and a hazardous-waste incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio.

35.

Martin Sheen supported the 1965 farm worker movement with Cesar Chavez in Delano, California.

36.

Martin Sheen stated that he participated in the large-scale immigration marches in Los Angeles in 2006 and 2007.

37.

Martin Sheen starred in Jakov Sedlar's religious drama Gospa in 1995.

38.

Martin Sheen narrated several movies for the Croatian director during the 1990s.

39.

Martin Sheen negotiated with the sealers while Watson was escorted to the airport by police.

40.

Martin Sheen became involved with gun control in 2000 after the National Shooting Sports Foundation hired his politically conservative brother, actor Joe Estevez who sounds like Martin Sheen, to do a voice-over for a pro-gunmaker commercial earlier in the year.

41.

In early 2003 Martin Sheen signed the "Not in My Name" declaration opposing the invasion of Iraq ; the declaration appeared in the magazine The Nation.

42.

Martin Sheen campaigned with Rob Reiner for Democratic presidential candidates Howard Dean and John Kerry in 2004.

43.

Martin Sheen has been named an ambassador of Free The Children and has supported such initiatives as the We are Silent campaign, a 24-hour pledge of silence.

44.

Martin Sheen 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.

45.

Martin Sheen first spoke to 18,000 young student activists at Free The Children's 2010 We Day.

46.

Martin Sheen reunited with the cast of The West Wing in September 2012 to produce a video explaining Michigan's ballot and its partisan and nonpartisan sections.

47.

Martin Sheen narrated the trailer for a proposed documentary film about the prosecution of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman in 2015.

48.

Martin Sheen married Janet Templeton on December 23,1961, and they have three sons and a daughter, all of whom are actors: Emilio, Ramon, Carlos, and Renee.

49.

Carlos decided to change his name when he began acting, calling himself Charlie Martin 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.

50.

Martin Sheen 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.

51.

Martin Sheen appeared as a guest star in one episode of Two and a Half Men playing the father of Charlie's neighbor Rose, and another as guest star Denise Richards's father; at the time that episode aired, Richards was married to Charlie.

52.

Martin Sheen played a "future" version of Charlie in a Visa commercial.

53.

Martin Sheen starred in the film Bobby, which was directed by Emilio, who starred in the movie alongside his father.

54.

Martin Sheen became a grandfather at age 43 when Emilio had a son with his girlfriend, Carey Salley.

55.

Martin Sheen has a total of ten grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

56.

Martin Sheen underwent a quadruple heart bypass operation in December 2015.

57.

Martin Sheen completed his course after a semester at the university and was awarded a European Computer Driving License.

58.

Martin Sheen is Catholic, having had his faith restored during conversations in Paris in 1981 with Terrence Malick, director of Martin Sheen's breakthrough film, Badlands.

59.

Martin Sheen is a supporter of the Catholic Worker movement.

60.

Martin Sheen 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".

61.

Martin Sheen has a great affinity for the University of Notre Dame and in 2008 was awarded the Laetare Medal, the highest honor bestowed on American Catholics, in May 2008 at the school's commencement.

62.

Martin Sheen received six Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his performance on The West Wing, for which he won a Golden Globe Award 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.

63.

Martin Sheen has earned eight nominations for Golden Globe Awards.

64.

Martin Sheen has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 1500 Vine Street.

65.

In 2001 Martin Sheen won a TV Guide Award for 'Actor of the Year in a Drama Series' for The West Wing.

66.

Martin Sheen was the 2003 recipient of the Marquette University Degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa for his work on social and Catholic issues.

67.

On May 3,2015 Martin Sheen received an honorary Doctor of Human Letters degree from the University of Dayton for his lifelong commitment to peace, social justice and human rights exemplifying the Catholic, Marianist university's missions.