Martin Sheen

Whether as actor or activist, Martin Sheen is one of the entertainment industry's most respected figures.

Born Ramon Estevez to immigrant parents, he left his Dayton, Ohio home for the bright lights of New York City. There, he apprenticed at Judith Malina and Julian Beck's Living Theater and also began working in movies and television.

Mr. Sheen's breakthrough role came on the stage, with Frank Gilroy's play The Subject Was Roses. He was nominated for a Tony Award and later reprised the role in the film version (directed by Ulu Grosbard), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. His other notable early screen credits included Larry Peerce's The Incident; Mike Nichols' Catch-22; and Terrence Malick's first film, Badlands.

The 1970s and 1980s saw him star in a host of groundbreaking and acclaimed telefilms. These included That Certain Summer and The Execution of Private Slovik (both directed by Lamont Johnson), which earned him his first Emmy Award nomination; The Andersonville Trial (directed by George C. Scott); Welcome Home, Johnny Bristol (directed by George McCowan); Catholics (directed by Jack Gold); The Missiles of October (directed by Anthony Page); Choices of the Heart (directed by Joseph Sargent); Samaritan: The Mitch Snyder Story (directed by Richard T. Heffron); Nightbreaker (directed by Peter Markle), which he executive-produced; and the miniseries Blind Ambition (directed by George Schaefer), in which he portrayed Robert F. Kennedy, and Kennedy (directed by Jim Goddard), in which he portrayed John F. Kennedy.

Mr. Sheen's many features also include Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now; Richard Attenborough's Gandhi; Jason Miller's That Championship Season; David Cronenberg's The Dead Zone; Oliver Stone's Wall Street (opposite his son Charlie Sheen) and JFK; Matt Clark's Da and Leo Penn's Judgment in Berlin (both of which he also executive-produced); Ronald F. Maxwell's Gettysburg; Rob Reiner's The American President; Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can; Gregory Nava's Bordertown; Martin Scorsese's The Departed; and his son Emilio Estevez' The War at Home and Bobby.

He starred for seven years as U.S. President Bartlet on the celebrated television series The West Wing, earning Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and ALMA Awards, among other honors.

Mr. Sheen won an Emmy Award for his guest appearance on Murphy Brown. His other guest roles on television series have included ones on Mission: Impossible; Columbo; and (opposite his son Charlie) Two and a Half Men, for which he was an Emmy Award nominee.

In 1998, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Imagen Foundation.