The Tragic Truth About Martin Sheen

Martin Sheen always knew he wanted to be an actor. His father, who came to the United States from Spain, wanted another life for his son. “My father was very practical. He was a factory worker for most of his adult life, and he wanted me to go to college and improve my chances of making a better living than he did. We had some very, very painful confrontations about it,” Sheen told Closer Weekly. Eventually, he was able to convince his dad and get his blessing to be a Hollywood star.

Sheen has been open about the reason he changed his name early on in his career — specifically, to sound more American. However, it remains one of his biggest regrets, and it caused him some pain when his father visited while he was acting in a play on Broadway, as Sheen’s own son Emilio Estevez revealed to Today. “He stood outside of the theater and looked up at the marquee, and my dad saw him shake his head in disappointment, and so he never got over that,” Estevez shared. “And so I think when it was time for me to sort of start making those moves and start getting out and doing auditions, he said, ‘Man, if I had one thing to do over, it was that I never would have changed my name.’”