He is best known for his film debut as David Axelrod in Franco Zeffirelli's Endless Love (1981).
[3][5] While enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasadena, CA and working as bartender and valet car park/parking lot attendant, Hewitt saw an ad for an open call for a film directed by Franco Zeffirelli and beat out 5,000 actors, including Tom Cruise and Timothy Hutton, for the male lead.
Hewitt had originally envisioned a Shakespearean career, but suddenly he was starring opposite Brooke Shields in Franco Zeffirelli's Endless Love, a 1981 forbidden teen romance film.
During filming in New York City, she invited Hewitt to spend the weekend at her house in New Jersey, where they played board games.
Variety commented that "Since he’s center stage most of the time, it’s fortunate that newcomer Martin Hewitt registers so strongly.
Zeffirelli has dressed and photographed his find almost in the style of some of his mentor Luchino Visconti’s neo-realist heroes, with two-day beard growths and anachronistic Clark Gable undershirts.
"[8] Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that Hewitt "has neither the resources nor the opportunity to convey much about how David's mind works, even though this is what the story hinges on.
[2][10] Of the films he appeared in during the '80s included: April Fool, later to be titled Killer Party (1986); The Falling (1987); and Two Moon Junction (1988).
As of 2015, Hewitt still owns his home inspection service in San Luis Obispo, California.
Some filmmakers, it turned out, thought he would be perfect for a lead role in a movie about drugged-out gay prostitutes in West Hollywood.
"[2] Hewitt has confirmed that he and Brooke Shields were never romantically involved, stating that they "became good friends, but we're not close.
"[19] While Hewitt was filming Crime Lords in South Africa in 1989, he met German-born flight attendant Kerstin Gneiting, whom he married in 1990.