Sheen is also known for such notable films as The Subject Was Roses (1968), Catch-22 (1970), The California Kid (1974), Gandhi (1982), Wall Street (1987), Gettysburg (1993), The American President (1995), Catch Me If You Can (2002), The Departed, Bobby (both 2006), and Judas and the Black Messiah (2021).

Born and raised in the United States by a Galician father and an Irish mother, he adopted the stage name Martin Sheen to help him gain acting parts.

[6] Both of Sheen's parents were immigrants; his mother was Irish, from Borrisokane, County Tipperary, and his father, who was Spanish, was born in Salceda de Caselas, Galicia.

Despite his father's opposition, Sheen borrowed money from a Catholic priest and moved to New York City in his early twenties, hoping to make it as an actor.

In 1964, he co-starred in the Broadway play The Subject Was Roses; he later reprised his role in the 1968 film of the same name, and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.

His next important feature film role was in 1973 when he starred with Sissy Spacek in the crime drama Badlands, playing an antisocial multiple murderer.

Sheen's performance led to Francis Ford Coppola's casting him in a lead role as U.S. Army Captain Benjamin L. Willard in 1979's Apocalypse Now, gaining him wide recognition.

[26] In 1976, he participated in The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane as Frank Hallet, the antagonist with bad intentions towards teenager protagonist Rynn Jacobs (Jodie Foster).

Sheen has performed voice-over work as the narrator for the Eyewitness series in the US for the first and second seasons and as the "real" Seymour Skinner in the controversial Simpsons episode "The Principal and the Pauper".

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

Sheen appeared in Martin Scorsese's The Departed as Captain Oliver Queenan, a commanding officer who is watching an undercover cop (Leonardo DiCaprio).

Driven by sadness, Martin's character leaves his Californian life and embarks on the 800 km (500 mi) pilgrimage from the French Pyrenees to Spain's Santiago de Compostela, taking his son's ashes with him.

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.

[35] 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.

[37] Sheen endorsed marches and walkouts called by the activist group By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) to force the State of California to introduce a holiday in memory of Cesar Chavez.

[38][39][citation needed] According to W. James Antle III, writing in The American Conservative, Sheen is a follower of the consistent life ethic, which opposes abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment and war.

Sheen visited Camp Casey on August 28, 2005, to pray with anti-Iraq War activist Cindy Sheehan, who had demanded a second meeting with U.S. President George W.

[53] In 2006, when Sheen was living in Ireland as a result of his enrollment in NUI Galway, he criticized Irish mushroom farmers for exploiting foreign workers by paying them as little as €2.50 an hour—way below the country's minimum wage of €7.65.

[60] Also in 2009, while walking the Camino de Santiago while filming the 2010 movie The Way, Sheen met Gary and Elizabeth Jewson, a married couple from Australia who had lost their 18-year-old daughter Melanie in a car accident in 2004.

[61][62] Inspired by the touching story of Melanie's ambitions prior to her untimely death, Sheen became a patron of the foundation when it launched in 2012, and it has since raised more than A$250,000 for helping serve Vanuatu's under-resourced health and education systems.

[62] 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.

[66] In March 2012, Sheen and George Clooney performed in Dustin Lance Black's play 8—a staged reenactment of the federal trial that overturned California's Prop 8 ban on same-sex marriage—as attorney Theodore Olson.

[68][69] 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.

[76] He has a long association with Sea Shepherd and that conservation organization has named a ship, the RV Martin Sheen to recognize his commitment and support.

Emilio also appeared, uncredited, in an episode of The West Wing portraying his father's character, President Bartlet, in-home movie footage.

[95] 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.

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.

He 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".

[96] Some local citizens were angered by the decree, and the Malibu Chamber of Commerce met in June of that year to consider revoking his title, but voted unanimously to retain him.

[16] Sheen also has a great affinity for the University of Notre Dame and in 2008 was awarded the Laetare Medal,[98] the highest honor bestowed on American Catholics, in May 2008 at the school's commencement.