Martin Sheen is a household name, but the actor opened up about why he decided to go by a stage name instead of his birth name over the years.
Sheen yearned to be an actor from an early age as the child of immigrants from County Tipperary, a county in Ireland, and Galicia, an autonomous community of Spain.
“I would go to the movies and be enthralled,” he told Closer Weekly in June 2022. “One of my idols was James Dean. I never felt that I became an actor, I was an actor. I had a sense that I knew how to do what they were doing up on the screen. I couldn’t articulate it. I finished high school and left almost immediately for New York.”
Sheen made his acting debut in 1956. Some of his most famous works include Badlands, Apocalypse Now and Wall Street, as well as The West Wing and Murphy Brown. The actor revealed the name we’ve come to know him by doesn’t match what’s on his birth certificate.
Keep scrolling for more on his decision to use a stage name and why he regrets it.
What Is Martin Sheen’s Birth Name?
Sheen was born Ramón Gerard Antonio Estévez on August 3, 1940. He revealed his dad was not initially supportive of his desire to become an actor.
“You couldn’t blame him. Both my parents were immigrants,” Sheen explained to Closer. “My father was from Spain, and my mother was from Ireland. My real name is Ramon Estévez. 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.”
Why Martin Sheen Uses a Stage Name
Sheen explained the decision behind adopting a stage name after moving to New York City following high school graduation.
“When I went to New York in 1959, frankly, I had a great deal of difficulty projecting a Spanish heritage because there was so much prejudice against the Puerto Rican community, never mind that they were Americans, but they were newly considered immigrants in New York City and there was a great [deal] of difficulty with that community,” Sheen told Daily Actor in February 2012. “Now, of course, they are very much an integral part of the city. But at the time I started, they were prejudiced against and I was feeling a lot of pressure for [being] assumed [to be] a part of that community.”
The West Wing alum continued, “Mind you, I was no less proud, but I was equally concerned about how that would affect me trying to pursue a life in New York City and so I decided to kind of invent a new character: Martin Sheen.”
As for how he landed on the first name of his now-famous moniker, Sheen said, “I took the Martin from the only guy that I knew in the industry at that time, Robert Dale Martin who was very encouraging to me. He was a casting director at CBS, and I had auditioned for him when I first came to New York, and he was very encouraging.”
Sheen ended up taking his last name from Bishop Fulton J. Sheen “who was at that time the Auxiliary Bishop of New York and he was a very famous tele-evangelist if you will. He was the first successful tele-evangelist. He had this popular television show in the ‘50s at primetime called A Life is Worth Living and he was an astonishing character.”
Did Martin Sheen Legally Change His Name?
Sheen confirmed that he did not legally change his name.
“I didn’t change my name officially, and frankly, I never will,” he told Daily Actor, adding that only one of his children decided to adopt the Sheen stage name. (Martin shares kids Emilio Estevez, Ramon Estevez, Charlie Sheen and actress Renée Estevez with wife Janet.)
“Charlie decided to go with Sheen and his motivation was to keep my name going because he didn’t want to be separated in the profession from me,” Martin said. “And so I was honored equally by him choosing to do that.”
All of Martin’s kids have pursued Hollywood careers, with both Charlie and Emilio’s stardom reaching new heights in the ‘80s. Martin applauded Emilio’s decision to keep his birth name despite industry pressure.
“I was doing a show one time, and Emilio showed up. I thought he was there to visit me, but he’d gotten a part in the same show,” Martin told Closer. “The only influence I had on Emilio was to keep his name. When he started out, his agent was advising him to change his name to Sheen and he wouldn’t do it. And I thank God he didn’t.”
In Charlie’s memoir, The Book of Sheen, he explained that he had begun working with manager Glennis Liberty when he decided to go by Sheen.
“I told her I was using Sheen as my last name, and as I watched her type the letters of the new me at the top of a blank piece of paper, I really liked the way it looked,” Charlie wrote. “I’d sat with Pop the week earlier and got his blessing for the name swap. It was a much smoother father-son, Estevez-to-Sheen morph than the one Dad had suffered with his old man. I told him how important it was to honor him by carrying the name forward.”
He continued, “With Emilio already working as an actor and using Estevez, it seemed to make perfect sense that two of his sons would be checking both ancestral boxes.”
But using a stage name went beyond just face value for Charlie, who had poor grades and attendance in school before switching gears to acting.
“What I didn’t share with Pop: Using Sheen allowed me to slam the door on the recent academic and athletic failures I felt I was connected to with Estevez,” he said. “I wasn’t ashamed of the name, but if this was gonna be a fresh start across new horizons, I wanted to sound different when spoken of.”
Martin Sheen Expressed Regret Over Stage Name
Martin told Closer one of his “regrets” was not keeping his original name when he entered the entertainment industry.
“Sometimes you get persuaded when you don’t have enough insight or even enough courage to stand up for what you believe in, and you pay for it later,” he reflected. “But, of course, I’m only speaking for myself.”
Martin’s legal documents still say his birth name, as the actor told Closer, “I never changed my name officially. It’s still Ramon Estévez on my birth certificate. It’s on my marriage license, my passport, driver’s license.”