When It Comes To Martin Sheen’s Acting Career He Says He Has One Major Regret

Martin Sheen has been part of Hollywood for decades. He has enjoyed a successful career as an actor. However, he says that there is one thing that he regrets – changing his name. A lot of actors and actresses change their names the moment they decide to get into Hollywood. But for Martin Sheen, he says that this is one of his biggest regrets.

In an interview with Closer Weekly, Martin says that he frequently wishes he could go by his given name, Ramon Estévez, rather than his stage name, Martin Sheen.

Martin shares, “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. 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. But, of course, I’m only speaking for myself.”

It was also revealed that Martin’s parents, particularly his father, were strongly against the path that he chose to pursue as a profession. He admitted that he and his father had “painful” fights about his decision to be an actor.

Martin says, “Both my parents were immigrants. 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.”

Eventually, his dad understood how important it was for him to follow his dreams. He said, “One night, we started a discussion about my going to New York. He said to me, ‘You want to go into the theater. You can’t sing, you can’t dance. You don’t know what you’re doing!’ I said, ‘Pop, you sit here every night watching westerns — do you see anyone singing or dancing?’ He said, ‘No, but you don’t ride a horse either.’ He finally saw that I was committed and realized it would be a life and death struggle with me if I didn’t pursue it.”

Martin was surprised that all of his children have a strong desire to work in the acting business. And eventually, all of them have already gone into the acting business. And because of this career choice, Martin encourages all of his children that they should keep the names they were given at birth.

He says, “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.”

He adds, “I was so self-involved and trying to be a provider that I wasn’t aware of their inclination to being actors. 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.”

Through the years, Martin Sheen is known as one of the best film actors of all time. He is best known for his performances in the films Badlands (1973) and Apocalypse Now (1979), as well as in the television series The West Wing which aired from 1999 to 2006.