Martin Sheen has admitted one of his biggest regrets in life is changing his name for work, saying you often ‘pay for it later’ when you don’t have the courage to ‘stand up for what you believe in’.
Sheen is the patriarch of a particularly famous family, with sons Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen both also in the biz along with siblings Ramón Luis Estévez, an actor and director, and Renée Estevez, who is an actor and screenwriter.
But you may have noticed that they don’t all share the family’s original surname of Estévez - inherited from Sheen’s Spanish immigrant father Francisco.
Speaking to Closer Weekly, Sheen explained that his dad hadn’t wanted him to get into show business, saying: “You couldn’t blame him. Both my parents were immigrants. My father was from Spain, and my mother was from Ireland. My real name is Ramon Estévez.”
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Sheen said his father was ‘very practical’, having been a factory worker for most of his adult life.
"He wanted me to go to college and improve my chances of making a better living than he did," he said.
“We had some very, very painful confrontations about it.”
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When asked if he felt sorry he changed his name, Sheen continued: “That’s one of my regrets. 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.”
Sheen said son Emilio turned up to a show he was doing once, originally thinking he'd come to visit him. However, it transpired that the aspiring actor had got himself a part in the same show.
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Sheen recalled how he didn't object to the idea of any of his children getting into the industry, but said he did convince Emilio to keep his surname.
"The only influence I had on Emilio was to keep his name," he said.
"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.”
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Topics: Celebrity, Entertainment
Jess Hardiman