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Martin Sheen was born in Dayton, Ohio to Francisco Estévez and Mary Anne Phelan, an immigrant from County Tipperary, Ireland. During the Irish War of Independence Sheen's mother fled from Ireland due to her family's IRA connections. Sheen was strongly influenced by the Catholic archbishop and theologian Fulton J. Sheen when he adopted his stage name. Sheen lived in Brown Street in the South Park suburb. The family was laden with 10 siblings (9 boys and a girl). He attended Chaminade High School.
During the 1940s and 1950s the Estevez family was in Bermuda where Francisco worked as a representative of IBM and sold cash registers, computing and copying equipment to businesses and the US Air Force. The family of Sheen lived on St. John's Road, Pembroke, just outside Hamilton. He attended the Mount Saint Agnes School.
Sheen had always wanted to act since he was in his early teen, but his father detested this career badly. Against his father's will Martin Sheen borrowed money from a priest and started off for New York City. Sheen claims that he intentionally missed his entrance exam in the University of Dayton to pursue his acting career.
Sheen has confessed that he was deeply influenced by the actor James Dean. Sheen built a theater company with some other actors hoping a production company would earn him recognition. In 1963 he appeared in Nightmare, an episode of the TV science fiction series The Outer Limits. The following year he starred in the play The Subject Was Roses, which he remade in the 1968 film by the same name.
Sheen was a part of the controversial, Emmy-winning 1972 television movie "That Certain Summer". This movie was said to be the first television movie to portray homosexuality in a sympathetic way. The next important feature film by Sheen was in 1973, in the crime drama Badlands which according to him is his best film.
In 1974, Sheen received Emmy Award nomination for Best Actor in a television drama "The Execution of Private Slovik". Martin Sheen was awarded with six Emmy nominations for 'Outstanding Lead Actor' in a Drama Series for his performance in The West Wing. He won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in TV-Drama.
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