Martin Sheen, 81, born Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez, is an American actor who first gained recognition in Hollywood with his roles in The Subject Was Roses (1968), The Badlands (1973), and Apocalypse Now (1979). Martin was born on August 3, 1940 in Dayton, Ohio to an Irish mother and Spanish father, hence his birth name before he took on the stage name “Martin Sheen.” After his early success on stage and screen, he achieved great recognition for his role as United States President Josiah Bartlet in the television series The West Wing (1999-2006) and as Robert Hanson in the Netflix series Grace & Frankie (2015-present).
In addition to his illustrious acting career, Martin married Janet Templeton, an actress and producer, in 1961 and the pair had four children together, sons Emilio, Ramón, and Charlie, and a girl, Renée. Find out more below about the Hollywood vet’s four children, who have all been involved in show business themselves!
Emilio Estévez
American actor, film director, screenwriter and producer Emilio Estévez is Martin’s oldest son, born May 12, 1962 in Staten Island, NY, the oldest of the Sheen/Estevez clan. Unlike Charlie, he did not adopt his father’s stage name and kept “Estevez” as his last name.
After building his acting experience from appearing in several small theater productions, he famously became part of the informal “Brat Pack” in the mid-1980s, aka a riff on the 1950s/60s-era “Rat Pack.” The informal group of young actors included Emilio, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Andrew McCarthy, Ally Sheedy, among others, and were typically seen in coming-of-age flicks like St. Elmo’s Fire and The Breakfast Club. Emilio continued to act after his 1980s heyday with the Brat Pack, starring in Disney’s The Mighty Ducks in 1992 — a successful movie about a former minor league hockey prodigy (Estevez) who finds purpose in coaching a pee-wee hockey team. The movie was followed up by two sequels and returned with Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, a new series from Disney+.
Emilio also found success in directing, first writing and directing in a film about garbage men, Men at Work (1990), in which he co-starred with brother Charlie. He’s also directed numerous episodes of the TV series Cold Case, CSI: New York, The Guardian, and more, additionally directing the 2006 film Bobby based on U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the 2011 project The Way which starred his father, Martin, and more.
In the early 1980s, Emilio was involved with actress Mimi Rogers and model Carey Salley, welcoming two children, son Taylor and daughter Paloma with the latter. Emilio did not go public with the births of his two children with Carey and the relationship overlapped with his public dalliance with actress Demi Moore, with whom he was linked between 1984 and 1986. On April 29, 1992 he married singer/choreographer Paula Abdul and they divorced in 1994, with Paula stating how she wanted children but Emilio dismissed the idea, considering how he already had two of his own.
Ramón Luis Estévez
Ramón Luis Estevez was born on August 7, 1963, New York, NY and is an actor and theater director. Following in his father and older brother’s footsteps, he appeared in several movies in the ’80s and ’90s, like Cadence, A State of Emergency, That Was Then … This Is Now, and more. From 2012-2014, Ramón co-produced the multi-camera sitcom for FX Anger Management with his younger brother Charlie. He also runs Estevez Sheen Productions, operated out of Los Angeles, California.
Charlie Sheen
Martin spawned yet another famous child in Charlie Sheen, né Carlos Irwin Estévez on September 3, 1965 in New York City, New York. Charlie first showed interest in acting and making film projects with his older brother Emilio and their classmates from Santa Monica High School, Rob Lowe and Sean Penn. A few weeks before graduation, Charlie was expelled from school for poor grades and attendance, and went on to pursue acting with the stage name “Charlie Sheen,” adopting his father’s stage surname he himself claimed in honor of the Catholic archbishop and theologian Fulton J. Sheen.
Charlie went on to have great success with his acting career, starring in critically acclaimed films Platoon (1986) and co-starring with his father, Martin, in Oliver Stone‘s Wall Street (1987). He continued his acting streak by appearing in numerous comedy movies thereafter, like the Major League films, Money Talks, and the third, fourth, and fifth installments of the Scary Movie spoof flicks. Charlie really made his mark with his television roles, however, first taking over Michael J. Fox‘s spot on Spin City in the early 2000s and going on to star in the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men. The role garnered him three Emmy Award and two Golden Globe nominations and also made him the highest paid actor in TV, earning $1.8 million per episode.
Much like his role as the rebellious bachelor Charlie Harper on Two and a Half Men, Charlie has maintained a “bad boy” reputation throughout his life, dating (and marrying!) several women and getting in trouble in the process. After having his oldest daughter with high school girlfriend, Paula Profit, he got engaged to actress and model Kelly Preston but that engagement was broken off after Charlie accidentally shot her in the arm in 1990. He then dated a slew of adult film actresses throughout the ’90s, having his marriage to model Donna Peele broken due to his being named as one of the clients of an escort agency operated by the infamous Heidi Fleiss.
Charlie was most famously married to actress Denise Richards after the pair met while filming Good Advice in 2000. The pair married in 2002 and share two daughters together, Sami Sheen and Lola Sheen. Denise filed for divorce in March 2005, citing Charlie’s drug abuse and violence as an issue. The pair has endured a nasty divorce and custody battle over their two girls.
In 2008, Charlie married his third wife, Brooke Mueller, and the pair welcomed two twin sons, Max and Bob in 2009. The pair ultimately divorced in 2011 and Brooke obtained a restraining order against Charlie citing her concern for the actor. Since his separation, Charlie has continued dating adult film actresses and models.
Renée Pilar Estévez
American actress and screenwriter Renée Pilar Estévez was born April 2, 1967, the youngest of the Estevez brood. Renée also got the acting bug like her siblings, first starting in 1986 by starring in the CBS Schoolbreak special Babies Having Babies. She went on to have secondary roles in movies like 1986’s Shattered Spirits and played the minor character Betty Finn in the 1989 cult classic Heathers. In addition to guest starring on the TV shows JAG and MacGyver, she appeared as a regular guest star on The West Wing, playing an office assistant to her father’s Josiah Bartlet, aka the president. Although she has not acted since 2015, she did assist with writing for the TV series Anger Management, which starred her older brother Charlie.
She married professional golfer and chef Jason Thomas Federico on October 11, 1997 in Catholic wedding in New York after the two met at the California Culinary Academy where he received a degree in culinary arts and she studied pastry and baking science. They were divorced in 2011 in Los Angeles, California.