Martin Sheen: The American president and more

Martin Sheen in "Method Actor", a 1985 episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents".

Source: https://www.imdb.com/fr-ca/title/tt0508402/

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There he is, lying in a bed, upside down, tossing and turning. He obviously has a lot on his mind, like a mission to kill someone.

It is the opening scene of “Apocalypse Now”, and the first time I ever saw Martin Sheen.

Since then he has been the aid to the American president, the actual American President, and found a way to act alongside his sons in film and television.

That scene from “Apocalypse Now” came to mind the other day when I read it was Martin Sheen’s birthday.

So I looked back and saw what his career has been all about, especially that pass through the ‘80s.

Heart of Darkness
“Apocalypse Now” is a movie based on the book “Heart of Darkness”. Sheen plays Benjamin Willard who is tasked with assassinating Colonel Walter Kurtz, played by Marlon Brando The colonel is waging an unauthorized war against the North Vietnamese Army, Viet Cong and Khmer Rouge, and is thought to be insane.

I first heard an ad for “Apocalypse Now” at the end of an episode of “The Love Boat” on Channel 13 of the peasant vision dial. Back then, there would be voice-over ads over the closing credits of TV shows.

Interestingly, I was in junior high at the time when the word “apocalypse” was quite scary for me, meaning the end of the world. I had no idea what the movie was about.

I did tune in to watch “Apocalypse Now”, but it was a Sunday night. I had to go to bed, so I never saw the end. I do remember getting into the movie, and recalling one of the soldiers talked about how he was a saucier.

The next day, I asked my sister about the rest of the movie. Who lived and who died from the crew who went on that mission led by Willard?

The saucier lived.

Method actor

In 1985, Sheen appeared in an episode of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” that is still one of my favourites. He plays Paul Dano, an aging actor, who is being passed by younger actors. He takes out his frustration on one, played by Parker Stevenson, and inadvertently kills him. He is almost finished destroying the body, with just the head remaining, when he gets a visit from his agent. Dano hurriedly puts the head in an ice bucket. His agent is thrilled to tell him that Dano has received the part that originally went to the younger actor. However, he has mysteriously disappeared. The agent wants to celebrate and goes to the ice bucket, only to have the head of Parker Stevenson staring at him. Roll the credits.

Chasing a killer

In 1985, he was in “Out of Darkness”, playing Eddie Zigo, one of the real-life police detectives who tracked down the Son of Sam killer. I recall taping this movie with my brand new VCR and just loving it. What made it compelling was the movie also looked at Zigo’s private life while the investigation was ongoing.

Struggling

Sheen was also in “Shattered Spirits” in 1986, a TV movie that I saw where he played an alcoholic who loses his family.

Dawn of the decade
Martin Sheen started the decade in 1980 with the movie “The Final Countdown”. An American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier travels back in time to the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor. I saw this movie advertised several times on Channel 13, and saw it also had James Farentino and Kirk Douglas. I did not get to see this movie, but got the low down on the movie on the school bus the next day from my good friend Mathew.

Sheen was in “Loophole” in 1981, then in 1982 was in a couple interesting movies.

One was “Gandhi”, starring Ben Kingsley as the Indian pacifist leader, and Sheen played a journalist. The other was “That Championship Season,” about a basketball team and their coach. They won the state championship 25 years ago, and get together regularly to relive their past glory. This movie was on late one night when I was growing up, but I only caught a few minutes before I change the channel.

To be honest, after that, I didn’t recognize a lot of the theatrical movies Sheen was in over the next couple years. Then there were “The Dead Zone” in 1983 and “Firestarter” in 1984, both based on Stephen King novels. He was also in “Kennedy” in 1983, earning a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film for his role as President John F. Kennedy.

Rest of the decade

Other than that, the only other movie I recognize is “Wall Street” in 1987. Stockbroker Bud Fox, played by Charlie Sheen, gets wrapped up with corporate raider Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas. Sheen plays Bud’s father.

It would be the start of a string of movies Sheen would appear in with his sons Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez.

Martin Sheen would also appear in a number of television movies, including “The Guardian” opposite Lou Gossett, Jr. in 1984; and “The Atlanta Child Murders” in 1985.

The years before
Martin Sheen began his storied career on television in the 1960s on “Insight”, a religious program on public television. He even won a daytime Emmy for Outstanding Performer in Religious Programming in 1981.

He would also have roles on television in “Route 66”; “The Naked City”; “The Outer Limits”; “My Three Sons’; “Flipper”; several episodes of “The F.B.I.”; “N.Y.P.D.”; “Mission: Impossible”; “Then Came Bronson”; “Lancer”; “Hawaii Five-O”; “Ironside”; “Cannon”; “Love, American Style”; “Harry O”; “The Rookies”; “The Mod Squad”; “Columbo”; “Medical Center”; “Toma”; “Mannix”; “Ghost Story”; and “The Streets of San Francisco”.

Sheen was also in several television films such as “The Andersonville Trial”; “Goodbye, Raggedy Ann”; “Mongo’s Back in Town”; “Message to My Daughter”; as the title character in “The Story of Pretty Boy Floyd”; as Robert F. Kennedy in “The Missiles of October”; and the title character in “The Execution of Private Eddie Slovik”, for which he was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. 

He was also in “Taxi!!!”, for which he was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama or Comedy Special; and in four episodes of the miniseries “Blind Ambition” as John Dean, former White House counsel during the Watergate scandal. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama Series for “Blind Ambition”.

Martin Sheen began his film career in 1967 in “The Incident”. He was in a lot of movies leading up to the ‘80s including “Catch-22”; “No Drums, No Bugles”; “Pickup on 101”; “Rage”; “That Certain Summer” and more. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe in 1968 for Best Supporting Actor Motion Picture for “The Subject Was Roses”.

His breakout role was in “Badlands” in 1973. He starred opposite Sissy Spacek, who plays a 15-year-old who goes on a killing spree with her partner Kit Carruthers, played by Sheen.

Sheen would go on to appear in the TV movies “The California Kid” and “Sweet Hostage”; and the films “The Cassandra Crossing” and “The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane”.

Then, in 1979, he landed his iconic role in “Apocalypse Now”.

The years after
To be honest, beyond “Apocalypse Now”, “Shattered Spirits”, “Out of Darkness”, and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, I had not really seen or heard a lot of Martin Sheen’s work.

That would change over the next few decades as his career really took off, especially on television.

He would appear in a lot of films including Oliver Stone’s “JFK” where Sheen is narrator; “Hot Shots! Part Deux”, in a cameo as Benjamin Willard, opposite his son Charlie Sheen; “Spawn”; “Catch Me if You Can”; “The Departed”; “Bobby”; “The Amazing Spider-Man”; “Selma”; and much much more including a movie that is currently in post-production.

He was also in “The American President” opposite Michael Douglas as A.J. McInnerney, the White House chief of staff, which happens to be one of my favourite movies

Martin Sheen achieved his greatest success in television. He had a gust spot in shows such as “Murphy Brown”, where he won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 1994; “Tales from the Crypt”; “The Simpsons”, and “Total Recall 2070”.

He was also in TV movies such as “Roswell”, “One of Her Own”, “Project ALF”, “Hostile Waters”, “Babylon 5: The River of Souls”; and “Thrill Seekers”.

Sheen then landed the role of U.S. President Jed Bartlet in “The West Wing” from 1996 to 2006 for 140 episodes. He garnered six Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2006. He also won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama Series in 2000, and was nominated in 1999, 2001, 2002, and 2003.

He would appear as a guest star in his son Charlie Sheen’s shows “Spin City”, for one episode”; “Two and a Half Men”, for one episode, where in 2006 he was nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series; and “Anger Management”, for 20 episodes. He also appeared in three Anne of Green Gables TV movies, and had a recurring role in “Grace and Frankie” from 2015 to 2022 for 78 episodes.

Sheen’s reprised his role as Jed Bartlet in 2020 for “A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote”. It was a stage reading of the episode “Hartsfield’s Landing”.

He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1989.

Parting thoughts
Martin Sheen is an amazing actor who had some memorable roles in the ‘80s for me, especially on TV in “Out of Darkness” and that memorable performance on “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”.

However, he will forever will be associated in my mind with the president of the United States. Whether he played the role of the president, or someone close to the office, he did it over and over again to great effect.