Martin Sheen's 65 arrests: Activist and Actor

People News

By Stone Martindale Apr 6, 2007, 19:21 GMT

Actor and recent University student Martin Sheen has been arrested 65 times in the last 20 years, revealed in an interview with Empire movie magazine in the United Kingdom. Martin Sheen - Los Angeles, CA © Glenn Harris / Photorazzi

Martin Sheen - Los Angeles, CA © Glenn Harris / PhotorazziSheen also just received a police citation for trespassing on a Nevada nuclear test site. Sheen was among a group of peace activists cited for trespassing during an anti-nuclear protest Sunday at the Nevada Test Site, authorities said.Allegedly dozens of people took part in the rally sponsored by the Nevada Desert Experience outside the test site, 70 miles northwest of Las Vegas.A total of 39 protesters, including Sheen, were released after being cited by sheriff's deputies for crossing onto test site property, test site spokesman Darwin Morgan said to the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza online news.Sheen previously protested former President Ronald Reagan's nuclear initiative. Sheen reveals to British movie magazine Empire, "We placed our bodies at the doors so the employees on the project couldn't get through and I remember being terribly frightened by what was going to happen. I remember (protest organizer) Father Bergin offering the New York Police the chance to come and us in our protest and they said 'no. You have three minutes to get out of here,' and I thought 'Gee, what's coming down now?'" Sheen, born Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez, was the bright spot in the popular series "The West Wing." Sheen was born in Ohio, of a Spanish-born father, Francisco Estévez, born in Galicia, Spain near the border of Portugal and an Irish mother, Mary Anne Phelan from County Tipperary. According to Wikipedia, his mother fled from Ireland during the Irish War of Independence due to her family's IRA connections. Sheen adopted his stage name in honor of Catholic archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, and is a devout human rights campaigner and Catholic who has two sons in the industry, Charlie Sheen, and Emilio Estevez.