Martin Sheen on Who Do You Think You Are: "My Real Name Is Ramon Estevez — and I Will Never Change It"

On January 30, 2012, NBC held a press call with Martin Sheen ahead of his episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, the Season 3 premiere airing Friday, February 3rd at 8 p.m. on NBC. Sheen — born Ramon Estevez, son of an Irish mother and a Spanish father — traced his heritage to a family of Irish revolutionaries and a Spanish uncle imprisoned by Franco, and uncovered a revelation that stopped the entire family cold: one branch of his Spanish family had prosecuted another. Premier Guide Miami was among the outlets on the call.

My real name is Ramon Estevez and I have never changed it. It is my official name — on all contracts, my driver's license, our marriage license.

The name — and why he invented Martin Sheen

Sheen opened with a clarification that surprised many on the call: "My real name is Ramon Estevez and in fact I have never changed it. It is my official name. It is on all contracts and my driver's license and our marriage license and all the children were baptized under that name — Emilio, Ramon, Carlos is Charlie's real name, and my daughter Renee." He explained why he invented a stage name when he arrived in New York in 1959: "There was a great deal of difficulty projecting a Spanish heritage because there was so much prejudice against the Puerto Rican community. I was feeling a lot of pressure for being assumed a part of that community. Mind you I was no less proud, but I was equally concerned about how that would affect me trying to pursue a life in New York City." He assembled the name from two people: "I took Martin from Robert Dale Martin, a casting director at CBS who was very encouraging to me when I first came to New York. And I took Sheen from Bishop Fulton J. Sheen — the first successful tele-Evangelist, a very handsome man with riveting delivery and fierce eyes. I thought of him as more of an actor than a clergyman." On his children: "When the kids started to come into the business I advised them to keep their name because so much had changed since I was a boy. Emilio got that message. Charlie decided to go with Sheen because he didn't want to be separated in the profession from me. I was honored equally by both choices."

Two uncles — one in Ireland, one in Spain

The genealogical journey confirmed what Sheen had long suspected about the roots of his social activism. On his mother's side: "My uncle Michael Fieland was an Irish volunteer who fought in the War of Independence and then fought against the Free State in the Civil War from 1921 to '23." His mother, MaryAnn Fieland, had arrived at Ellis Island in 1921, a week before her 21st birthday: "We always suspected that she was sent away to protect her from any harm during the Civil War. It was confirmed during my time in Ireland that yes indeed she was sent away for her own protection." He learned she had been used as a courier: "The British officers were very reluctant to search young girls under the age of 16 and so often they were used as couriers with information supporting the Rising. She spoke Gaelic — they could speak right in front of the Black and Tans and not be understood." On his father's side: "My Uncle Matias had fought against Franco at the onset of his coup and spent an awful lot of time in jail — in fact received a life sentence that was finally rescinded in 1969. He stood up to Franco right in his backyard, in Galicia, which was very pro-Franco at the time. He went to a concentration camp offshore from Tui and then to a major prison in Pamplona. The only good thing that came out of that was he learned to read and write in that prison." The two uncles never met. Neither parent ever visited the other's country. "This same strain of commitment to social justice and standing up against oppression was very present in both of their families. Maybe this is part of my DNA."

The revelation that stopped the family cold

The most extraordinary discovery of the episode came from the Spanish side of the tree. Sheen described it: "My fourth-removed grandfather, Don Diego Francisco Suarez, born around 1713, was a judge in Tui and in a large area of the Galician province. He prosecuted a young lady for a moral crime. She had to flee. She came back, questioned his judgment, stayed in the community, and built a life for herself. That young lady turned out to be my great, great, great, great grandmother — prosecuted by the other side of the family." The two branches converged at the top of his grandfather's tree: "My grandfather's father and my grandfather's mother went in two different directions and came together at the top of this tree. As I said on the show, if you were to write a novel with all of these intriguing relationships your editor would be remiss if they didn't say, 'No, this is too far-fetched, no one is ever going to believe this.' But in fact it was true." His children's reaction: "They found more humor in it than I did. They got a big kick out of the irony. They thought it was a delicious bit of gossip." The place that anchored the whole journey was the ancient village of Tui on the Portuguese border: "It is about 1,200 years old and there is a cathedral there that I have visited many times since 1969. I only learned during this trip that my great, great, great, great grandfather is buried in that cathedral. I used to walk over his grave and never knew it." Who Do You Think You Are? Season 3 premiered Friday, February 3, 2012, on NBC.

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