He is a multiple Emmy, SAG, and Golden Globe Award winner and is one of America’s most celebrated, accomplished, and colorful actors.

Child of Immigrants Dreaming to Be an Actor

This mysterious actor was born to an Irish mother, Mary-Ann Phelan, and a Spanish father, Francisco Estévez Martínez. His parents had met in Ohio when they were both attending citizenship school.

Growing up, he didn’t see his family as poor because everyone they knew lived like them. Before his 11th birthday, he lost his mother, and even though it was tough for him, it made him very strong, tolerant, and appreciative of his father.

As a young child, around six or seven years old, he started going to the movies, and gradually, it dawned on Martin that he was going to be an actor.

While going to high school, he worked as a caddy for nine years at a private golf club in Dayton, Ohio. He had great experiences there and was able to help his father.

The first time Martin stepped on stage was as a freshman when he played the role of a yeoman court stenographer in “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial” by Herman Wouk. After moving to New York in his early 20s, he realized his name wasn’t helpful as he tried to make it as an actor. People couldn’t pronounce it, and so he decided to change it.

For a new stage name, he took the names of two people he found inspirational: one was Robert Dale Martin, a casting director at CBS, and the other, Fulton J Sheen, the American archbishop. However, he still retained his birth name on his ID.

Martin is married to Janet Sheen, born July 8, 1944, in Ohio, as Janet Elizabeth Templeton. She is an actress with two acting credits to her name and a producer. Janet is known for “The Way,” “Kennedy,” and “Beverly Hills Brats.”

Martin and Janet met in the winter of 1960 after Janet arrived in New York from Ohio. She was the only daughter of an unwed mother and had spent her first six years with her grandparents in Kentucky.

Janet then moved to Cleveland, where she attended public schools before gaining two university scholarships. After they had started dating, they were still struggling to make ends meet when Janet got pregnant with their first son, Emilio.

Afterward, they had an impromptu breakfast reception at a Jewish deli in the neighborhood with a dozen of friends from the Living Theatre. The day couldn’t have been more perfect for the couple.

Struggling to Make Ends Meet

Their financial struggles continued, and they were evicted from their home. They packed what they could fill in a suitcase and went to live with Martin’s father and brothers.

They had a complicated delivery as the baby got stuck in the birth canal, and Janet hemorrhaged. Martin called for an ambulance, but the baby arrived first.

Martin thought they would have twins until Janet corrected him when the placenta was about to come out. Thankfully, both mother and son were pronounced fine by the time they got to the hospital.

Scariest Woman but the Best Wife

When he realized she was right, he started to recover, and the bond they formed on that day solidified their marriage. He had survived the heart attack mental part, and Janet was helping him heal psychically.

The heart attack took a toll on Martin. He confessed ” I completely fell apart. My spirit was exposed. I cried and cried. I turned gray- my eyes, my beard, all gray.” His wife was beside him through it all and slept on the floor while he was in intensive care.

However, Martin knew he needed to do a lot of work to get out this, and part of that was taking responsibility for the part he played in his health complications.

In December 2015, when he underwent quadruple-bypass heart surgery, his wife was there trying to make him laugh. She was always telling him not to take himself so seriously. When he was a struggling alcoholic and troubled in many areas, his wife had her work cut out for her. However, he didn’t get sober until ten years after his first heart attack.

The actor always appreciated his wife’s honesty and believed that it was what had kept him grounded and allowed for their marriage to last 61 years. On top of the honesty, the family always tried their best to stay together. Whenever Martin was shooting away from home the children knew they would be pulled out of school.

Supportive Dad to Kids Who Followed His Footsteps

Martin is a loving and supportive father to Emilio, Ramón, Carlos (Charlie Sheen), and Renée. Emilio is a film director, screenwriter, and producer who famously became part of the informal mid-1980s “Brat Pack.”

Ramón is an actor and theater director who has appeared in several movies in the 1980s and 1990s, like “Cadence,” “A State of Emergency,” and more. Carlos, popularly known as Charlie, is also an actor known for his roles in “Platoon,” co-starred with his father in “Wall Street” and starred in the CBS sitcom “Two and a Half Men” making him the highest-paid actor in TV.