Martin Sheen - biography

“James Dean was the strongest influence on any actor that ever stepped in front of the camera.  Ever.”

“We (actors) don’t really change the world.  We reflect it...  but Washington really changes the world.”

“I delivered my second son, Ramon.  I was so stupid I thought the placenta was his twin.”

“I think the Church is a conduit to God.  The Church is not God.  And I think that from the very beginning Jesus taught us that.”

“I’m one of those cliff-hanging Catholics.  I don’t believe in God, but I do believe that Mary was his mother.”

“It doesn’t really matter how much of the rules or the dogma we accepted and lived by if we’re not really living by the fundamental creed of the Catholic Church, which is service to others and finding God in ourselves and then seeing God in everyone - including our enemies.”

“Anybody who plays golf will tell you that you play against yourself.”

“Golf is fundamentally about being honest.  I see people hit eight shots and tell me they shot five.  I never say a word.  It is a reminder to me of what is at stake.”

“I am a very conscientious golfer.  I count every stroke.  I learned to play that way.  That is the only way I can play.  It taught me to be honest.  There is no greater virtue than honesty.”

“I started caddying when I was nine years old at a very exclusive country club in Dayton, Ohio.  And I saw how the other half lived, if you will.”

“Those years on the golf course as a caddie, boy, those people were something.  They were vulgar, some were alcoholics, racist, they were very difficult people to deal with.  A lot of them didn’t have a sense of humor.”

“And there are so many people in the third world suffering so horribly right now, and we are so focused on ourselves and our culture that a lot of things are showing up in our culture that are making it impossible for us to focus on others.  We’re so self-focused.”

“George W Bush is like a bad comic working the crowd, a moron, if you’ll pardon the expression.”

“I don’t think that people in America are really given enough information about the Third World.”

“I have been accused of being a traitor, and I have been accused of not supporting the military.  Nothing could be further from the truth.”

“I honestly do not know if civil disobedience has any effect on the government.  I can promise you it has a great effect on the person who chooses to do it.”

“I think President Clinton was probably the brightest President of the 20th century.”

“It is my pleasure to support a candidate who truly reflects our values and highest ideals.”

“My first civil disobedience arrest for social justice was in 1986 for protesting the SDI.”

“No, no, I never despair, because George Bush is not running the universe.  He may be running the United States, he may be running the military, he may be running even the world, but he is not running the universe, he is not running the human heart.”

“On the show, we are not trying to get people to eat their vegetables; we are not trying to get people to become Democrats.  We are basically trying to encourage people to get involved with public life so that politics isn’t left to the wealthy and privileged.”

“There’s no way that I could be the president.  You can’t have a pacifist in the White House...  I’m an actor.  This is what I do for a living.”

“This Administration has led us into an area without vision.  Bush has no clear understanding of what is being asked of the citizens, and the military is under his direction.”

“We think of violence as being conflict and fighting and wars and so forth, but the most ongoing horrific measure of violence is in the horrible poverty of the Third World...  and the poverty in the United States as well.”

“What we try to say is that it doesn’t matter if you are a Republican or a Democrat or conservative or independent.  You are equally responsible for your place in the culture, and you must make a contribution, and you must accept responsibility for what goes down on your watch.”

“I still believe in the nonviolent Jesus and the basic human goodness present in all of us.”

“That is someone who follows the teachings of the nonviolent Jesus and takes the gospel personally, and then pays the price.  I fall into that category.”

“Well, I think that Catholicism’s basic foundation of faith is personal conscience.  I think it’s between you and God, not you and the Church.”

“We live in a very dysfunctional society, and this is a very, very dysfunctional Administration.”

“Don’t invade Iraq.  Inspections work, war won’t.”

“War at this time and in this place is unwelcome, unwise, and simply wrong.”

“Future generations are not going to ask us what political party were you in.  They are going to ask what did you do about it, when you knew the glaciers were melting.”

“I am not the President.  Instead, I hold an even higher office, that of citizen of the United States.”

“I do it because I can’t seem to live with myself if I do not.  I don’t know any other way to be.  It isn’t something you can explain; it is just something that you do; it is something that you are.”

“I just think that the only way we come to ourselves is through each other.”

“I never went to college when I was young and am looking forward to giving it a try...  at age 65!”

“I personally am opposed to abortion, but I will not judge anybody else’s right in that regard because I am not a woman and I could never face the actual reality of it.”

“The key word about The West Wing is show.  It is not a reality show.  It has nothing to do with reality.”

“We are the generation that brought the bomb in.  We have got to be the generation that should take it out.”

“When I reached adulthood, even now, I could afford to belong to a country club.  But I could never belong to a private club because of my experience as a child, because it would isolate me from the whole of humanity.”

“You never know when you are doing something that is affecting someone.”

Martin Sheen has appeared in the following films:
The Incident (1967)
The Subject Was Roses (1968)
Catch-22 (1970)
Rage (1972)
Echoes of the Road (1972)
No Drums, No Bugles (1972)
Badlands (1973)
Conflict (1973)
When the Line Goes Through (1973)
The Legend of Earl Durand (1974)
The Cassandra Crossing (1976)
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Eagle’s Wing (1979)
The Final Countdown (1980)
Loophole (1981)
Gandhi (1982)
That Championship Season (1982)
Enigma (1983)
Man, Woman and Child (1983)
In the King of Prussia (1983)
The Dead Zone (1983)
Firestarter (1984)
A State of Emergency (1986)
Siesta (1987)
The Believers (1987)
Da (1988)
Judgement in Berlin (1988)
Beyond the Stars (1989)
Beverly Hills Brats (1989)
Cold Front (1989)
Cadence (1990)
The Maid (1991)
Touch and Die (1991)
Gettysburg (1993)
Hear No Evil (1993)
My Home, My Prison (1993)
The Killing Box (1993)
Boca (1994)
Fortunes of War (1994)
Hits! (1994)
Trigger Fast (1994)
When the Bough Breaks (1994)
Captain Nuke and the Bomber Boys (1995)
Gospa (1995)
The American President (1995)
Dillinger and Capone (1995)
Running Wild (1995)
Sacred Cargo (1995)
The Break (1995)
Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story (1996)
The Elevator (1996)
The War at Home (1996)
Truth or Consequences, N.M. (1997)
Spawn (1997)
Free Money (1998)
Shadrach (1998)
A Letter from Death Row (1998)
No Code of Conduct (1998)
A Stranger in the Kingdom (1999)
A Texas Funeral (1999)
Gunfighter (1999)
Ninth Street (1999)
O (2001)
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Mercy of the Sea (2003)
The Commission (2003)
Bobby (2006)
The Departed (2006)
Bordertown (2006)
Flatland: The Movie (2007)
Talk to Me (2007)
Chamaco (2009)
Echelon Conspiracy (2009)
Imagine That (2009)
Love Happens (2009)
The Way (2010)
Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain (2011)
Stella Days (2011)
The Double (2011)
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)