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Emilio Estevez Kept His Name To Honor His Latino Roots As Dad Martin Sheen Regrets Changing His

Date February 12, 2020

Author By Cheryl Welsh

To date, many are still surprised to learn that Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen are brothers and all this stemmed from the fact that their dad Martin made a move to change his name.

Some facts about Martin Sheen

Martin is one of the most iconic actors of our time. Let's take a brief look back at his history.

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  • Martin's given name at birth was Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez, according to his bio. Both his parents were immigrants.
  • He's is married to Janet Sheen. The couple tied the knot in 1961.
  • Martin is a devoted father of four.
  • According to TVGuide, his passion for acting was so strong that he purposely failed his university entrance examination so he could pursue this goal.

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Emilio Estevez on choosing to keep his name

Unlike Martin Sheen who changed his name for his career, Emilio Estevez chose not to do the same despite being pressured to.

While speaking in an interview with Latina, Emilio, who's also an actor, explained why he was determined to hold on to his Latino roots.

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He said that his father actually never officially changed his name as it still said Ramon Estevez on his legal documents. As for Emilio himself, he was proud to keep his given name both on paper and his real life.

The Latino community has always been very supportive of that choice and very proud of me that I chose to go with that—and honor my Latino roots.

He revealed that he was pressured a few times to change his name so things would be easier for in terms of his career but he never caved.

Was his father disappointed in him? Quite the opposite actually. The Young Guns star also revealed that his dad was very proud of him for holding steady to his resolve to keep his name. As it turned out, Martin Sheen regretted his own choice.

Oh yeah! He said, ‘don’t make the same mistake I made. You will regret it for the rest of your life.’ Because he does. It was probably the best advice I ever got from my father.

In a different interview, Emilio shared that he understood why his father felt he needed an English-sounding name at the time he wanted to build his Hollywood career. However, Martin's father was disappointed that Martin didn't use his Spanish name in his career and this was one of the things that inspired Emilio to keep his.

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In 2012, Martin Sheen defended his decision by explaining that when he first came to New York in the 50s, there was a prejudice against Hispanics and he felt it was his best shot at getting into the industry.

Charlie Sheen took after his dad

Martin Sheen's sons, Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen are considered very famous actors. But they each went different ways when it came to their names.

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Charlie, who was born Carlos Estevez, told TheGuardian in 2016 that he took his dad's last name as a way to honor him. And also, "Charlie Sheen just sounds better than Charlie Estevez," he said.

For most of his career, Charlie Sheen is known by this name. However, he dropped it once for the film Machete Kills. Here, he was credited as Carlos Estevez.

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A name change is not unheard of in Hollywood. Many celebrities opt for stage names either to further their careers or simply because they want to demarcate their public persona from their private life. We can understand why Martin Sheen made this decision. And we can also see why Emilio went a different way. In the end, the respective careers of the Estevez brothers and their dad speak more about them than just their names.

Celebrities Charlie Sheen