Martin Sheen is known for protesting things he believes are unjust. He’s been arrested or cited 68 times for participating in peaceful protests. Turns out he’s just following in his ancestors’ footsteps.
The actor who has captured eight Golden Globe and 13 Emmy Award nominations, discovers he comes from a long line of people who stick up for their beliefs in Friday’s Season 3 debut of Who Do You Think You Are? Through months of research, Think’s researchers discovered outspokenness was represented on both sides of his family.
“I had two uncles on both sides of my parents’ family. My uncle, Michael Phelan in Ireland, was an Irish volunteer and fought in the (Irish) War of Independence and then fought against the free state in the (Irish) Civil War from 1921 to 1923,” the West Wing actor told TV critics during a conference call.
“On my father’s side, my father’s brother Matias had fought against Franco at the onset of his coup and spent an awful lot of time in jail … he was sent to a concentration camp offshore and then was sent to a major prison in Pamplona for radicals or anyone that opposed the Franco regime.”
Sheen, whose legal name is still Ramon Estevez, was a fan of Who Do You Think You Are? before he was approached to appear on it; he admitted to not having a computer and therefore being unable to check genealogy websites such as Ancestry.com, which sponsors the NBC series.
Friday’s episode follows the father of four — who has sons Charlie, Ramon, Emilio and daughter Renee — as he journeys to Ireland and Spain to get the low-down on his ancestors.
He also admits to being a little nervous about what the researchers would discover about his family history during their six-month hunt. But as executive producer Lisa Kudrow points out, the goal of Who Do You Think You Are? isn’t to make participants look bad.
“We just want to tell these stories about them,” Kudrow, who spun the BBC series of the same name into U.S. version, explained to reporters recently.
Because of that, she’s been besieged by celebrities itching to complete their family trees. While Seasons 1 and 2 featured seven and eight celebrity stories respectively, Season 3 has been expanded to 12 episodes.
Stars this go-round include Rita Wilson, Rob Lowe, Paula Deen, Rashida Jones, NFLer Jerome Bettis, Helen Hunt, Edie Falco, Jason Sudeikis, Blair Underwood and Reba McEntire.
Next Friday’s episode features Oscar winner Marisa Tomei, who jets to Italy to put to rest a dark family mystery: that her great-grandfather was murdered for being a gambler and a womanizer.
Kudrow wouldn’t divulge many details about what her researchers discovered about their celebrity subjects, but allowed that Lowe’s story is “unbelievable” and that DNA technology has advanced to the point that Underwood’s roots were traced able to be traced back to a precise spot in Africa.
“So much gets lost when a family moves their roots,” the former Friends actress explains. “There aren’t a lot of stories that are passed down when there is tragedy or difficulty. (Families) want to keep moving forward rather than dwell on those periods of hardship.”
Who Do You Think You Are? airs Fridays at 8 p.m. ET on Citytv/NBC.
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