EXCLUSIVE: How Martin Sheen's Near-Fatal Health 'Crisis' Led Him Back to Church
Martin Sheen suffered a serious heart attack at 36 years old.
July 31 2026, Published 2:00 p.m. ET
Martin Sheen drifted away from his Catholic roots after launching his Hollywood career, but a near-fatal heart attack at 36 pushed him back to his faith.
Ahead of the West Wing actor's 86th birthday on August 3, RadarOnline.com revisits the health "crisis" that changed his life.
Martin Sheen's Rise to Fame
Martin Sheen was raised Catholic.
Sheen had a fascination with movies from a young age.
"I was like those people on the screen," he gushed in a resurfaced interview. "I knew it. I also knew I’d be happy there."
Eager to start his life as an entertainer, he launched his professional acting career in the late 1950s in theater, before making his way into television with gigs on As the World Turns and The Outer Limits in the early 1960s.
As he shot to stardom, things that were once important to him fell by the wayside, according to Sheen.
"I loved the church and the faith," he explained. "But it wasn’t really something personal. It wasn’t costing me anything."
Martin Sheen's Heart Attack Changed His Outlook on Life
The heart attack happened while filming 'Apocalypse Now'.
But everything changed when he had a life-altering heart attack while filming Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now.
"I d--n near died – I had the last rites," he revealed. "I started going to Mass again, but it was out of fear and apprehension that I would die. It was another four years that I actually committed to come back."
Martin Sheen 'Found' Himself by Returning to Church
Martin Sheen said he 'became happy' after returning to church.
"I felt more comfortable in Catholicism because I loved the sacraments – confession, the Eucharist and the Mass were of utmost importance to me," he added of his choice to go back to the religion that he grew up in.
"I reunited with that, and I found myself," he continued. "I’m not saying my life was any easier. But I became happy."
"I loved being alive. I loved being active. I loved the energy, the focus that my life has taken on," he noted. "I decided to go on that journey and, you know, I’m still at it."
Martin Sheen's Serious Health Woes on 'Apocalypse Now' Set
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Martin Sheen said he turned 'completely gray' while filming 'Apocalypse Now'.
Sheen was under such stress over filming Apocalypse Now that he not only had a heart attack, he also suffered extreme mental distress.
"I completely fell apart. My spirit was exposed. I cried and cried. I turned completely gray — my eyes, my beard — all gray," he told Rolling Stone in 1979. "I was in intensive care."
At one point, his wife, Janet, took to sleeping on the floor beside him. Eventually, she decided to call a therapist to help him work through his feelings.
"I talked to her every day, and those two ladies pulled me through," Sheen continued. "I knew I would never come back until I accepted full and total responsibility for what had happened to me. No one put a gun to my head and forced me to be there. I was there because I had a big ego and wanted to be in a Coppola film."
