Estevez was born in Dayton, Ohio to a Catholic, Galician (Spanish) father, Francisco Estévez Martínez (1898–1974), and an Irish mother, Mary Anne (née Phelan; 1903–1951). He is one of ten children—nine boys and one girl.
After serving in the United States Navy, Estevez began pursuing an acting career starting in the early 1970s. He initially used his mother's maiden name, Phelan, before using his surname, Estevez. Throughout his career, Estevez has appeared in numerous film and television roles in lead, supporting, and minor parts playing protagonists and antagonists, and he frequently appears in moderate and low-budget independent features and B-movies. In addition, he has worked as a voice-over artist and performs in stage productions. He has expressed in an interview that he wants to make movies that make a difference.[2]
Estevez stood in for his brother in a number of long shots and in some of the voice-overs for Apocalypse Now (1979), as Martin Sheen was recovering from his heart attack.[3]
In 1992, he acted in Armed for Action and Blood on the Badge.[4][5]
Since 2013, Estevez has worked with comedians Tim Heidecker and Gregg Turkington on various projects including On Cinema, The Tim Heidecker Murder Trial and as President Jason Davidson (and President Davidson Jr.) on the Adult Swim series Decker. In all his collaborations, Estevez either plays a fictionalized version of himself or a character being portrayed by a fictionalized version of Joe Estevez.[6]
Personal life
Estevez is the youngest sibling of Martin Sheen and sounds very similar to him, a fact he took advantage of when he performed a voice-over for a National Shooting Sports Foundation pro-gunmaker commercial in 2000; at the time, his brother was famous for playing a President of the United States on the television series The West Wing. Sheen starred in a pro-gun control commercial that same year.[7] Estevez also recorded the voiceover for his brother's role as Captain Willard in Apocalypse Now after Sheen's health issues on set prevented him from doing so.[8][9]
Captain Benjamin L. Willard (voice-over narration only)
Estevez provided the voiceover narration track for Willard (the character was portrayed by his older brother Martin Sheen, but since Sheen was unable to perform the narration for the character, Estevez was brought in to do the narration track as his voice sounded almost identical to his brother's) and was used as a stand-in for Sheen in several sequences after he had suffered a heart attack.[3] Uncredited
