Hello, I'm Kirstie Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Disks from BBC Radio 4.

For rights reasons, the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

For more information about the program, please visit BBC.co.uk.

Radio 4. My cousin My castaway this week is Martin Sheen. He has jokingly referred to himself as the

acting president of the United States, as in recent years he has won great acclaim and a golden globe

for playing the leader of the free world in TV's hugely successful political drama,

The West Wing.

He's no slouch either when it comes to the big screen.

Apocalypse Now, Gandy, Badlands and The Departed are among the hundred or so movies he's

appeared in. Work for him is often a family affair.

In Wall Street he acted alongside his son Charlie Sheen,

and in his latest movie the way another of his children, Emilia Estevis,

is his director and co-star.

Offset, he is a committed social activist and campaigner.

He's been arrested around 70 times. He says,

film is an illusion. Fame is ephemeral, faith and family are what endure.

Martin Sheen, that quote interested me particularly I think because most film actors think

that they are leaving some sort of enduring legacy through their movies.

You don't think so?

No, I don't think so.

I always once asked what would I like to be remembered for and I said for about five minutes.

And what about being remembered for being the president?

...