10 Movie Performances Even MORE Impressive When You Know The Truth

Shooting a film about the harrowing reality of war is never going to be a laid back and breezy experience. Yet, even with that in mind, the hell Martin Sheen went through when playing Captain Benjamin L. Willard in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now was in a league of its own.

After being brought in as Harvey Keitel's last-minute replacement, the stress of the infamously chaotic production (which involved a damn typhoon closing down the shoot for a spell, for example) eventually began to eat away at the actor, who was already fighting his own personal drink-related demons at that time. This all led to the moment when he suddenly suffered a legitimate heart attack and nervous breakdown mid-way through filming, resulting in the star being rushed to an intensive care unit and his brother, Joe Estevez, stepping in for him whilst he was absent from set.

Despite this life-threatening event, though, Sheen would finally return to the set a few weeks later and finished up filming for a feature which would go on to be recognised as one of the finest movies ever made.