8 Method Actors Who Nearly Died Making Famous Movies

3. Martin Sheen Has A Heart Attack For Apocalypse Now

It's difficult to separate 'method' from 'just living his life' when it comes to Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now. To play the alcoholic, damaged Captain Willard, Francis Ford Coppola cast the at-the-time alcoholic, damaged Martin Sheen. For example, the opening scene, in which Willard downs booze and breaks down crying, is half for the film and half just Sheen doing things his son Charlie would go on to do even less privately some 35 years later. The blood running down Sheen's hand after he punches the mirror, by the way, is real. So with all Sheen's personal strain, the stress of the calamitous Apocalypse Now shoot and Sheen's commitment to the role, the actor eventually decided he'd had enough and...had a heart attack. Thankfully, Sheen survived, but it was another disaster in the already-apocalyptic Apocalypse Now shoot. While Sheen recovered, his brother Joe Estevez was flown in to act as his double. Coppola, meanwhile, officially put Sheen's absence down to "heat exhaustion."