Emilio Estevez says A-lister saved his life in near-fatal accident

Emilio Estevez, 60, looked back on the time he almost died while visiting his dad, Martin Sheen, while he was filming in the Philippines.

The actor had a near-death experience which may have ended horribly had it not been for actor Laurence Fishburne, who saved him from drowning.

It happened while Estevez was visiting Sheen on the set of the Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now and Laurence suggested they go on a boat excursion in the river.

Estevez recalled: “Well we had only known each other a couple of days, and this was in the Philippines.

“He says, ‘Hey there’s this little boat, let’s go out on it,’ and I said, ‘Sure.’ “

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The actor continued: “So we were out on this boat together and we started getting too close to the shore and I said, ‘Well let me jump out, I’ll push us off shore.’

“I jumped out and it was like quicksand mud and I was just sinking… I saw Fishburne looking at me, just saying, ‘Grab my hand!’ He pulled me back up.”

“We were bonded ever since,” Estevez said of a teenage Fishburne during his appearance on Tuesday’s instalment of The Jennifer Hudson Show.

Estevez is part of one of Hollywood’s best-known actor clans after all of Martin’s children opted for stage careers of their own – including Two and a Half Men star Charlie Sheen.

Besides Emilio and Charlie, Martin has another son, Ramon, and a daughter as well, named Renee, who also chose to retain her authentic name instead of using the anglicised version.

Ramon started out as an actor, but is now a producer and theatre director, having produced FX Anger Management with Charlie, as well as running the company Estevez Sheen Productions.

Meanwhile, Martin’s daughter Renee, whose first big break came via the CBS show Babies Having Babies, is regularly guested on The West Wing after this, and appeared in movies such as the 1986 release Shattered Spirits.

Although she has taken a step back from the acting world, and has not had any movie or TV roles since 2015, she is a keen writer in the industry, having contributed to the scripts for Anger Management.