Martin Sheen has had an illustrious career that includes the likes of Apocalypse Now (where he was actually bleeding in the opening sequence), Wall Street, The Departed and The West Wing. However, for fans of superhero movies, he’ll always be best known as Ben Parker, a.k.a. Uncle Ben, in The Amazing Spider-Man, arguably the most underrated Spider-Man movie. And yet, Sheen had no idea when he took on the role what a big deal it was, though he certainly got the message a few years back during a special event.
During his appearance on Happy Sad Confused to talk about his body of work and his new podcast, The Martin Sheen Show, the actor was asked by host Josh Horowitz if he knew when he cast as Uncle Ben how iconic the character was to generations of young men and women. Sheen answered:
I didn’t have a clue. I don’t see many of the big so-called tent films. I didn’t have a clue. I’d never seen Spider-Man. I never saw Superman. Forgive me. I saw Star Wars about six or eight years ago. I like drama and actors doing play. The fantasy thing that never kind of made a dent in me. A couple of years ago I was giving the commencement speech at a university here in Los Angeles, and the guy that introduced me very graciously talked about all the things you’re talking about; West Wing and Badlands and Apocalypse Now. And it wasn’t until he got to Spider-Man that the the audience laughed and applauded [for] Uncle Ben. Oh my God, I thought ‘What kind of universe are we living in?’
If Martin Sheen isn’t interested in the more fantastical blockbusters, then I can’t fault him for not realizing how important Uncle Ben is to the Spider-Man mythology and its fans. He certainly would have understood that had he seen 2002’s Spider-Man, where Cliff Robertson played the role. Still, I’m thankful the man who introduced Sheen for that commencement speech mentioned Ben, and that the people in the crowd made their passion known. We stan Uncle Ben around these parts.
Sadly, Martin Sheen’s Uncle Ben suffered the same fate as most versions of the character do: an untimely death. In The Amazing Spider-Man, he was fatally shot while trying to stop a thief whom his nephew Peter, played by Andrew Garfield, allowed to escape. Unlike Cliff Robertson, who later reprised his Ben as a ghost in Spider-Man 2 and through a flashback in Spider-Man 3, Sheen wasn’t present in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but archival footage of him was used in Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.
The Amazing Spider-Man can be streamed with either a Disney+ subscription or Netflix subscription if you’re in the mood to revisit Martin Sheen’s Uncle Ben performance. Otherwise, next up on the upcoming Spider-Man movies front is Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The fourth installment in the Tom Holland-led film series is due out July 31 on the 2026 movies schedule.
