Introducing her 'husband and President' from the hit television show The West Wing at a benefit in New York, Stockard Channing (in picture) recently confessed she has known of many actors who have been to jail for drugs and violence.

But, she said, Martin Sheen -- who, in the Aaron Sorkin-scripted serial played President Josiah Bartlett while she played his wife Abigail -- was quite unlike any other jail bird in Hollywood. Sheen has been arrested over 100 times in the past two decades, for opposing nuclear arms and American intervention and backing of civil war factions abroad. She had never met any other actor who had gone to jail for civil disobedience. 'I kind of like it,' she said, according to the New York Post. 'It tickles me.'

Sheen, 67, who has played a journalist in Sir Richard Attenborough's [Images] Oscar-winning film Gandhi, was given the Marlon Brando award at the benefit for the Stella Adler Acting Studio in New York on March 17.

The Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor, who is a practicing Catholic and has also read widely on Buddhism and Hinduism, recited Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore's words from Gitanjali at the event: 'Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, Where knowledge is free, Where the world has not been broken up in fragments by narrow domestic walls...' the actor declaimed, going on to recite the poem in its entirety.

Sheen is also well-read on Gandhi, as we found when we met him at the Plaza Hotel about two decades ago. Actually, the idea was to interview Dr Benjamin Spock, famous for his books on children including the mega seller Dr Spock's Baby and Child Care.

The interview was delayed because Sheen had unexpectedly come to meet Spock straight from spending the weekend in a jail. Dr Spock too was an outspoken activist against nuclear arms, who has been arrested and jailed many times.

When Sheen found out that we were from India, he spoke passionately for a few minutes about the inspiration he had received from Gandhi's Satyagraha. The actor, who calls himself a Catholic peace activist, has also championed human rights for migrant workers and backed the environmental protection drive.

In the picture: Actor Martin Sheen and actress Stockard Channing attend the Stella Adler Studio fourth annual Stella by Starlight benefit gala in New York City in March.

Photograph: Getty Images