Overview (4)
Mini Bio (1)
Charlie Sheen was born Carlos Irwin Estévez on September 3, 1965, in New York City. His father, Martin Sheen, at the time was an actor just breaking into the business with performances on Broadway. His mother, Janet Sheen (née Templeton), was a former New York art student who had met Charlie's father right after he had moved to Manhattan. Martin and Janet had three other children, Emilio Estevez, Renée Estevez, and Ramon Estevez, all of whom became actors. His father is of half Spanish and half Irish descent, and his mother, whose family is from Kentucky, has English and Scottish ancestry.
At a young age, Charlie took an interest in his father's acting career. When he was nine, he was given a small part in his dad's movie The Execution of Private Slovik (1974). In 1977, he was in the Philippines where his dad suffered a near-fatal heart attack on the set of Apocalypse Now (1979).
While at Santa Monica High School, Charlie had two major interests: acting and baseball. Along with his friends, which included Rob Lowe and Sean Penn, he produced and starred in several amateur Super-8 films. On the Vikings baseball team, he was a star shortstop and pitcher. His lifetime record as a pitcher was 40-15. His interest and skill in baseball would later influence some of his movie roles. Unfortunately, his success on the baseball field did not translate to success in the classroom, as he struggled to keep his grades up. Just a few weeks before his scheduled graduation date, Charlie was expelled due to poor attendance and bad grades.
After high school, Charlie aggressively pursued many acting roles. His first major role was as a high school student in the teen war film Red Dawn (1984). He followed this up with relatively small roles in TV movies and low-profile releases. His big break came in 1986 when he starred in Oliver Stone's Oscar winning epic Platoon (1986). He drew rave reviews for his portrayal of a young soldier who is caught in the center of a moral crisis in Vietnam.
The success of Platoon (1986) prompted Oliver Stone to cast Charlie in his next movie Wall Street (1987) alongside his father and veteran actor Martin Sheen. The movie with its "Greed is Good" theme became an instant hit with viewers.
Shortly after, Stone approached Charlie about the starring role in his next movie, Born on the Fourth of July (1989). When Tom Cruise eventually got the part, Sheen ended up hearing the news from his brother Emilio Estevez and not even getting as much as a call from Stone. This led to a fallout, and the two have not worked together since.
The fallout with Stone, however, did nothing to hurt Charlie's career in the late 1980s and early '90s, as he continued to establish himself as one of the top box office draws with a string of hits that included Young Guns (1988), Major League (1989), and Hot Shots! (1991). However, as the mid-'90s neared, his good fortune both personally and professionally, soon came to an end.
Around this time, Charlie, who had already been to drug rehab, was beginning to develop a reputation as a hard-partying, womanizer. In 1995, the same year he was briefly married to model Donna Peele, he was called to testify at the trial of Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss. At the trial, while under oath he admitted to spending nearly $50,000 on 27 of Fleiss' $2,500-a-night prostitutes.
His downward spiral continued the following year when his ex-girlfriend Brittany Ashland filed charges claiming that he physically abused her. He was later charged with misdemeanor battery to which he pleaded no contest and was given a year's suspended sentence, two years' probation and a $2,800 fine. He finally hit rock bottom in May 1998 when he was hospitalized in Thousand Oaks, California, following a near-fatal drug overdose. Later that month, he was ordered back to the drug rehab center, which he had previously left after one day.
During this stretch, Charlie's film career began to suffer as well. He starred in a series of box office flops that included The Arrival (1996) and Shadow Conspiracy (1997). However as the 1990s came to end, so did Charlie's string of bad luck.
In 2000, Charlie, now clean and sober, was chosen to replace Michael J. Fox on the ABC hit sitcom Spin City (1996). Though his stint lasted only two seasons, Charlie's performance caught the eye of CBS executives who in 2003 were looking for an established star to help carry their Monday night lineup of sitcoms that included Everybody Loves Raymond (1996). The sitcom Two and a Half Men (2003) starred Charlie as a swinging, irresponsible womanizer whose life changes when his nephew suddenly appears on his doorstep. The show became a huge hit, breathing much needed life into Charlie's fading career.
Charlie's personal life also appeared to be improving. In 2002, he married fellow actress Denise Richards, whom he first met while shooting the movie Good Advice (2001). In March 2004, they had a daughter, Sam, and it was announced shortly after that Denise was pregnant with the couple's second child. By all reports, the couple seemed to be very happy together. However, like all of Charlie's previous relationships, the stability did not last long. In March of 2005, Denise, who was six-months pregnant, filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. She gave birth to a second daughter, Lola, in June of that same year. Their divorce became final in late 2006.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: SteveG
Spouse (3)
Trade Mark (3)
Catchphrase: "Winning!"
Gravelly voice
Playing characters named Charlie (or such like).
Trivia (92)
9/27/99: His request for an early end to his probation for drugs that extends to 6/6/00 was denied by a Malibu judge.
Was born a "blue baby". The doctor who saved him was named Irwin and his parents named him after the doctor.
5/22/98: Upon release from the hospital, he checked into Promises, a rehab center, where he stayed for only one day. His car was later pulled over and police arrested him for using medications and drinking. Sheen re-entered Promises on doctor's orders.
5/20/98: Hospitalized in Thousand Oaks, CA, for a drug overdose.
5/21/96: Arrested for allegedly assaulting a woman at his home in Agoura, CA. The woman claims she was pushed to the floor and knocked out.
Listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1986" in John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 38.
4/23/98: A thief stole two dozen rare baseball cards belonging to Sheen in NYC -- the cards, on loan from the star and valued at $170,000, were housed in a display case at the Official All-Star Cafe, a sport-themed restaurant in Times Square.
Loves barbeque sauce, and has even thought about releasing his own brand someday.
He is an avid Cincinnati Reds fan.
Is a baseball fanatic and is extremely knowledgeable about the sport as well as past and current players.
Enjoys deep-sea fishing.
Has a tattoo on his chest that looks like a note pinned to it that reads, "Be Back in 15 Minutes."
Was a partner in Engram Digital.
Former Brat Pack member.
Attended Chaminade-Julienne High School in Dayton, Ohio.
(December 25, 2009) Was arrested on domestic violence charges, including for second-degree assault, menacing and criminal mischief. He was released the same day after posting an $8,500 bond.
Lives in Beverly Hills and Malibu, California.
His father is of half Spanish and half Irish ancestry, and his mother has English and Scottish ancestry.
Is the only member of his family to legally change his name to Sheen and pass that new name onto his children. Like his father and all his siblings, his birth name was Estevez. His father is still legally Ramon Estevez, and all his siblings still use the name Estevez.
Has done both Army boot camp and Navy Seals boot camp for his movies Platoon and Navy Seals.
His granddaughter, Luna Estevez, was born July 17, 2013.
Personal Quotes (88)
[Studios] won't hire you, even though you screwed the same whores and ate the bullet for it. Yet they pull you aside at a party and say you're their hero for the things you do. [Variety (August 14, 1997)]
"This is like a sober acid trip" (his reaction to winning the Golden Globe Award!)
Usually in a battle sequence when a bomb is going off, you forget you're acting.
I don't think it's wise to dwell on regret. There's regret, sure. But whatever you've done good or bad, is a part of who you are now. That's the thing you can change and improve.
My father gave me some pretty bad advice - keep it honest, which I did. People ask, why am I so honest with the press? I don't have an answer. I suppose I'm honest everywhere else. Why should it stop here? Most of my shit sounds like lies. But all my stories are true, and that's the problem. They call me the last honest man in Hollywood. But I care what people think, we all do.
It's hard to be specific about what parts I may have lost. But ultimately, it's what I'm known for.
Public speaking is a tremendous fear of mine. The Tonight Show, David Letterman. I would always do a few shots or take an anti-whatever, some prescription relaxation deal and go out there and just kind of just flow with it.
I don't know. I want to go home at the end of the day and feel like I left a certain part of myself behind. You watch a Pacino performance, a DeNiro performance, you sit back in wonder and watch what they did. I'm curious as to what it would take for me to get to that place.
There is a fine line between confidence and cockiness. And when you lose sight of what side you're walking on, that's when you are in trouble.
"I was just tired - and sick and tired of being sick and tired, of living like a vampire." - On qutting drinking.
"Maybe for me and my peers, we've gotten a lot of power too quickly. I'm not a celebrity. I don't sing or dance, so I act. All the public sees is the autograph signing and the sunglasses. They don't see the 16-hour days, the last-minute rewrites and the hell that goes into movies." (1989 Quote)
I'm very fortunate in that I like people or I'd probably be in jail right now. It takes more time explaining why you can't give an autograph, which is usually bullshit, than to just do it. I like to sign autographs of pictures because you're giving people something back for supporting you. Somewhere down the line somebody may think you treated them well and buy a ticket to your film.
"I collect guns and shoot them regularly. It's all purely recreational shooting, I believe in the right to bear arms. I'm beside myself on the banning of the semi- automatic assault rifle. Guns don't kill people, people do. I don't carry a gun, but I respect them. I always take a gun on location because you never know. " (1989)
All actors want to be athletes, and all athletes want to make movies. It's a strange situation when I meet up with a baseball player -- one of my heroes -- and all he wants to talk about is movies and all I want to talk about is baseball. To this day I cannot accept the fact that baseball players are as interested in what I do as I am in what they do. So I'm making movies -- big deal! They're playing major league baseball. That's the ultimate. They're in 'The Show'. I know I'm in the entertainment business, but it's not like facing Rob Dibble or Nolan Ryan, where you have to come through on the spot. If I screw up a line, well, I get as many takes as I need to nail the sucker. If it means 10 takes, fine. But if a hitter goes 1 for 10 it's another story -- he's only batting .100, and that's not going to cut it in the bigs.
"The bad part is that there's a lot of waiting, a lot of sitting around, a lot of down time. It's hard to keep the energy level up. We're all human and it's just impossible." - On film acting.
She was a sweet girl, but when she grew up I started to have a crush on her which lasts to this day. I also chose her film name. She was known as Horowitz and I said she should change it. We were listening to a lot of Doors music, including the tracks Riders On The Storm, and I said she should change her name to Rider with a Y. The next thing, she's Winona Ryder. No one believes me, but that's the truth.
"There was a time when I couldn't leave the house until I'd smoked three joints, taken tranquilisers and drunk a bottle of Bourbon. So this is my last chance to get things right. People usually go into my sort of therapy for a month then come out and slowly try to adjust their lives. The fact that I'm in for five months shows how much work I've had to do." (1999)
If I've learned anything at all, it's that I know nothing about women. They remain a mystery. But I've learned to stop trying to figure them out. There's no end to the journey, and that's what makes it so compelling.
The hardest were those first 30 days sober. Then, three months and six months. But if I compare the amount of time I've been sober to the amount of time I've partied, well, let's just say I've still got a lot of catching up to do. Staying sober is the most important thing in my life, along with my family and loved ones. The movies, TV, money and all the other crap is just secondary.
I don't really hang out with a lot of people anymore. In the past I always had to surrounded myself with a crowd. Today, I just don't need it. But while my life might seem dull to some, it's exciting to me. That's because through my sobriety, I'm finally able to enjoy a level of serenity that I've witnessed in other people but never had myself. And that kind of self-contentment can't be purchased or acquired. It has to be earned. I'm trying to earn it. Everyday.
The only thing I didn't do was shoot heroin. When I was ten years old, I told myself that I'd never do heroin because one of two things would happen -- I'd do it once and die or I'd do it once and then do it every day for the rest of my life. I guess I should have made that same decision about all the other drugs.
I still want just one at-bat in the Major Leagues. Just one. I'll take it over an Oscar. Then, I'm in the Baseball Encyclopedia. Forever. Forever. Even if I strike or walk.
I have 12 tattoos, and I wish I hadn't gotten so many now. It's hard when you have to take your shirt off two hours in make-up and it doesn't cover them.
I drank, toward the end, two or three bottles of vodka a day. I wouldn't drink the whole day; I'd drink about every hour and a half. A big water glass full of vodka. That would get me through the next couple of hours.
"I nearly died, which is about as bad as you can get. I'm totally convinced that drugs and alcohol brought me very close to death two or three times, and it's more luck than anything else that I'm still alive. My spirit was dying and I believe when your spirit dies, it's only a matter of time before your body follows." - On his near fatal drug overdose.
"In sobriety they teach you to think the drink through. Don't just think about having the drink and how good it's going to feel. Think through to the next morning, how it's going to influence you, the shame, how it's going to trigger the domino effect. If I do that I end up with, OK, I'm not going to drink. It's the same thing with one-night stands. I appreciate my time in the mornings so much that I'd rather go to bed at night alone than deal with waking up, creeping around the bedroom, being quiet, worrying. Also, I'd like to be with somebody I care about. Something moderately substantial." - Quote from 2001.
Sometimes it's work, sometimes it's that something extra. I'm not going to lie to you, there are times you show up on the set and have two lines, and you simply walk through. It's just work. Then there are certain scenes and moments, based on the intensity or intent of what you're trying to pull off, that call for more of an all- out effort. That's when you bring out your best.
Fame is a fickle mistress. It's very deceiving. It looks really bitchin' from the outside, and then you get it and it's very confusing professionally, socially, emotionally. It's confusing because you're so worried about how you're perceived. A lot of my exploits were guilt-driven, shame-driven. I would hang out with the lower- class individual and try to give away as much as possible, because on some level I felt like I hadn't really earned all I had, and when was everyone going to find out? When would the curtain be yanked back? And all this because one day I was a working actor, just trying to pursue something I enjoyed and trying to make a living, and the next day I was a commodity.
"He brings a reality to his work that's beyond what is required, and I think it takes the audience to another place. He tortures himself doing it, but God bless him, because that work exists forever. It's educational, watching his stuff. He teaches us about taking risks and about letting go of self, of celebrity, ego and all that crap we hang on to in front of the camera. Sean just says, 'That's not what I'm here for.' " - On Sean Penn.
"You can go to the best restaurant in town with no reservation, at peak mealtime with seven friends, and say, 'We're hungry.' Then you could leave that meal, call a guy on the way to the airport to fire up a jet to take you to Vegas, go to a casino with nothing -no wallet, nothing and talk a casino manager into giving you a $50,000 line of credit." - On the lifestyle you can have as a young, hot movie star.
"I remember thinking and feeling and believing that I was not able to stop, that I genuinely was incapable of putting an end to this. It wasn't even that I didn't know what to do with myself if I could stop. I didn't take the thought that far. It was, 'My God, I can't stop. Now what?' Not, 'OK, if I stop?' That was a terribly sad reality." - On his drug and alcohol abuse.
At age 16. I was arrested for possession of marijuana. Then I was arrested again a year later for this five-day crime spree, where I'd go to the Beverly Hills Hotel and tell people that I'd been a guest and lost my term paper. They'd let me look through the trash, where I'd find all these credit-card receipts and use the numbers to make phone orders.
"Yeah, I'd get an eye tuck or a chin tuck. A lot of my job is how you look." - On if he would ever consider plastic surgery.
"I'd never smoked but Oliver wanted me to smoke in the film. 'Better start early,' he said. 'That way you won't be sick when we're shooting.' So I did. And now I find it hard to stop. I guess you pay a price for everything." (LA Times December 1986)
There is such a thing as too much fun. It gets redundant. How many times can you wake up and struggle to remember your name, her name and where you are?
"At first it was about really living that lifestyle that I had envisioned, that I had really hoped for. I'd hoped to be a very recognizable celebrity. I thought thats what it was all about: the women, money, the fame, all the the bull****. When you get in it when you're suddenly in the eye of the storm, its not as good as it looks like from the outside. Its not as appealing as it looked when I would hang out with Emilio or Tom (Cruise) or Judd (Nelson) the guys who were going through it when I was still on my way up." (SV Entertainment 1991)
"There is this one tabloid reporter I know. She gets some germ of a rumor and expounds on it. She just goes nuts. I finally called and a asked what her problem was. She said, Well, honey, we are trying to create this bad-boy image for you, and it sells issues.I tried to reason with her by asking how she would feel if she was the target of those stories. Basically, she told me that the newspaper was trying to perpetuate a James Dean image for me. I lost it and said, Lady, James Dean died at 24, and that's not the image I want. It made no difference. They are hopeless." (Penthouse 1993)
I'm personally trying to change my image and change things about myself but they don't want to let it die. I guess there are more sales in controversy. They should change the title of 'Hard Copy' to Hard Charlie or Sheen Copy, Christ I'm on there twice a week I should get some royalties maybe. Are there so few things going on out there that my birthday party made news? Just a couple days ago on Hard Copy they said I had a nice birthday party and my parents and everybody was there , a good family night, a sober night. They said, 'but the real party took place the next day when Charlie Sheen and all his buddies had a roomful of strippers and porn stars and there were adult film stars on all the monitors in every room of the house', I'm thinking 'No this is absolute madness I was at my house watching football with my friends!' I've got twenty witnesses.
It seems to me like nineteen amateurs with box-cutters taking over four commercial airliners and hitting seventy-five per cent of their targets, that feels like a conspiracy theory. It raises a lot of questions. A couple of years ago, it was severely unpopular to talk about any of this. It feels like from the people I talk to, and the research I've done and around my circles, it feels like the worm is turning. Just show us how this particular plane pulled off these maneuvers ... It is up to us to reveal the truth. It is up to us because we owe it to the families, we owe it to the victims, we owe it to everyone's life who was drastically altered, horrifically, that day and forever. We owe it to them to uncover what happened. - On the September 11th attacks.
I'm tired of pretending I'm not a total bitchin' rock star from Mars.
I am on a drug, it's called Charlie Sheen. It's not available because if you try it you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body.
Ambien. Hello. Ambien. Hello. The devil's aspirin? That was the one thing in New York that was not part of my normal blend.
I closed my eyes and made it so with the power of my mind, and unlearned 22 years of fiction... the fiction of AA. It's a silly book written by a broken-down fool.
Winning!
I have one speed. One gear. Go! I dare you to keep up with me.
I'm tired of pretending I'm not special. I'm tired of pretending that I'm not a total bitchin' rock star from Mars.
I'm Spanish-Irish. I mean, sh*t, that's a volatile combination.
[on being asked if he had to choose between losing his arm or his career] Career. Because I'm a baseball player, and the thought of not being able to swing a bat, or even to feel both breasts at the same time...
{On his greatest fears] Failure. Unhirable, shutdown failure. Sharks. Death.
People say it's lonely at the top, but I sure like the view.
Dying is for fools.
I got magic and I got poetry in my fingertips, most of the time, and this includes naps. I'm an F-18, bro, and I will destroy you in the air and deploy my ordinance to the ground.
The only thing I'm addicted to is winning. This bootleg cult, arrogantly referred to as Alcoholics Anonymous, reports a 5 percent success rate. My success rate is 100 percent.
I was banging seven gram rocks and finishing them. Because that's how I roll.
I get in trouble for being honest ... I'm extremely old-fashioned.
Can't is the cancer of happen.
I'm different. I have a different constitution, I have a different brain, I have a different heart. I got tiger blood, man.
I'm shakin' a tree. I'm shakin' all the trees.
If you borrowed my brain for five seconds, you'd be like, "Dude! Can't handle it, unplug this bastard!" It fires in a way that's maybe not from, uh ... this terrestrial realm.
If you are part of my family, I will love you violently.
[on if he's bi-polar] I'm not bi-polar, I'm bi-winning. I win here and I win there.
I'm not fair game. I'm not a soft target. It's over. There's a new sheriff in town. And he has an army of assassins.
[March, 2011 comment] It's been a tsunami of media and I've been riding it on a mercury surfboard.
[on being fired from his hit TV show] [CBS] picked a fight with a warlock.
Resentments are the rocket fuel that lives in the tip of my saber.
[comment from 1987] I am the definition of decadence.
A gunshot in the morning will wake you up better than a nice cup of coffee.
[2011, on hooking up with random women during the making of Major League] It wasn't as bad as on Young Guns. We made that one in Santa Fe, and you would fly into Albuquerque and drive to Santa Fe on this two-lane highway. Literally, the girls that were leaving would pass the ones coming in. Major League was so physically demanding that you didn't have a lot of time for that. You're lying in bed and everything [hurts], and you're thinking, I have to pitch tomorrow?! But there were certain days that we'd look at the schedule for the next day and be like, 'Gentlemen, tonight we ride.'
[on being told that Charlie Harper's exit on 'Two and a Half Men' will be his death] I have always been told that I have nine lives, so it's going to be amazing to witness my own funeral, which is clearly a win-win situation, because Ashton [Kutcher] has given me a tenth.
(2012, on his foot fetish) I've not dated girls because of their feet, just the length of certain toes and the shape of where things should be and they're not. Hammertoes are bad. And the second toe being too long? That's bad, too.
(2012, on being off the wagon) I mean, the shit works. Sorry, but it works. Anyway, I don't see what's wrong with a few drinks. What's your drink? Tequila? Mine's vodka. Straight, because I've always said that ice is for injuries, ha ha.
(2012, on his post-Two and a Half Men antics) Clearly, a guy gets fired, his relationships are in the toilet, he's off on some fucking tour, there's nothing 'winning' about any of that. I mean, how does a guy who's obviously quicksanded, how does he consider any of it a victory? I was in total denial.
I don't pay escorts for sex. I pay them to leave.
[comparing his President in 'Machete Kills' with his father's in 'The West Wing'] In one day in the Oval Office I slept with three women, pulled out a machine gun, drank, smoked and swore. In seven years Dad didn't do any of that, you know?
Salary (17)
Three for the Road (1987) | $500,000 |
Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993) | $4,000,000 |
The Three Musketeers (1993) | $4,000,000 .00 |
Terminal Velocity (1994) | $6,000,000 |
The Arrival (1996) | $5,250,000 |
Spin City (1996) | $2,750,000 (2000/2001 season) |
Shadow Conspiracy (1997) | $4,000,000 |
No Code of Conduct (1998) | $2,000,000 .00 |
Two and a Half Men (2003) | $44,000,000 (2010-2011) |
Two and a Half Men (2003) | $30,000,000 (2010-2011) |
Two and a Half Men (2003) | $350,000 per episode (2007-08) |
Two and a Half Men (2003) | $825,000 per episode (2008-09) |
Two and a Half Men (2003) | $875,000 per episode (2009-10) |
Two and a Half Men (2003) | $1,800,000 per episode (2010) |
Anger Management (2012) | $5,000,000 (2012-2013) |
Anger Management (2012) | $10,000,000 (2013-2014) |
Scary Movie 5 (2013) | $250,000 |
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