Drugs and alcohol and his ‘bad boy’ image have brought him as much fame as his exemplary acting skills and comic timing. Charlie Sheen has been the atypical person that ‘everyone loves to hate’ in the industry. His flamboyant quotes and don’t-care attitude has always fascinated the media, and he’s been in the news for various reasons almost throughout his acting career.

Quick Facts

Nickname: The Machine, Afro Sheen, Chuckles, Good Time Charlie

Date of Birth: 3^rd September, 1965

Place of Birth:  New York

Origin: Galician and Irish

Profession: Actor

Known for: Famous Actor

Website: www.charliesheen.com

Childhood and Growing Years

Charlie Sheen was born Carlos Irwin Estévez to father Martin Sheen, who was a struggling actor, and mother Janet Sheen, who was an art student from New York. His father was just starting to make a niche for himself on the Broadway scene. Charlie almost didn’t make it past childbirth, and his parents were so grateful to the doctor, who saved him, that he was named ‘Irwin’ after the doctor. He was the third child, in a family of four. He has two older brothers, and one younger sister, all of whom are actors. It is unsurprising since he was from a family who supported the liberal arts. His family moved to Malibu, California due to a successful turn of his father’s acting career after the Broadway show The Subject Was Roses.

Acting interested him at an early age, and he first appeared in a movie in 1974 at age nine, in a small part in his father’s movie The Execution of Private Slovik. He attended the Santa Monica High School in California, where his major interests were acting and baseball. He pursued both these with passion, being a star pitcher for his school’s baseball team, and making Super-8 amateur films with his school buddies (and now famous actors) Rob Lowe and Sean Penn, and his brother. He was expelled from school just a few weeks before graduation, due to low attendance and bad grades. He then decided to pursue an acting career full-time, and adopted the stage name Charlie Sheen, with which he is [in]famous to this day.

Claim to Fame

He began his acting career in 1984 with a small role in the film Red Dawn, with Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey. His next movie was also a small scene with Grey, in the 1986 movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. His first major break in Hollywood was with the 1986 war movie Platoon, in which he played a Vietnam War veteran. This put Charlie on the Hollywood radar, after which he started getting major parts in movies.

From 1987 to 1990, he starred in many films, like Grizzly II : The Predator, the baseball film Eight Men Out, the award-winning 1988 film Young Guns and Men at Work in 1990.

In the 90’s, his personal (and professional) life took a turn for the worse, his reputation as a hard partier and compulsive womanizer preceded his acting skills, and most of his films of this time bombed. He was in and out of drug rehab, and was arrested many times during this time.

In 1997, he experimented with writing, and wrote his own screenplay for a documentary about life on Mars, called Discovery Mars. In 1998, he produced, and starred in the movie No Code of Conduct.

He then appeared in a slew of spoof/comedy movies like the series Hot Shots! ,and in Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4. He played himself in the widely acclaimed movie Being John Malkovich in 1999.

In 2000, he made his debut on the silver screen with the TV Series Spin City. He was nominated for a few awards for his role in this series. This show ended in 2002.

It was in 2003 that Charlie signed up with CBS for the sitcom Two and a Half Men, which was very well received, and breathed life into his dying career. This show went on to become wildly popular and he went on to star in the show for seven seasons, until 2010, after which he was fired from the show for his behavior and exceptionally high compensation expectations from the makers of the show.

Presently

He is trying to get his life straightened out and maintain sobriety after being fired from Two and a Half Men. He currently lives in Los Angeles, California and is frequently visited by his 5 children from 3 marriages (to Donna Keele, Denise Richards and Brooke Mueller). He has sworn off the institution of marriage, citing that he believes in numbers, and after being 0-3, it’s just probably “not for me”.

Awards and Nominations

He has been nominated for, and won many awards since his career took off in 1980. His first nomination was for the Bronze Wrangler award for the Best Motion Picture for his film Young Guns (1988), which he won. He was awarded his own star on the Hollywood Boulevard in 1994. He also won a Golden Globe for his performance in a lead role in the TV Series Spin City in 1996.

Since then he has been nominated for 2 Golden Globe awards, 3 Emmy Awards and 2 Screen Actors Guild awards, and all of these were for his role in the wildly popular TV Show Two and a Half Men from 2003 to 2010.

Personal Quotes

“As kids we’re not taught how to deal with success; we’re taught how to deal with failure. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. If at first you succeed, then what?”

“I still don’t have all the answers. I’m more interested in what I can do next than what I did last.”

“I think what drove me insane for a long time is feeling like I hadn’t earned most of what I achieved because it came so fast.”

“I’ve got volumes on how not to behave. I’ve got more information now than a guy should have at my age.”

“Uncertainty is a sign of humility, and humility is just the ability or the willingness to learn.”