Charlie Sheen Biography

Born as Carlos Irwin Estevez, Charlie Sheen son of veteran actor Martin Sheen was always destined to become an actor. Charlie was born a ‘blue baby’ a term used to describe a baby born with a terminal illness. Charlie was saved by a Doctor named Irwin and as a sign of gratitude his parents named him after the doctor. Martin Sheen’s original name is Ramon Estevez but he adopted the name Sheen in honor of Catholic Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Charlie too adopted this name whereas his siblings use the family name Estevez.

Charlie started off early as an actor; at the age of nine he did a bit role in his father’s movie ‘The Execution of Private Slovik’. He also accompanied his father to his movie sets. On one occasion Charlie accompanied his parents to the Philippines where his father was shooting for ‘Apocalypse Now’. His father suffered a massive heart attack on the sets and almost died, poor Charlie had been a witness to all of it.

In school Charlie was least bothered about studies. Even though he started off as a good student, his grades declined when he got interested in baseball and movies. He teamed up with good friends Sean Penn and Rob Lowe and produced a lot of low-budget amateur movies. All this was taking a toll on his academics and resulted in him being expelled from school only weeks before his high school graduation.

Now with so much free time on his hand Charlie concentrated on getting a role in a movie. He gave many auditions for different kinds of roles, finally managing to land a role of a high school student in ‘Red Dawn’ (1984). He continued to struggle for the next couple of years doing small parts in T.V. movies until he landed his first major role in’ Platoon’ (1986). This Oliver Stone directed movie went to win many Oscar awards that year. So impressed was Oliver Stone with Charlie’s performance that he cast him in his next movie ‘Wall Street’ alongside his father. This movie too was a success. Oliver then wanted to cast Charlie for the third time in his next venture ‘Born on the Fourth of July’ but at the last moment cast Tom Cruise instead. Charlie was not even informed about the last-minute change and was informed only by his brother about it. This caused a falling out between Charlie and Oliver and the duo never worked together again, except for the time Charlie did a small appearance in Wall Street II.

Despite the fall-out with Stone Charlie continued to have good work come his way. His role in ‘Eight Men Out’(1988) was well appreciated and he followed it up with a string of hits in ’Young Guns’ (1988), ‘Major League’ (1989),‘Navy Seals’ (1990), ’ The Rookie’ (1990)and ‘Hot Shots!’ (1991).Charlie had become one of the most bankable stars at the box- office. It seemed that his career was going great guns but sadly the same could not be said for his personal life.

Family and friends held an intervention to get Charlie to stop drinking; he quit for exactly a year. However he started drinking immediately the next day at a friend’s party. Thus began a decade full of addictions and rehab. Charlie was frequently checked into rehab all through the 90’s. His drug habit finally came to a breaking point in 1998 when he was rushed to the emergency room with a drug-overdose. He was ordered by his doctor to check into rehab again and it took him almost two years to become completely clean.

Relationship-wise his life wasn’t great either. He was engaged to actress Kelly Preston in 1990, but accidentally shot her in the arm with his gun prompting her to later break-off the engagement. He was briefly married to model Donna Peele but it ended in divorce. In that same year his girlfriend Brittany Ashland accused him of physically abusing her. For that Charlie was charged with battery and misdemeanor. He luckily escaped jail time as he was given one year’s suspended jail sentence and two years probation.

He struggled to find a life partner and even admitted to having spent $50,000 on prostitutes. Then in 2001 while shooting for ‘Good Advice’ he met Denise Richards; they later got married in 2002. In 2004 he had a daughter with Denise and they named her Sam, soon Denise was pregnant with their second child. While Denise was in her sixth month of pregnancy she filed for divorce from Charlie. Today they both share custody of their two daughters. Charlie is currently married to actress Brooke Allen.

All the drug and relationship trouble had spilled over in to his professional life. His movies flopped one after the other only with ‘Hot Shots! Part Deux’ being an exception. His career looked down in the dumps if it wasn’t for a lucky break. In the year 2000 Charlie was chosen to replace Michael J. Fox in the hit T.V. series Spin City. This caught the eyes of the producers over at C.B.S. and they cast Charlie in the role of Charlie Harper in Two and a Half Men. Two and a Half Men is a story about a guy who is living a life full of money, sex and gambling; his life changes when his brother (Jon Cryer) lands at his doorstep along with his seven-year old son. This Show was exactly what Charlie required to save his career.

Today Charlie is enjoying working in the show which is in its 8th season earning a cool 1.7 million per episode and is happily married to actress Brooke Allen. And with a couple of good movies in the pipeline things are looking up for Charlie Sheen.