Charlie Sheen: Snapshot

Name
Charlie Sheen
Date of Birth
September 03, 1965
Birth Place
New York, N.Y.
Before Charlie Sheen became a Hollywood punch line – and network TV liability – the actor was once a talented rising star, whose film résumé rivaled those of his peers Tom Cruise and Johnny Depp.

The son of actor Martin Sheen and the baby brother of Brat Packer Emilio Estevez, Sheen got his first Hollywood break with 1984's Red Dawn. By the late '80s, Sheen was a box office success, starring in a string of hits, including Platoon (1986), Wall Street (1987) and Major League (1989).

But soon, Sheen's hard-partying life off-screen took center stage. Headlines of the actor accidentally shooting then-fiancée Kelly Preston, sleeping with a string of porn stars and admitting to spending more than $50,000 on Hollywood Madame Heidi Fleiss's call girls eclipsed his career highs.

By the late '90s, the once-freewheeling bachelor, who earned the party nickname "The Machine," seemed to pull his life in reverse following a stint in rehab and stepping into a Golden Globe-winning role on Spin City. He followed up with his own CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men. During the show's successful eight-season run, Sheen became the highest-paid actor on television in 2010, bringing in a reported near-$2 million an episode.

Despite his second chance at success, the father of five, who publicly battled his wives Denise Richards and Brooke Mueller for custody of his children, let his demons get the best of him in 2011, when he declared he "cured" himself from his addictions. Following a string of public attacks against his Men bosses, the actor was fired for being "dangerously self-destructive" and "very ill."

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Charlie Sheen:From the PEOPLE TV Archive

Charlie Sheen: Five Fun Facts

  1. Charlie Sheen blames his smoking habit on Johnny Depp, who he said got him hooked while filming 1986's Platoon. "His claim was that on every film he's worked on, he has converted a non-smoker to a smoker, and I was his victim," Sheen told Movieline in 1990.
  2. In 1979, Charlie Sheen made his first film appearance as an extra in his father Martin Sheen's Apocalypse Now.
  3. Charlie Sheen says his hard-partying lifestyle eclipses that of other legendary Hollywood "bad boys." "Man, it was epic. The run I was on made Sinatra, Flynn, Jagger, Richards, all of 'em just look like droopy-eyed armless children," he she told NBC in a 2011 interview.
  4. For his 2002 wedding to Denise Richards, Charlie Sheen's best man, Tony Todd, presented him with an official Gold Glove award from Major League Baseball, etched with a picture of the couple. "Denise is by far the best catch of your life," Todd said.
  5. Charlie Sheen broke a Guinness World Record when he attracted 1 million Twitter followers in just over 25 hours in March 2011. "Thank you Twitter community for the warm reception & the followers that helped get me to 1M in 24 hours!!!" he Tweeted.

Charlie Sheen: Biography

1980s

Malibu Prince

Sheen, the third of actor Martin Sheen and Janet Estevez's four children, grows up in Malibu, Calif., where he excels in baseball at Santa Monica High School. Though he shows talent on the field, "I just couldn't get it together," he tells PEOPLE of his lackluster academic performance. "The problem is my parents bought me a car when I was 16, and L.A. was at my feet." Sheen soon drops out and follows his dad and older brother Emilio into acting.

1984

Charlie Sheen

August 10

Breaking 'Dawn'

Sheen battles for his big break as Patrick Swayze's younger brother in the war film Red Dawn, which tops the box office during its opening weekend. That December, the 19-year-old actor becomes a father when high school girlfriend Paula Profitt welcomes daughter Cassandra.

1986

Charlie Sheen

Going to Battle

After a string of lighthearted teen movies (Lucas, Ferris Bueller's Day Off), Sheen ships off for Oliver Stone's Oscar-winning Vietnam War drama, Platoon. "When he arrived for filming, Charlie was still a nerd," the director says of his star, whom he put through two weeks of boot camp in the Philippines. "Then each week there was a perceptible change as he became a soldier." Sheen reunites with Stone in 1987 for Wall Street, opposite Oscar winner Michael Douglas. ''Those movies were so hard to make," Sheen tells USA Today. "You age a certain amount in a Stone movie.''

Read More on Charlie Sheen's Life

Photo Credits

Top Left: Landov

BIOGRAPHY (top to bottom): Everett; Everett

Edited by Janet Mock and Julia Wang

Charlie Sheen

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