Charlie Sheen

Carlos Irwin Estévez (born September 3, 1965), known professionally as Charlie Sheen, is an American actor. He is known as a leading man in film and television. Sheen has received numerous accolades including a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for four Primetime Emmy Awards and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 1994, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Charlie Sheen followed in the footsteps of his father Martin Sheen in becoming an actor. He starred in many successful films such as Red Dawn (1984), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), Platoon (1986), Wall Street (1987), Eight Men Out (1988), Young Guns (1988), Major League (1989), Hot Shots! (1991), The Three Musketeers (1993), and The Arrival (1996). In the 2000s, when Sheen replaced Michael J. Fox as the star of ABC's Spin City, his portrayal of Charlie Crawford earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. He then starred as Charlie Harper on the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men (2003–11), for which he received many Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy nominations. In 2010, Sheen was the highest-paid actor on television, earning US$1.8 million per episode of Two and a Half Men.

In March 2011, Sheen was terminated from his Two and a Half Men contract by CBS and Warner Bros. following public substance-abuse problems, marital difficulties and comments made towards the series' creator, Chuck Lorre. In 2015, Sheen publicly revealed that he was HIV positive, which led to an increase in HIV prevention and testing that was dubbed the "Charlie Sheen effect". Post-Two and a Half Men, he starred in the films Machete Kills (2013) and 9/11 (2017), and had a recurring role on Lorre's Max series Bookie (2023–2024).

Early life

Carlos Irwin Estévez was born on September 3, 1965, in New York City, the youngest son of actor Martin Sheen (whose real name is Ramón Estévez) and artist Janet Templeton. His paternal grandparents were emigrants from Galicia (Spain) and Ireland, respectively. Sheen said in 2011 that his father was Catholic and his mother was Southern Baptist. He has two older brothers, Emilio and Ramon, and a younger sister, Renée, all actors. His parents moved to Malibu, California, after Martin's Broadway run in The Subject Was Roses. Sheen's first movie appearance was at age nine in his father's 1974 film The Execution of Private Slovik. Sheen attended Santa Monica High School in Santa Monica, California, along with Robert Downey Jr., where he was a star pitcher and shortstop for the baseball team.

At Santa Monica High School, he showed an early interest in acting, making amateur Super 8 films with his brother Emilio and school friends Rob Lowe and Sean Penn under his birth name. A few weeks before his scheduled graduation from Santa Monica High School, Sheen was expelled from school for poor grades and attendance. He then chose to become an actor, and adopted the stage name Charlie Sheen. His father had adopted the surname Sheen in honor of the Catholic archbishop and theologian Fulton J. Sheen, and Charlie was an English form of his given name Carlos.

Career

1983–1999: Breakthrough and stardom

Sheen's film career began in 1983, when he was cast to portray Ron in Grizzly II: The Predator, the sequel to the 1976 low-budget horror movie Grizzly, which remained unreleased until 2020. In 1984, he had a role in the John Milius-directed Cold War teen drama Red Dawn with Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, and Jennifer Grey. His next theatrical release was The Boys Next Door (1985), directed by Penelope Spheeris. While largely ignored by the public, the film was critically acclaimed. The Los Angeles Times review praised Sheen, by saying he is "marvelous as a kid scared of his own desires--eyes wide open, paralyzed with fear, he looks like a deer caught in the glare of a hunter's headlights". The New York Times review has also praised Sheen's "exceptionally well-acted" performance and compared the film to Badlands (1973), a film starring Charlie's father Martin Sheen for its "lean and unsentimental" atmosphere.

In 1986, Sheen has started to get more attention. He reunited with Jennifer Grey in a small scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, where he played a juvenile delinquent Grey meets in a police station. Sheen stayed late up until late hours to have a more authentic look. New York Daily News wrote "[Sheen] makes a great impact in this one brief scene than anyone else in the movie." Film critic Gene Siskel praised the chemistry between him and Grey.

Sheen had a supporting role in the coming-of-age drama Lucas (1986), which got a mostly positive reception. Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times said Sheen has the most difficult role to play in Lucas and his performance avoids the clichés usually associated with teen jock characters. Los Angeles Times review has also praised Sheen, writing that he "exudes naturalness, manages to be handsome without being self-conscious" and surprisingly "emerges as the film’s most consistently sympathetic figure." He didn't get much attention for the science fiction film The Wraith (1986), despite playing the titular role because critics thought he was underused. In a review for The Washington Post, critic Paul Attanasio mentioned that "there is all too little of the quietly charismatic Sheen."

Sheen's big breakthrough role came in the Vietnam War drama Platoon. The film was a major commercial and critical success and won four Oscars, including the Academy Award for Best Picture. Sheen and the rest of the cast underwent an immersive military‑style boot camp lasting about 30 days, with strict control over food and water, minimal sleep, and blank‑fire exercises to simulate combat stress. Vincent Canby of The New York Times applauded Sheen's performance, saying the character was "beautifully played." The Arizona Republic described the performance as "terrific" and Newsday as "marvellous." Variety review noted the similarities he has with his father Martin, making a comparison to his father's Apocalypse Now performance. Both Platoon and Ferris Bueller were among the ten highest-grossing films of the year in the United States.

His first post-Platoon role was in the road film Three for the Road (1987), which didn't get much attention and Sheen reportedly called it "the nadir" of his career. Despite negative reviews, the critics described Sheen's performance among the highlights and stronger points of the film. He got bigger attention in the same year by starring opposite Michael Douglas and his father in Wall Street in which he played the role of Bud Fox, a young and ambitious stockbroker. The Washington Post review raved about his performance, "the younger Sheen, who walked wide-eyed through Stone's Vietnam, walks with similar innocence through [the film] and with his three-piece determination he's perfect as a greenhorn yuppie playing with the big guns." The Hollywood Reporter review found him "commendably convincing". Roger Ebert was more critical, citing Sheen's performance as the film's only flaw as he "never seems quite relentless enough to move in Gekko's circle". However, in the same year, Ebert praised Sheen's performance in the crime drama No Man's Land as "very good" and "charismatic". Both Wall Street and Platoon were directed by Oliver Stone.

In 1988, Sheen was the part of two ensemble casts, where he played real-life figures. He starred in John Sayles-directed baseball drama film Eight Men Out (1988) as Happy Felsch and opposite his brother Emilio in the western film Young Guns as Richard M. Brewer. In 1989, Sheen, John Fusco, Christopher Cain, Lou Diamond Phillips, Emilio Estévez and Kiefer Sutherland were honored with a Bronze Wrangler for their work on the Young Guns. An avid baseball player since his youth, Sheen has stated that he took the role in the critically acclaimed Eight Men Out not for the money or career but only because of his love for baseball.

He passed on Bull Durham to do another baseball comedy film Major League (1989), a critical and commercial success. Sheen's performance as Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughn, which he also reprised in the 1994 sequel, is often considered to be among his most-known characters. Common Sense Media praised his comedic ability in the first film, by writing "Sheen shines as the rockin' closer with a lot of attitude." Empire magazine review also highlighted Sheen for being "a delightful surprise at light comedy."