Who is Charlie Sheen?

As Charlie Sheen reveals he is HIV positive, we take a look at the Hollywood actor's life and career.

Early life

  • Sheen was born Carlos Irwin Estevez in New York in 1965

  • He is the youngest son of actor Martin Sheen and artist Janet Templeton

  • His three siblings, Emilio Estevez, Ramon Estevez and Renee Estevez are also actors

  • He showed an early interest in acting and would make amateur films about baseball along with his brother Emilio and school friends, who later turned Hollywood superstars, Rob Lowe and Sean Penn

  • Just before graduation he was expelled for poor grades and attendance

  • But deciding he wanted to be an actor anyway, he changed his name to Charlie Sheen

With his dad, veteran actor Martin Sheen. Credit: Reuters

Big Break

  • His first film role was at the age of nine when he was given a small part in his dad's movie The Execution of Private Slovik

  • But his big break came when he landed the role of Chris Taylor in the Oscar-winning 1986 Vietnam War film Platoon

  • The success of the film led to Sheen being cast in his next movie Wall Street alongside his father

  • Despite falling out with the director Oliver Stone, Sheen went on to appear in some of the biggest films in the Eighties and early Nineties such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Young Guns, Major League and Hot Shots!

  • In recent years, he is best known for his TV roles in Spin City, Anger Management and Two and a Half Men, for which he was reportedly paid more than $1 million an episode, making him the highest paid man on TV

Sheen with his older brother actor Emilio Estevez. Credit: Reuters

The Brat Pack

  • In the Eighties, Sheen became known as one of the Hollywood Brat Pack after his role in Young Guns and because 'pack leader' Emilio Estevez was his brother

  • The term, first coined in a New York magazine in 1985, was used to describe actors from coming-of-age Eighties films

  • Famous Brat Packers included Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze, Matt Dillon, Demi Moore, Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson

  • Other stars linked to the group included Robert Downey Jnr, Kevin Bacon, Matthew Broderick, Kiefer Sutherland, Corey Feldman and Mickey Rourke

The actor has had several run-ins with the law. Credit: Reuters

Drugs battle and run-ins with the law

  • By the early Nineties Sheen had already been to rehab at the age of 25 and developed a reputation as a hard-partying womaniser

  • This led to him by his own admission spending thousands on drugs and prostitutes

  • In 1996 he was arrested for allegedly beating his porn star girlfriend Brittany Ashland

  • Two years later he suffered a stroke after a near-fatal overdose on cocaine

  • By 2000 Sheen appeared to be back on track and was sober before meeting second wife Denise Richards

  • But he is said to have attacked her while she was holding one of their daughters

  • He was also arrested on domestic violence charges against his third wife Brooke Mueller

Sheen's most high profile marriage was to actress Denise Richards. Credit: Reuters

Personal life

  • Sheen has been married three times to Donna Peele and actresses Denise Richards and Brooke Mueller. All three divorced him

  • Prior to that he was engaged to Kelly Preston, who later wed John Travolta. She broke it off he accidentally shot her in the arm

  • He has two daughters with Richards, twin sons with Mueller and a daughter with his high school sweetheart

  • He also has one granddaughter called Luna

  • In 2011, Sheen began dating adult film star Bree Olsen and the pair got engaged but they broke it off last year saying they had "mutually decided to separate"

  • Olsen was hospitalised a month later after an apparent drugs overdose

Sheen has often described himself as a 'Winner'. Credit: Reuters

Meltdown

  • In 2011 his hard-living life caught up with him and after a series of rambling interviews he was fired from Two and a Half Men

  • He made bizarre statements on TV that he was a "warlock" with "tiger blood" with "Adonis DNA"

  • There were claims the actor suffered from Bipolar disorder but he hit back saying he was "Bi-winning"

  • He also had several live-in girlfriends which he dubbed his "Goddesses"