Born in 1965, Charlie is the second famous son of actor Martin Sheen. Charlie’s interest in movies was not only peaked by his famous father, but also by several like-minded students from his high school days at Santa Monica, students like Rob Lowe and Sean Penn, future stars themselves. It wasn’t until 1984, however, that Charlie got his first big break in a major film, starring alongside fellow up-and-comers Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson and Jennifer Grey in the WWIII drama Red Dawn. The film was a mild success, and was Sheen’s first contact with the war genre, where only 2 years later he would make the biggest splash of his young career. A supporting role in the coming-of-age film Lucas (1986) and a memorable cameo in the teen-classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) preceded Sheen’s big Hollywood breakthrough. Tagged by Oliver Stone for the lead role in his Oscar®-winning epic Platoon (1986), Sheen was the moral center of one of the grittiest, frankest, and most realistic depictions of the Vietnam War to ever come out of Tinseltown. The performance was a milestone in the young star’s career, and big things were suddenly expected of him.
Sheen paired up with Stone again a year later to produce another smash, the slick and fast-moving Wall Street. As a young stock market hot-shot who’s seduced by his savvier mentor, Sheen triumphed on a personal level as well as a professional one it was his first opportunity to star in a film alongside his father, Martin Sheen (who, incidentally, played his dad in the picture). Other successes came in the next couple of years, with films like Young Guns (1988), Eight Men Out (1988), and Major League (1989) solidifying his star-status, but he never again received the critical acclaim he had earned for his two collaborations with Oliver Stone. Poor choices led to a slump of sorts, as films like Men at Work (alongside brother Emilio Estevez), Navy Seals, Cadence, and The Rookie (all in 1990) did little for his career. It seemed he was trying to establish an image as an action hero, but the public wasn’t buying it.
He was able to successfully mock his tough guy image with roles in the hit parodies Hot Shots! (1991) and Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993), but personal problems as well as continually poor roles led to a downward spiral in his professional life. In 1995, he was called in to testify in the trial of notorious “Hollywood Madam” Heidi Fleiss, where he admitted to being a frequent customer, and to having spent over $50,000 for the services of prostitutes. By the time he was hospitalized for drug and alcohol abuse in 1998, Sheen’s bad-boy image was cemented in stone. It was therefore all the more remarkable when, two years later, a clean and sober Charlie Sheen became one of the great comeback stories of the entertainment business as he landed the lead role of Michael J. Fox’s replacement in the hit TV series “Spin City.” By cleverly playing off his enfant terrible persona without ever seeming to revel in it, Sheen managed to reinvent his image and thus earned a second chance at success, an extraordinary feat in itself. Charlie Sheen recently married the actress Denise Richards.