Charlie Sheen

Charlie Sheen was an American film and television actor whose long and accomplished career goes all the way back to the early 1980s, and includes such celebrated works as "Platoon" (1986), "Wall Street" (1987), "Two and a Half Men" (CBS, 2003-2015), "Anger Management" (FX, 2012-14), and many others. Born in New York City and raised in Malibu, Sheen was born to be an actor. His father was the legendary actor Martin Sheen, while his mother Janet was also artistically inclined. As a young boy, Sheen was quickly drawn to acting. He and his older brother Emilio, who would later become a respected actor in his own right, would make Super 8 films together and would often cast their friends Sean Penn and Rob Lowe to play roles. Sheen became so immersed in acting that his grades began to suffer. He was subsequently expelled from Santa Monica High School. However, Sheen viewed his expulsion as a good omen that would allow him to pursue acting full time. By his late teens he was landing major film roles in "Red Dawn" (1984), "The Boys Next Door" (1985), and "Lucas" (1986), thus becoming one of the most popular young film actors of his generation. His first big break came in 1986 when Oliver Stone cast him as the lead in the Vietnam War drama "Platoon" (1986). The film would go on to win four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The following year, Stone cast Sheen once again in his crime drama "Wall Street" (1987), which further cemented his A-list status. By the 1990s Sheen taking on more comedic roles in films like "Hot Shots!" (1991), "The Three Musketeers" (1993), and "Men at Work" (1990), the latter of which co-starred his brother Emilio. By the early 2000s Sheen began adding sitcom roles to his resume. He took over for Michael J. Fox, who left the series after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, on the ABC sitcom "Spin City" (ABC, 1996-2002), where he played the role of Charlie Crawford for the show's final two seasons. Then in 2003 Sheen was cast as a caddish jingle writer named Charlie Harper on the CBS sitcom "Two and a Half Men." The series was a smash hit with audiences and consistently ranked as one of the most watched sitcoms on network television. However, Sheen's contract was terminated in 2011 during the eighth season of the show after he made derogatory comments about the show's creator, Chuck Lorre, in the press. The comments came after Sheen entered a drug rehabilitation center for the third time in a year, forcing the show to go on an indefinite hiatus. CBS eventually hired Ashton Kutcher to replace Sheen on the series. After his removal from "Two and a Half Men" Sheen returned to TV as the lead of the FX comedy "Anger Management." That series ran for 100 episodes between 2012 and 2014. In 2015 Charlie Sheen revealed that he was HIV positive. He had been diagnosed four years prior and was managing the virus by taking a triple cocktail of various drugs. In 2017 Sheen starred in the drama "9/11." Whoopi Goldberg and Gina Gershon also starred in the film.