Biography for
Charlie Sheen
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Date of Birth
3 September 1965, New York City, New York, USA
Birth Name
Carlos Irwin Estevez
Nickname
The Machine
Good Time Charlie
Chuckles
Height
5' 10" (1.78 m)
Mini Biography
Charlie Sheen was born Carlos Irwin Estévez on September 3, 1965, in New York City. His father, Martin Sheen, at the time was an actor just breaking into the business with performances on Broadway. His mother, Janet Sheen, was a former New York art student who had met Charlie's father right after he had moved to Manhattan. Martin and Janet had three other children, Emilio Estevez, Renée Estevez, and Ramon Estevez, all of whom became actors.
At a young age, Charlie took an interest in his father's acting career. When he was nine, he was given a small part in his dad's movie The Execution of Private Slovik (1974) (TV). In 1977, he was in the Philippines where his dad suffered a near-fatal heart attack on the set of Apocalypse Now (1979).
While at Santa Monica High School, Charlie had two major interests: acting and baseball. Along with his friends, which included Rob Lowe and Sean Penn, he produced and starred in several amateur Super-8 films. On the Vikings baseball team, he was a star shortstop and pitcher. His lifetime record as a pitcher was 40-15. His interest and skill in baseball would later influence some of his movie roles. Unfortunately, his success on the baseball field did not translate to success in the classroom, as he struggled to keep his grades up. Just a few weeks before his scheduled graduation date, Charlie was expelled due to poor attendance and bad grades.
After high school, Charlie aggressively pursued many acting roles. His first major role was as a high school student in the teen war film Red Dawn (1984). He followed this up with relatively small roles in TV movies and low-profile releases. His big break came in 1986 when he starred in Oliver Stone's Oscar winning epic Platoon (1986). He drew rave reviews for his portrayal of a young soldier who is caught in the center of a moral crisis in Vietnam.
The success of Platoon (1986) prompted Oliver Stone to cast Charlie in his next movie Wall Street (1987) alongside his father and veteran actor Martin Sheen. The movie with its "Greed is Good" theme became an instant hit with viewers.
Shortly after, Stone approached Charlie about the starring role in his next movie, Born on the Fourth of July (1989). When Tom Cruise eventually got the part, Sheen ended up hearing the news from his brother Emilio Estevez and not even getting as much as a call from Stone. This led to a fallout, and the two have not worked together since.
The fallout with Stone, however, did nothing to hurt Charlie's career in the late 1980s and early '90s, as he continued to establish himself as one of the top box office draws with a string of hits that included Young Guns (1988), Major League (1989), and Hot Shots! (1991). However, as the mid-'90s neared, his good fortune both personally and professionally, soon came to an end.
Around this time, Charlie, who had already been to drug rehab, was beginning to develop a reputation as a hard-partying, womanizer. In 1995, the same year he was briefly married to model Donna Peele, he was called to testify at the trial of Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss. At the trial, while under oath he admitted to spending nearly $50,000 on 27 of Fleiss' $2,500-a-night prostitutes.
His downward spiral continued the following year when his ex-girlfriend Brittany Ashland filed charges claiming that he physically abused her. He was later charged with misdemeanor battery to which he pleaded no contest and was given a year's suspended sentence, two years' probation and a $2,800 fine. He finally hit rock bottom in May 1998 when he was hospitalized in Thousand Oaks, California, following a near-fatal drug overdose. Later that month, he was ordered back to the drug rehab center, which he had previously left after one day.
During this stretch, Charlie's film career began to suffer as well. He starred in a series of box office flops that included The Arrival (1996) and Shadow Conspiracy (1997). However as the 1990s came to end, so did Charlie's string of bad luck.
In 2000, Charlie, now clean and sober, was chosen to replace Michael J. Fox on the ABC hit sitcom "Spin City" (1996). Though his stint lasted only two seasons, Charlie's performance caught the eye of CBS executives who in 2003 were looking for an established star to help carry their Monday night lineup of sitcoms that included "Everybody Loves Raymond" (1996). The sitcom "Two and a Half Men" (2003) starred Charlie as a swinging, irresponsible womanizer whose life changes when his nephew suddenly appears on his doorstep. The show became a huge hit, breathing much needed life into Charlie's fading career.
Charlie's personal life also appeared to be improving. In 2002, he married fellow actress Denise Richards, whom he first met while shooting the movie Good Advice (2001). In March 2004, they had a daughter, Sam, and it was announced shortly after that Denise was pregnant with the couple's second child. By all reports, the couple seemed to be very happy together. However, like all of Charlie's previous relationships, the stability did not last long. In March of 2005, Denise, who was six-months pregnant, filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. She gave birth to a second daughter, Lola, in June of that same year. Their divorce became final in late 2006.
IMDb Mini Biography By: SteveG
Spouse
Brooke Mueller (30 May 2008 - present) (filed for divorce) 2 children
Denise Richards (15 June 2002 - 30 November 2006) (divorced) 2 children
Donna Peele (3 September 1995 - 19 November 1996) (divorced)
Trade Mark
Catchphrase: "Winning!"
Gravelly voice
Trivia
9/27/99: His request for an early end to his probation for drugs that extends to 6/6/00 was denied by a Malibu judge.
Accidentally shot then fiancée Kelly Preston in the arm. Soon after that incident, she left him and married her formerly platonic friend John Travolta.
Was born a "blue baby". The doctor who saved him was named Irwin and his parents named him after the doctor.
He fought constantly with older brother Emilio Estevez. He was a good student but then let his grades slip when he skipped school in high school to play baseball.
He had dreams of pitching for a baseball team.
Dated former porn star Ginger Lynn Allen.
5/22/98: Upon release from the hospital, he checked into Promises, a rehab center, where he stayed for only one day. His car was later pulled over and police arrested him for using medications and drinking. Sheen re-entered Promises on doctor's orders.
5/20/98: Hospitalized in Thousand Oaks, CA, for a drug overdose.
5/21/97: Charged with misdemeanor battery against his ex-girlfriend Brittany Ashland.
5/21/96: Arrested for allegedly assaulting a woman at his home in Agoura, CA. The woman claims she was pushed to the floor and knocked out.
Son of actor Martin Sheen and Janet Sheen.
Brother of actor Emilio Estevez and Renée Estevez and Ramon Estevez.
Children: daughter Cassandra Jade Estevez (born December 12, 1984), with ex-girlfriend Paula Profit, daughters Sam Sheen (born 9th March 2004) and Lola Rose Sheen (born 1st June 2005), with Denise Richards.
1991: He and a close friend found themselves in possession of Guinea Pig (1985) (V), rumored to contain actual snuff footage. Unable to convincingly explain away the atrocities as special effects work, they called the FBI, which tracked down the makers of the film, who convinced them that the onscreen deaths were indeed special effects.
Listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1986" in John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 38.
Was considered for Tom Cruise's role in Born on the Fourth of July (1989).
4/23/98: A thief stole two dozen rare baseball cards belonging to Sheen in NYC -- the cards, on loan from the star and valued at $170,000, were housed in a display case at the Official All-Star Cafe, a sport-themed restaurant in Times Square.
Loves barbeque sauce, and has even thought about releasing his own brand someday.
His first film with George Clooney stayed unreleased because of FX problems.
January 2002: Engaged to Denise Richards.
August 2001: Drove Ben Affleck to Promises Rehabilitation Center in Malibu, CA, for treatment of alcohol abuse.
Uncle of Taylor Estevez and Paloma Estevez. Joe Estevez is his uncle.
He is an avid Cincinnati Reds fan.
He once owned the baseball hit by Mookie Wilson in the 1986 World Series that went under Boston Red Sox's first baseman Bill Buckner's legs for the game-winning RBI. (He's since sold the ball).
3/9/04: Daughter Sam Sheen born at 10:57 p.m in Los Angeles. weighing in at 7 lb. 3 oz.
Has starred in two TV series in which his character has been named "Charlie." They are "Spin City" (1996) and "Two and a Half Men" (2003).
Dated Robin Wright.
Daughter, Sam Sheen, was born during the production of Scary Movie 3 (2003). Since the movie's initials are "SM", he and ex-wife Denise Richards wanted a name with those two letters in it.
Is mentioned in the Jewel Kilcher song "Intuition" in the line: "You learned cool from magazines, you learned love from Charlie Sheen".
8/3/90: His family made an intervention to try to get him to control his drug and alcohol abuse and enter rehab. He entered rehab for 30 days and ended up staying sober for exactly 366 days. His main goal was to make one year, and after making it, he drank the very next day at Nicolas Cage's home. (Source - TV Guide interview).
Is a baseball fanatic and is extremely knowledgeable about the sport as well as past and current players.
Enjoys deep-sea fishing.
Has a tattoo on his chest that looks like a note pinned to it that reads, "Be Back in 15 Minutes."
Turned down roles White Men Can't Jump (1992), Indecent Proposal (1993), and The Cowboy Way (1994), all of which eventually went to Woody Harrelson.
Was a partner in Sheen/Michaels Entertainment with Bret Michaels and Shane Stanley and Jim Faraci.
Was a partner in Ventura Films, E.M.A. with David Michael O'Neill, David Sherrill and Nick Cassavetes. E.M.A. aparently stood for 'eat my ass'.
Was a partner in Engram Digital.
He and Denise Richards both had very small roles in Loaded Weapon 1 (1993) (they do not share on-screen time), years before they met and fell in love on the set of Good Advice (2001).
6/1/05: Daughter, Lola Rose Sheen, was born in Los Angeles, weighing in at 6 lb. 10 oz.
He and Denise Richards, have both guest-starred on the TV show "Friends" (1994), though not in the same episode.
Former Brat Pack member.
The noticeable scar on his chin occurred while filming No Man's Land (1987). A prop explosive detonated accidentally, ripping into his chin and requiring eight stitches.
Attended Chaminade-Julienne High School in Dayton, Ohio.
Was in attendance at Chris Penn's funeral.
Was considered for the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne in Batman (1989).
Played a stoner in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986). Even though his real life drug addiction hadn't started yet, Sheen told a magazine he stayed up for 48 hours to look the role.
Living with Brooke Mueller. They met at a party in May, 2006.
Former brother-in-law of Paula Abdul.
September 2006: He is to become the highest-paid comedy star on television. He will earn $350,000 per episode for the upcoming season of "Two and a Half Men" (2003).
7/10/07: Engaged to Brooke Mueller.
Credited actor Keith David with saving his life during the shooting of Platoon (1986). According to Sheen, while shooting a battle scene in an open-doored Huey helicopter, the pilot banked too hard and Sheen was thrown towards the open door. He would have plunged through the door and fallen to his death, but David grabbed on to him and pulled him back in.
He and brother Emilio Estevez have both played the son of real father Martin Sheen; Emilio in The War at Home (1996), Charlie in Wall Street (1987) No Code of Conduct (1998) and two episodes of "Spin City" (1996). Martin also played the father of one of Charlie's girlfriends on "Two and a Half Men" (2003).
Among the 60 guests at his wedding to Brooke Mueller were Rebecca Gayheart, Eric Dane and his two daughters Sam and Lola.
Married Brooke Mueller in a private ceremony in Los Angeles.
Rebecca Gayheart and Eric Dane introduced him to his third wife Brooke Mueller.
Publicist Stan Rosenfield confirmed that Sheen and Brooke Mueller married, but declined to give more details. (30 May 2008).
Charlie and his wife, Brooke Mueller, are expecting their first progeny together, twin boys, due in April 2009.
Twin sons, Bob and Max, born March 14, 2009.
Was arrested on domestic violence charges, including for second-degree assault, menacing and criminal mischief. He was released the same day after posting an $8,500 bond. [December 25, 2009]
Lives in Beverly Hills and Malibu, California.
Checked himself into a rehab facility in relation to the domestic violence assault on his wife Brooke Mueller in late 2009. [February 2010]
Surrendered custody of his daughters Sam Sheen and Lola Rose Sheen to Denise Richards. Richards sought full custody after Sheen and his wife Brooke Mueller had a domestic dispute over Christmas 2009. [May 2010]
Plead no contest to a misdemeanor charge at a June 7 hearing, and will be sentenced to 30 days in jail instead. Due to this plea deal, the actor will avoid being sentenced to probation once he finished the time in jail. The sentence is a result of the domestic dispute with his wife Brooke Mueller and Sheen's arrest in late 2009. [June 2010]
Is of Spanish and Irish American heritage.
Personal Quotes
"[Studios] won't hire you, even though you screwed the same whores and ate the bullet for it. Yet they pull you aside at a party and say you're their hero for the things you do." [Variety (August 14, 1997)]
"This is like a sober acid trip" (his reaction to winning the Golden Globe Award!)
Usually in a battle sequence when a bomb is going off, you forget you're acting.
I don't think it's wise to dwell on regret. There's regret, sure. But whatever you've done good or bad, is a part of who you are now. That's the thing you can change and improve.
"I'd begun drinking all the time. We shot in New York City, so I'd be out to the bars every night till 3 or 4 a.m., then try to show up for a 6 o'clock call to stand toe to toe with Michael Douglas and handle 50% of a scene. How could that work? Yet there I was, the guy that struck gold, looking around at dawn to find that the only one still partying was me. I'd be drinking away, doing blow [cocaine], popping pills, and telling myself I wasn't an addict, because there wasn't a needle stuck in my arm. Talk about mixing up fantasy and reality! My true addiction was alcohol. The extra toxic boosters just helped me shore up the wall between my celebrity self and my real self. The questions I was running from were: 'Is this success all a fluke? Had I been fooling everybody so far? Will I get caught?' It was easy to get hammered and messed up. But in doing so, I buried my self-respect, I buried my self-esteem, I buried my creative drive, and I damned near buried myself." - On filming Wall Street (1987) and his life at the time.
"The same role had been offered to Emilio a year earlier but the financing fell through. This time, Emilio was on another project, so Oliver Stone offered it to me. It was the break of my life, and I knew it. But it was a strange experience, because we filmed in the Philippines, less than 100 miles away from where my dad had filmed Apocalypse Now (1979). People say I look like him - now, here I was, not only making a picture about Vietnam the way he did, but also narrating it the way he did. And, like him, I had a moment that came close to death, when I fell halfway out of a helicopter, but was caught just in time by one of the actors." - On Platoon (1986).
"I was 10 years old. Dad used to take us on location so the family wouldn't be split up, so we were with him in the Philippines. That's when the heart attack happened. He came back so pale and sick, so weak and thin, seeming so much older, and walking with a cane. This world of fantasy and artifice that I'd known suddenly was about real life and death, about the potential loss of a parent. It didn't make any sense to me. It was enough to keep me away from acting for a long time." - On his father's heart attack filming Apocalypse Now (1979).
"If he's not getting something out of a performance, he'll come up and go, 'What are you, a faggot from Malibu? Were you playing too much fucking volleyball on the beach growing up?' He once said that my reaction in a shot was comparable to a 'bad Mark Hamill moment.' I said, 'Oliver, I'll take that as a compliment. Star Wars was one of my favorite movies.' - On Oliver Stone.
My father gave me some pretty bad advice - keep it honest, which I did. People ask, why am I so honest with the press? I don't have an answer. I suppose I'm honest everywhere else. Why should it stop here? Most of my shit sounds like lies. But all my stories are true, and that's the problem. They call me the last honest man in Hollywood. But I care what people think, we all do.
It's hard to be specific about what parts I may have lost. But ultimately, it's what I'm known for.
Public speaking is a tremendous fear of mine. The Tonight Show, David Letterman. I would always do a few shots or take an anti-whatever, some prescription relaxation deal and go out there and just kind of just flow with it.
I don't know. I want to go home at the end of the day and feel like I left a certain part of myself behind. You watch a Pacino performance, a DeNiro performance, you sit back in wonder and watch what they did. I'm curious as to what it would take for me to get to that place.
There is a fine line between confidence and cockiness. And when you lose sight of what side you're walking on, that's when you are in trouble.
"I didn't feel it would be any fun. I don't feel connected to basketball. At least, when I do a baseball movie, I know I'm gonna have a good time." - On why he turned down Woody Harrelson's part in White Men Can't Jump (1992).
"I didn't want to have my wife in the movie snatched by Robert Redford. Besides, to show, in the end, that the million dollars didn't mean anything to the guy by having him buy at an auction an elephant, or whatever the fuck it was, for a million bucks? I mean, the millionaire's already jammed your wife, man, keep the cash!" - On why he turned down Woody Harrelson's part in Indecent Proposal (1993).
"I guess I went a little nuts. But I knew I didn't want to be at the (movie) premiere with 500 people 6 months down the line, embarrassed by my physical condition. So I developed a program that was Olympic in its intensity. Eight hours a day, six days a week, combining martial arts, yoga, weight lifting, running, swimming, and stationary bike. I went to Maui 'cause I had to be in tropical climate to burn the fat. I brought my chef who had the difficult task of preparing three meals a day with no salt, no fat, no red meat, no cholesterol, and still keeping it interesting, you know? Maybe a plate of steam for breakfast." - On how (and why) he got so muscular and fit for the Rambo sequence in Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993).
I did that garbage film with my brother (Men at Work (1990)) That didn't work. I did an action movie Navy Seals (1990). That didn't work. I did a buddy cop picture (The Rookie (1990)) with Clint Eastwood. I figured that one was a shoo-in. It was an honor to work with Clint. I don't know what happened. I must have caught him one movie to early. Not to make excuses, but 600,000 of Clint's biggest fans were in the Persian Gulf fighting a war when The Rookie (1990) came out. That's a poor excuse for a flop, isn't it?
"I was just tired - and sick and tired of being sick and tired, of living like a vampire." - On qutting drinking.
"Paula is a sweet lady and a great addition to the family. I'm not really familiar with her music, and I've said this to her face. We had a party at the house for my sister, Renee, and (my) Dad said, 'Charlie, put on some Paula Abdul, I don't own any of her records'. So I replied, 'I've been playing them so much, they're all worn out, they scratch and skip all over the place it would be an embarrassment'. Paula didn't buy it for an instant." - 1993 quote, during the time Paula Abdul was married to his brother Emilio Estevez.
"Maybe for me and my peers, we've gotten a lot of power too quickly. I'm not a celebrity. I don't sing or dance, so I act. All the public sees is the autograph signing and the sunglasses. They don't see the 16-hour days, the last-minute rewrites and the hell that goes into movies." (1989 Quote)
"Three for the Road (1987) was a piece of shit that I wished didn't exist and that I was terrible in".
I'm very fortunate in that I like people or I'd probably be in jail right now. It takes more time explaining why you can't give an autograph, which is usually bullshit, than to just do it. I like to sign autographs of pictures because you're giving people something back for supporting you. Somewhere down the line somebody may think you treated them well and buy a ticket to your film.
"I collect guns and shoot them regularly. It's all purely recreational shooting, I believe in the right to bear arms. I'm beside myself on the banning of the semi- automatic assault rifle. Guns don't kill people, people do. I don't carry a gun, but I respect them. I always take a gun on location because you never know. " (1989)
All actors want to be athletes, and all athletes want to make movies. It's a strange situation when I meet up with a baseball player -- one of my heroes -- and all he wants to talk about is movies and all I want to talk about is baseball. To this day I cannot accept the fact that baseball players are as interested in what I do as I am in what they do. So I'm making movies -- big deal! They're playing major league baseball. That's the ultimate. They're in 'The Show'. I know I'm in the entertainment business, but it's not like facing Rob Dibble or Nolan Ryan, where you have to come through on the spot. If I screw up a line, well, I get as many takes as I need to nail the sucker. If it means 10 takes, fine. But if a hitter goes 1 for 10 it's another story -- he's only batting .100, and that's not going to cut it in the bigs.
"The bad part is that there's a lot of waiting, a lot of sitting around, a lot of down time. It's hard to keep the energy level up. We're all human and it's just impossible." - On film acting.
She was a sweet girl, but when she grew up I started to have a crush on her which lasts to this day. I also chose her film name. She was known as Horowitz and I said she should change it. We were listening to a lot of Doors music, including the tracks Riders On The Storm, and I said she should change her name to Rider with a Y. The next thing, she's Winona Ryder. No one believes me, but that's the truth.
"There was a time when I couldn't leave the house until I'd smoked three joints, taken tranquilisers and drunk a bottle of Bourbon. So this is my last chance to get things right. People usually go into my sort of therapy for a month then come out and slowly try to adjust their lives. The fact that I'm in for five months shows how much work I've had to do." (1999)
If I've learned anything at all, it's that I know nothing about women. They remain a mystery. But I've learned to stop trying to figure them out. There's no end to the journey, and that's what makes it so compelling.
The hardest were those first 30 days sober. Then, three months and six months. But if I compare the amount of time I've been sober to the amount of time I've partied, well, let's just say I've still got a lot of catching up to do. Staying sober is the most important thing in my life, along with my family and loved ones. The movies, TV, money and all the other crap is just secondary.
I don't really hang out with a lot of people anymore. In the past I always had to surrounded myself with a crowd. Today, I just don't need it. But while my life might seem dull to some, it's exciting to me. That's because through my sobriety, I'm finally able to enjoy a level of serenity that I've witnessed in other people but never had myself. And that kind of self-contentment can't be purchased or acquired. It has to be earned. I'm trying to earn it. Everyday.
The only thing I didn't do was shoot heroin. When I was ten years old, I told myself that I'd never do heroin because one of two things would happen -- I'd do it once and die or I'd do it once and then do it every day for the rest of my life. I guess I should have made that same decision about all the other drugs.
I still want just one at-bat in the Major Leagues. Just one. I'll take it over an Oscar. Then, I'm in the Baseball Encyclopedia. Forever. Forever. Even if I strike or walk.
I have 12 tattoos, and I wish I hadn't gotten so many now. It's hard when you have to take your shirt off two hours in make-up and it doesn't cover them.
I drank, toward the end, two or three bottles of vodka a day. I wouldn't drink the whole day; I'd drink about every hour and a half. A big water glass full of vodka. That would get me through the next couple of hours.
"I nearly died, which is about as bad as you can get. I'm totally convinced that drugs and alcohol brought me very close to death two or three times, and it's more luck than anything else that I'm still alive. My spirit was dying and I believe when your spirit dies, it's only a matter of time before your body follows." - On his near fatal drug overdose.
"It was a rough time for me. I was living that New York nightlife. Fame had arrived, it was a fresh thing and everybody was my best friend. It didn't matter if I had a 6 A.M. call, as long as the bar was serving until 4 A.M. I was there. I had to learn to do more than just try to make it to lunch. Fortunately, I realized that I've got a job a million other guys would die for and the responsibility to the money-paying public to give it my best shot." - On filming Wall Street (1987).
"In sobriety they teach you to think the drink through. Don't just think about having the drink and how good it's going to feel. Think through to the next morning, how it's going to influence you, the shame, how it's going to trigger the domino effect. If I do that I end up with, OK, I'm not going to drink. It's the same thing with one-night stands. I appreciate my time in the mornings so much that I'd rather go to bed at night alone than deal with waking up, creeping around the bedroom, being quiet, worrying. Also, I'd like to be with somebody I care about. Something moderately substantial." - Quote from 2001.
Sometimes it's work, sometimes it's that something extra. I'm not going to lie to you, there are times you show up on the set and have two lines, and you simply walk through. It's just work. Then there are certain scenes and moments, based on the intensity or intent of what you're trying to pull off, that call for more of an all- out effort. That's when you bring out your best.
One of my fondest memories is when Slash, from Guns N' Roses, sat me down at his house and said, 'You've got to clean up your act.' You know you've gone too far when Slash is saying, 'Look, you've got to get into rehab, you have to shut it down. You're going to die.' He's a terrific guy and I love him, he's a buddy of mine, but I had to step back from that situation and go, 'Yeah, but you're Slash. Whaddya mean?' We'd been up for about four days. But I still heard him because a part of me was saying, 'This isn't as much fun as I thought it was going to be. Something's missing.'
Fame is a fickle mistress. It's very deceiving. It looks really bitchin' from the outside, and then you get it and it's very confusing professionally, socially, emotionally. It's confusing because you're so worried about how you're perceived. A lot of my exploits were guilt-driven, shame-driven. I would hang out with the lower- class individual and try to give away as much as possible, because on some level I felt like I hadn't really earned all I had, and when was everyone going to find out? When would the curtain be yanked back? And all this because one day I was a working actor, just trying to pursue something I enjoyed and trying to make a living, and the next day I was a commodity.
You see, my brother [Emilio Estevez] didn't go as nuts as I did when he started getting that first taste of it all. I just thought that's what you're supposed to do. You become a fucking overnight success and suddenly everything's free. Everybody wants to be your best friend. It's amazing and dangerous: The more money you make, the more things people want to give you for free. It should be the opposite. It's very easy to get caught up with that fast life. Once you understand that you have to pay your way, you begin to handle your success and life.
"He brings a reality to his work that's beyond what is required, and I think it takes the audience to another place. He tortures himself doing it, but God bless him, because that work exists forever. It's educational, watching his stuff. He teaches us about taking risks and about letting go of self, of celebrity, ego and all that crap we hang on to in front of the camera. Sean just says, 'That's not what I'm here for.' " - On Sean Penn.
"You can go to the best restaurant in town with no reservation, at peak mealtime with seven friends, and say, 'We're hungry.' Then you could leave that meal, call a guy on the way to the airport to fire up a jet to take you to Vegas, go to a casino with nothing -no wallet, nothing and talk a casino manager into giving you a $50,000 line of credit." - On the lifestyle you can have as a young, hot movie star.
"I remember thinking and feeling and believing that I was not able to stop, that I genuinely was incapable of putting an end to this. It wasn't even that I didn't know what to do with myself if I could stop. I didn't take the thought that far. It was, 'My God, I can't stop. Now what?' Not, 'OK, if I stop?' That was a terribly sad reality." - On his drug and alcohol abuse.
At age 16. I was arrested for possession of marijuana. Then I was arrested again a year later for this five-day crime spree, where I'd go to the Beverly Hills Hotel and tell people that I'd been a guest and lost my term paper. They'd let me look through the trash, where I'd find all these credit-card receipts and use the numbers to make phone orders.
"Yeah, I'd get an eye tuck or a chin tuck. A lot of my job is how you look." - On if he would ever consider plastic surgery.
"I'd never smoked but Oliver wanted me to smoke in the film. 'Better start early,' he said. 'That way you won't be sick when we're shooting.' So I did. And now I find it hard to stop. I guess you pay a price for everything." (LA Times December 1986)
There is such a thing as too much fun. It gets redundant. How many times can you wake up and struggle to remember your name, her name and where you are?
"At first it was about really living that lifestyle that I had envisioned, that I had really hoped for. I'd hoped to be a very recognizable celebrity. I thought thats what it was all about: the women, money, the fame, all the the bull****. When you get in it when you're suddenly in the eye of the storm, its not as good as it looks like from the outside. Its not as appealing as it looked when I would hang out with Emilio or Tom (Cruise) or Judd (Nelson) the guys who were going through it when I was still on my way up." (SV Entertainment 1991)
"There is this one tabloid reporter I know. She gets some germ of a rumor and expounds on it. She just goes nuts. I finally called and a asked what her problem was. She said, Well, honey, we are trying to create this bad-boy image for you, and it sells issues.I tried to reason with her by asking how she would feel if she was the target of those stories. Basically, she told me that the newspaper was trying to perpetuate a James Dean image for me. I lost it and said, Lady, James Dean died at 24, and that's not the image I want. It made no difference. They are hopeless." (Penthouse 1993)
I'm personally trying to change my image and change things about myself but they don't want to let it die. I guess there are more sales in controversy. They should change the title of 'Hard Copy' to Hard Charlie or Sheen Copy, Christ I'm on there twice a week I should get some royalties maybe. Are there so few things going on out there that my birthday party made news? Just a couple days ago on Hard Copy they said I had a nice birthday party and my parents and everybody was there , a good family night, a sober night. They said, 'but the real party took place the next day when Charlie Sheen and all his buddies had a roomful of strippers and porn stars and there were adult film stars on all the monitors in every room of the house', I'm thinking 'No this is absolute madness I was at my house watching football with my friends!' I've got twenty witnesses.
"It seems to me like nineteen amateurs with box-cutters taking over four commercial airliners and hitting seventy-five per cent of their targets, that feels like a conspiracy theory. It raises a lot of questions. A couple of years ago, it was severely unpopular to talk about any of this. It feels like from the people I talk to, and the research I've done and around my circles, it feels like the worm is turning. Just show us how this particular plane pulled off these maneuvers ... It is up to us to reveal the truth. It is up to us because we owe it to the families, we owe it to the victims, we owe it to everyone's life who was drastically altered, horrifically, that day and forever. We owe it to them to uncover what happened." - On the September 11th attacks
I'm tired of pretending I'm not a total bitchin' rock star from Mars.
I am on a drug, it's called Charlie Sheen. It's not available because if you try it you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body.
Ambien. Hello. Ambien. Hello. The devil's aspirin? That was the one thing in New York that was not part of my normal blend.
I am on a drug. It's called Charlie Sheen. It's not available because if you try it once your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body.
I closed my eyes and made it so with the power of my mind, and unlearned 22 years of fiction... the fiction of AA. It's a silly book written by a broken-down fool.
Winning!
I have one speed. One gear. Go! I dare you to keep up with me.
I'm tired of pretending I'm not special. I'm tired of pretending that I'm not a total bitchin' rock star from Mars.
I am on a drug. It's called Charlie Sheen. It's not available because if you try it once you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body.
I'm Spanish-Irish. I mean, sh*t, that's a volatile combination.
[On being asked if he had to choose between losing his arm or his career] Career. Because I'm a baseball player, and the thought of not being able to swing a bat, or even to feel both breasts at the same time...
{On his greatest fears] Failure. Unhirable, shutdown failure. Sharks. Death.
People say it's lonely at the top, but I sure like the view.
Dying is for fools.
I got magic and I got poetry in my fingertips, most of the time, and this includes naps. I'm an F-18, bro, and I will destroy you in the air and deploy my ordinance to the ground.
The only thing I'm addicted to is winning. This bootleg cult, arrogantly referred to as Alcoholics Anonymous, reports a 5 percent success rate. My success rate is 100 percent.
I was banging seven gram rocks and finishing them. Because that's how I roll.
I get in trouble for being honest ... I'm extremely old-fashioned.
Can't is the cancer of happen.
I'm different. I have a different constitution, I have a different brain, I have a different heart. I got tiger blood, man.
I'm shakin' a tree. I'm shakin' all the trees.
If you borrowed my brain for five seconds, you'd be like, "Dude! Can't handle it, unplug this bastard!" It fires in a way that's maybe not from, uh ... this terrestrial realm.
If you are part of my family, I will love you violently.
[on if he's bi-polar] I'm not bi-polar, I'm bi-winning. I win here and I win there.
I'm not fair game. I'm not a soft target. It's over. There's a new sheriff in town. And he has an army of assassins.
[March, 2011 comment] It's been a tsunami of media and I've been riding it on a mercury surfboard.
[on being fired from his hit TV show] [CBS] picked a fight with a warlock.
Resentments are the rocket fuel that lives in the tip of my saber.
[comment from 1987] I am the definition of decadence.
Salary
No Code of Conduct (1998) $2,000,000.00
Shadow Conspiracy (1997) $4,000,000
The Arrival (1996) $5,250,000
Terminal Velocity (1994) $6,000,000
The Three Musketeers (1993) $4,000,000.00
Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993) $4,000,000
Three for the Road (1987) $500,000
Where Are They Now
(April 2003) Starting production on a pilot for CBS on April 23rd. Show titled "Two and a Half Men" (2003) also starring Jon Cryer. Show is about a bachelor whose brother, "Cryer", moves in with him and brings his son.
(2009) Appeared, with Michael Jordan, in a commercial for "Hanes" underwear.
(2009) Appeared, with Jon Cryer, in a PSA for the "Wounded Warriors Project"
