First published 2025
Charlie Sheen opens his memoir by acknowledging he should not have survived to write it. The third child of actor Martin Sheen and Janet, he spent his youth on film sets around the world and in Malibu making Super 8 movies with friends who became famous actors. These friends included his brother Emilio, Sean and Chris Penn, and the Lowe brothers. Sheen entered Hollywood in the 1980s with roles as a hoodlum in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, a soldier in Platoon, and a corrupt trader in Wall Street. His career continued successfully with leading roles in Spin City and Two and a Half Men. Yet despite his professional success, Sheen fell into destructive behavior patterns. Now sober, he writes with humor and honesty about both his achievements and his failures. His narrative captures the extremes of Hollywood life through vivid storytelling that feels like fiction but records actual events.
Genres: biography, autobiography, biography-memoir
Vibes: emotional, honest, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: redemption, self-reflection
Setting: Malibu
Period: 1980s
368 pages · Hardcover · Gallery Books
Content warnings: addiction, alcohol-abuse, drug-use, substance-abuse