From Hollywood royalty to 'tiger blood' and getting sober: Charlie Sheen has packed a lot into his 60 years

"Is Charlie Sheen still alive?" is one of the most Googled questions about the star.

It is hardly surprising, given his years of drug and alcohol abuse, coupled with a HIV diagnosis.

Sheen, the son of Hollywood royalty Martin Sheen, was a sought-after actor with a string of dramatic and comedic roles to his name before his fall from grace.

Now, having just turned 60 – a milestone the star himself said he was lucky to have made – and with a new memoir and Netflix documentary about his life hitting screens, let's take a look at Sheen's life and career, including the many controversies.

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Hollywood royalty

Sheen was born Carlos Irwin Estévez on September 3, 1965, to Martin Sheen and his wife Janet.

He was the third of the couple's four children and has two older brothers, Emilio and Ramón, and a younger sister Renée, who are all actors.

Sheen attended Santa Monica High School alongside his siblings and future stars including Robert Downey Jr.

While at high school he made amateur films with Emilio and his school friends Rob Lowe and Sean Penn.

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He was also a talented baseball player and star pitcher and shortstop for the school team.

There was even talk of a baseball scholarship to the University of Kansas but Sheen was expelled weeks before graduation due to poor attendance and grades.

After school, Sheen decided to follow in the footsteps of his father and Emilio, and become an actor.

Unlike his brother, who kept his birth name, he decided to follow his dad's example and Anglicise his name.

He explained the move in a TV interview which aired on CBC in 1986.

"I think there's a better balance with Charlie Sheen the way it has a, you know, nicer ring to it," he said at the time.

"And as far as the established name, having witnessed Emilio opt for the family name, I figured that with how Pop has established 'Sheen' in this business, I should probably carry it on."

Big break

Sheen's big break came in the 1984 film Red Dawn.

Sheen made a brief appearance in the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off, before a defining role in the 1986 drama Platoon.

He starred in three films in 1987, and won praise for this portrayal of junior stockbroker Bud Fox, the protege of Michael Douglas's Gordon Gekko in the hit film Wall Street.

The following year, he appeared alongside his brother, Kiefer Sutherland and Lou Diamond Phillips in the western Young Guns before trying his hand at comedy in Major League, about a washed-up baseball team.

He was soon swapping between comedy films such as Hot Shots! and dramatic roles in films such as action/crime drama The Rookie, which paired him with Clint Eastwood.

In 1994, the same year he appeared in Major League II, Sheen was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which was somewhat controversial given his relatively young age – he was just 29 – and the fact his lifestyle was attracting attention.

Fall from grace

Just months after receiving the Hollywood honour, Sheen was ordered to testify in a trial involving convicted Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss.

Sheen admitted in court he spent at least $80,000 on the services of 27 sex workers who worked for Fleiss, including hiring one to come to his home on Christmas Day 1992.

Despite his fall from grace, he continued to work steadily throughout the '90s, but with no major roles.

In February 1997, Sheen's former girlfriend Brittany Ashland filed a lawsuit against Sheen alleging he assaulted her the previous December.

He was charged with misdemeanor battery with serious injury.

He later entered a plea of no-contest and was sentenced to a one-year suspended prison term and two years probation.

But it would not be his last court appearance.

In May 1998, Sheen suffered a stroke after overdosing on cocaine. In 2004, he said he had injected the drug.

He was near death when found by a friend at his home and was given lifesaving treatment by paramedics before being rushed to hospital.

The drug use was a violation of his parole and he was ordered to undergo a drug rehabilitation program but fled within hours.

Sitcom success – and a sudden firing

In 2000, he joined the cast of the successful sitcom Spin City, to replace the show's star Michael J Fox, who was battling Parkinson's disease.

The show ended after two more seasons, after which Sheen starred in Scary Movie 3 and the fourth instalment before stepping into his most famous role, as Charlie Harper in the sitcom Two and a Half Men.

The show was a hit from when it aired in 2003 and Sheen became the highest-paid actor on TV, earning a whopping AU$2 million per episode for his portrayal of the hedonistic bachelor.

But behind the scenes, life was again imitating art.

In 2011, Sheen admitted he had to rely on furniture to stay standing after a long night.

"Never been drunk, never been high on the set once," Sheen said.

"But [I] would show up having not slept much... and [ask] the director... to move my mark a little bit just so I could be next to a piece of furniture or table… so I wouldn't fall over."

By 2011, Sheen's on-set and offset behaviour had become so bad he was fired from Two and a Half Men, with the show's creator Chuck Lorre killing off the character and bringing in Ashton Kutcher as a replacement.

The move came after Sheen refused repeated requests by Warner Brothers studio and broadcaster CBS to enter rehab.

Instead, he embarked on a series of outlandish interviews and blasted his employers.

The final straw was a disastrous interview with the TV show 20/20, in which he declared, "I got tiger blood, man. Dying's for fools, dying's for amateurs".

"After careful consideration, Warner Brothers Television has terminated Charlie Sheen's services on Two and a Half Men, effective immediately," the studio announced.

HIV diagnosis

In 2015, Sheen announced he was HIV positive and said he had been living with the disease since 2011.

In a 2017 interview with the US ABC News he said he wanted to "eat a bullet" after receiving the diagnosis but couldn't do that to his mother.

Instead, he went on the prescribed antiretroviral medication, which suppressed the condition to the point it was no longer detectable.

He told ABC News he was "carrying the torch" for others who had been diagnosed with the condition.

Love life

Sheen is a father of five children to three women, and has been married three times.

His eldest daughter, Cassandra Estevez, 41, is from his relationship with his high school girlfriend Paula Profit, who is also known as Paula Speert.

Sheen is close to his daughter and gave her away at her wedding. He is now a grandfather to her daughter Luna.

Sheen was engaged to the late actress Kelly Preston in 1990 but she broke it off after she was injured by shrapnel when a gun went off in their home.

She said in a 2011 interview with TMZ that Sheen did not fire the gun.

In September 1995, Sheen married first wife Donna Peele but they divorced the following year.

In 2001, Sheen started dating actress and Bond girl Denise Richards.

After a whirlwind romance they became engaged on Boxing Day 2001 and married just six months later.

They had daughter Sami in 2004. Richards was pregnant with their second daughter, Lola, when she filed for divorce.

She later told Oprah Winfrey that Sheen pushed her and made threats that left her "terrified" for her life.

Their divorce was finalised in November 2006 but they continued to have an acrimonious relationship, mostly over child support, for many years.

Sheen married his third wife, Brooke Mueller, in May 2008 and she gave birth to twin boys Max and Bob, now 16.

On Christmas Day 2009, police were called to the home they were staying in at Aspen, Colorado, and arrested Sheen.

He later pleaded guilty to assault and the two divorced in 2011.

Getting sober

Sheen continued his slide to rock bottom.

While he initially used alcohol and cocaine, he later started using crack, which he now says he supplemented with a testosterone cream that caused him to become a 'raving lunatic'.

He told People this week he gave up drugs and then alcohol in 2017 after yet another stint in rehab.

"You have to be willing," he said, adding he wanted to be a father his children could rely on.

Sheen said he has stayed sober by keeping a mental checklist of "the worst, most shameful things I've done, and I can look at that in my head if I feel like having a drink".

Sheen today

Whereas his days were once filled with endless parties and call girls, today Sheen is more likely to be found having coffee dates with friends or spending time with his elderly parents or his children.

He told People this week he stayed fit by working out on a rowing machine and his only vice was the occasional anti-inflammatory pill for a bad shoulder.

Of turning 60, he said, "I have more days behind me than in front of me, and that's fine".

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