Charlie Sheen is setting the record straight on his stage surname.
In his new memoir, The Book of Sheen, the Two and a Half Men star shared new insight into his name change, following in the footsteps of his father, Martin Sheen, who was born Ramón Estevez. The elder Sheen has previously spoken out about his decision to adopt a stage name.
Born Carlos Irwin Estevez, Sheen had just started working with Glennis Liberty as his manager when he made the decision to use the surname his father adopted.
“I told her I was using Sheen as my last name, and as I watched her type the letters of the new me at the top of a blank piece of paper, I really liked the way it looked,” Sheen wrote in the new memoir.
“I’d sat with Pop the week earlier and got his blessing for the name swap. It was a much smoother father-son, Estevez-to-Sheen morph than the one Dad had suffered with his old man. I told him how important it was to honor him by carrying the name forward,” Sheen continued.
“With Emilio already working as an actor and using Estevez, it seemed to make perfect sense that two of his sons would be checking both ancestral boxes.
“What I didn’t share with Pop: Using Sheen allowed me to slam the door on the recent academic and athletic failures I felt I was connected to with Estevez,” Sheen explained. “I wasn’t ashamed of the name, but if this was gonna be a fresh start across new horizons, I wanted to sound different when spoken of.”
Sheen’s memoir marks the first time he has provided insight into his decision to follow in his father’s footsteps with the name change.
His father, meanwhile, has for years spoken out about the choice he made in the 1950s. He changed his professional name to Martin Sheen in 1958 in a bid to land more acting roles due to prejudices in the industry and went on to star on Broadway, in films, and on the hit drama series The West Wing. He has, however, revealed his regrets over his name change.
In contrast to the two Sheens, Emilio Estevez – Martin’s son and Charlie’s brother – has shared his reasons for keeping his birth name and not following suit.
When he began auditioning as an actor, Estevez said he, too, used the name Sheen as he thought it would help open doors in Hollywood.
However, he recalled that, at the time, his father said: “Don’t make the same mistake that I did.”
