In the new FX comedy “Anger Management,” Charlie Sheen steps into his first leading role post-“Two and a Half Men” meltdown. He plays a former major league ballplayer whose career was cut short due to his anger issues, leading to his new gig as a therapist specializing in anger management.
“Charlie [Goodson] thrives on chaos,” the sitcom’s press materials explain of Sheen’s character. In the pilot, he sleeps with his therapist/best friend, and nearly beats a guy who gives his teenage daughter bad advice. Loose canon? Definitely. Sound familiar?
Absolutely.
But “Anger Management” is hardly the first role Sheen has taken that mines some of his personal exploits for inspiration. We run down his résumé for autobiographical cues.
Time line
1986
‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’:?Boy in Police Station
Sheen plays a lout blitzed out of his mind who still manages to woo Ferris’s sister while she’s being questioned in the police station. The details are unconfirmed, but this may very well be how Sheen met his “goddesses.”
1986
‘Platoon’: Chris
As the film’s narrator, detailing the horrors witnessed while serving in the Vietnam War, Sheen’s young recruit struggles with the gray area between what is morally right and wrong — perhaps the only time the hard-partying actor has actually contemplated such things.
1987
‘Wall Street’: Bud Fox
Bud is a stockbroker determined to make a name for himself by any means necessary. See: Sheen’s “My Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat is Not An Option” tour.
1989
‘Major League’: Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn
Sheen played baseball in high school; here he stars as a wild, wildly inaccurate pitcher who becomes an ace after the team’s manager realizes he needs eyeglasses. Obviously, this is before Sheen knew he had “Adonis DNA,” which renders glasses needless. (Sheen reprised the role in “Major League II,” released in 1994.)
1991
‘Hot Shots!’: Lt. Topper Harley
In this “Top Gun” spoof, Sheen plays a pilot who is described as “talented but unstable.” And how.
1997
‘Loose Women’: Barbie-Loving Bartender
Self-explanatory, no?
2000-2002
‘Spin City’: Charlie Crawford
Sheen replaced series star Michael J. Fox as the New York City deputy mayor — a slick, sarcastic and capable professional who later essentially regressed …
2003-2011
‘Two and a Half Men’: Charlie Harper
… into Charlie Harper, the womanizer who became less and less distinguishable between sitcom character and tabloid-staple actor.
2012
‘Anger Management’: Charlie Goodson
Charlie Goodson is a reformed bad boy. As for a rehabilitated Charlie Sheen? We’ll believe it when he stops using TMZ as his personal publicist.