Charlie Murphy–older brother of Eddie Murphy, comedian and Chappelle’s Show stand-out–died Wednesday from leukemia. He was 57.
After serving six years as a boiler technician in the U.S. Navy, Murphy followed his brother to Hollywood in the late-80s, first popping up in bit parts before appearing in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever and co-starring with Chris Rock in 1993’s CB4.
We just lost one of the funniest most real brothers of all time . Charlie Murphy RIP. pic.twitter.com/AAwItp5AJC
— Chris Rock (@chrisrock) April 12, 2017
His comedy legend was cemented, however, with Dave Chappelle’s Chappelle’s Show. Murphy’s reoccurring bit, “Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories,” resulted in arguably two of the greatest sketches in history: A night of basketball and pancakes with Prince, and a saga of disrespect with Rick James that will be quoted until the end of time.
[protected-iframe id=”77f6f4f9d9ea193c92027dcde2b32c74-35584880-59143305″ info=”//media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:arc:video:comedycentral.com:98fe111e-ed00-11e0-aca6-0026b9414f30″ width=”512″ height=”288″ frameborder=”0″] [protected-iframe id=”a02de353a4a4dd08f629f6d0b5090933-35584880-59143305″ info=”//media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:arc:video:comedycentral.com:98f43234-ed00-11e0-aca6-0026b9414f30″ width=”512″ height=”288″ frameborder=”0″]Off-screen, Murphy also co-wrote Wes Craven’s Vampire in Brooklyn and 2007’s Norbit, both of which starred his younger brother. His debut stand-up performance was immortalized in 2010’s Charlie Murphy: I Will Not Apologize.
