In very shocking news, TMZ reports that comedian Charlie Murphy, the older brother of Eddie, has passed away at the age of 57 following a leukemia battle.
His manager confirmed the news with the site, stating that Murphy died on Wednesday morning at a hospital in New York City. His family was rocked by his unexpected passing because he was undergoing chemotherapy and they believed his condition was improving. Sadly, in 2009, Murphy’s wife, Tisha Taylor Murphy, passed away after a battle with cervical cancer.
While many people know Charlie Murphy from Chappelle’s Show and his particularly popular “Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories” sketches, like his younger brother Eddie, Charlie was a great standup comedian and had been acting for many years. Just a few of his film credits include Harlem Nights, Mo’ Better Blues, The Player’s Club, Roll Bounce, Norbit, Night at the Museum, Our Family Wedding, and his last film role, 2006’s Meet The Blacks. Murphy also had screenwriting credits for Norbit, Paper Soldiers and Vampire in Brooklyn.
Despite what critics may have thought of those skits or films, Murphy’s main preoccupation throughout his career was with connecting to the people by making them laugh. When speaking to the A.V. Club about his standup special I Will Not Apologize in 2010, he reiterated that.
“Anything I’ve said. There’s nothing that I’m saying that is, like, really far from the truth [on the special], so there’s no reason to apologize, especially when you’re standing in front of a crowd of 3,000 people and they’re laughing,” he said. “They thought it was funny. If you come to see my show, you’re going to go through a series of emotions, as well as laugh. That’s why I call it a show. It’s not one-dimension. Human beings are not one-dimension. You’re way more than your name. You’re way more than the way you look. You’re way more than even your political views or your religious views. All those things combined is what makes you a human being. I’m not going to be one dimension. I’m not going to allow you to put me in a box or to make me behave like somebody else. I’m giving you me.”
Murphy leaves behind three children, two he had with late wife Tisha and one from a previous relationship.
Images via Getty and WENN
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