It was almost one year ago that iconic musician Prince passed away, and now we're having to say goodbye to comedian Charlie Murphy, who brought Prince a revived relevance in the early 2000s thanks to his unforgettable "True Hollywood Story" from Chappelle's Show. Murphy was 57 years old
It appears that Charlie Murphy succumbed to a battle with leukemia, and he died inside a New York City hospital on Wednesday morning. According to TMZ, the actor and comedian was undergoing chemotherapy, and he was thought to be on the road to recovery by his family members, who were shocked by his death. He was apparently even joking recently about them calling to check on him too often.
One of those family members is, of course, the inimitable Eddie Murphy, a younger brother to Charlie. But before getting into the entertainment spotlight, the elder Murphy eased into adulthood as part of the U.S. Navy, in which he served for six years. After a couple of film and TV appearances, Murphy made a bigger name for himself in the rap music parody CB4, and it was a decade later when he'd become a household name for his recurring appearances on Comedy Central's Chappelle's Show. Murphy's stories about Prince and Rick James helped boost that show and star Dave Chappelle into orbit.
Beyond his on-camera work, which branched out a bit when Comedy Central ran the "Lost Episodes" of Chappelle's Show after Dave Chappelle famously left the series following Season 2, Charlie Murphy was also part of the writers room, so his influence was felt all over. And of course, Chappelle's Show also did a lot to help Charlie Murphy's own career, and he's been in a plethora of movies and TV shows ever since the sketch comedy ended.
On the small screen, he's provided his voice for shows such as The Boondocks, Black Dynamite and, most recently, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; he's also showed up in live-action for Black Jesus, Are We There Yet? and Hawaii Five-0. On the film side of things, he was a co-writer and did some voicework for Eddie Murphy's Norbit back in 2007, and in recent years, he was in Meet the Blacks, Moving Day and Lottery Ticket. And that's all on top of a steady stand-up career, which included the 2010 special Charlie Murphy: I Will Not Apologize.
We here at CinemaBlend send our thoughts and condolences to the friends and family of Charlie Murphy in their time of mourning.
