Comedian Charlie Murphy, the brother of Eddie Murphy and star on "The Chappelle Show," died Wednesday, according to Variety.
Murphy, 57, had been battling leukemia. A growing list of celebrities and even the Department of Defense have paid tribute to Murphy on social media.
"In the Navy, you're around a lot of people from different parts of the country. They've got different accents, different upbringings," said Murphy. "I learned to love country-western music."
Growing up in Brooklyn, Murphy was in trouble frequently, often for standing up for his younger brother Eddie. Murphy joined the Navy after a serving time in jail as a teen. The day he got out of jail, he enlisted. After serving in the Navy, Murphy was standing up for Eddie again, this time as the rising Hollywood star’s head of security, according to We Are The Mighty.
Comedian George Wallace shared this passage from Murphy’s Esquire interview on Twitter:
"In the military, you don't wear street clothes, you wear a uniform. Now, I'm in Hollywood, these guys are going out every night, and I have no clothes at all. Eddie says to me, 'Go shopping.' But I didn't know what to buy. How am I supposed to look? I'd lost all of that. So he said, 'You know what, man, I have a whole bunch of clothes I'm getting rid of.' And he gave me the leather jackets, all the show-business stuff he was wearing back then. One night we went out. I had on a green glitter busboy jacket, no shirt, bunch of chains around my neck. We went into the club and I could hear everybody screaming, 'That's him! It's Eddie Murphy.' And someone said, 'Who's that other guy, the one who looks just like him? That must be his brother.'"
In addition to his role on "The Chappelle Show," he was a writer for his brother Eddie’s films "Vampire in Brooklyn" and "Norbit." As a voice over actor, he worked on "The Boondocks," "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and the video game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas."
The day before he died, Murphy tweeted:
Murphy’s wife Tisha Taylor Murphy also passed away from cancer in 2009. He is survived by his three children.
