Comedian Charlie Murphy, the older brother of fellow comedian Eddie Murphy, who’s known for his work as a writer and actor of Comedy Central’s Chappelle’s Show has died at age 57 from leukemia, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed.
The Murphy family released a statement furthering confirming the death, which read “Our hearts are heavy with the loss today of our son, brother, father, uncle and friend Charlie. Charlie filled our family with love and laughter and there won’t be a day that goes by that his presence will not be missed. Thank you for the outpouring of condolences and prayers. We respectfully ask for privacy during this time of great loss for all of us.”
Murphy rose to fame as a cast member of Chappelle’s Show, especially his recurring segment “Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories,” where he told stories of meeting various celebrities during his time as a bodyguard to his brother, Eddie, in the 1980s. Some of the more famous ones were meeting Prince and Rick James.
In addition to his work on Chappelle’s Show, he played Vic on Adult Swim’s Black Jesus, had a standup special Charlie Murphy: I Will Not Apologize, appeared in the TV series Are We There Yet and had a guest appearance on Hawaii Five-0.
Many celebrities took to social media to remember Murphy.
Murphy has two children with his wife, Tisha Taylor Murphy, who died in 2009 from cervical cancer, and another child from a previous relationship.