Charles Quinton Murphy (July 12, 1959 – April 12, 2017) was an American actor, comedian, and writer. He was best known as a writer and cast member of the Comedy Central sketch-comedy series Chappelle's Show and as the co-star of the sitcom Black Jesus. He was the older brother of actor and comedian Eddie Murphy. Born and raised in New York, Eddie and Charlie's parents - Lillian and Charles - split up when the boys were little. Charles was murdered by a girlfriend just a few years later.
Lillian became ill and the brothers spent a short period in foster care. She then remarried and her husband Vernon Lynch brought Eddie and Charlie up.He talked about experimenting with drugs and having "tons of fights". He once found himself with a gun held to his head in high school after threatening a classmate.
According to his 2009 book The Making of a Stand-Up Guy, Murphy received three years probation for robbing a driver at gunpoint, and in the final year of his probation was arrested for larceny, loitering and other misdemeanours.
He was then sentenced to serve the rest of his probation - 10 months - in county jail. His mother took him to all the armed services recruitment offices on the day he was released from jail in 1978 and they all turned him down due to his criminal record.
The Navy eventually agreed to take him after his mother pleaded: "You gotta take my son or he's going to be killed out here." He served for six years as a boiler technician. He died in 2017 of Leukemia.