Charles Francis "Charlie" Harper is a fictional character in the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men during the first eight seasons of the series. Played by actor Charlie Sheen, the character of Charlie Harper is loosely based on Sheen himself. The show has garnered him four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series and two Golden Globe nominations for Best Performance by an Actor in a Comedy Series. Although the character was written off after the end of the eighth season, the character was reprised for one episode of the ninth season by Kathy Bates, which resulted in her winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series and in the series finale, "Of Course He's Dead".
After being expelled from Juilliard School, Charlie moved back to Los Angeles with the intention of becoming a film composer. He met a commercial producer who listened to Charlie's work; thus began his career writing jingles. His most famous composition is the Maple Loops song. He then became a successful composer and singer of children's music under the alias "Charlie Waffles" when the jingle business dried up. He can be frequently seen playing the Steinway grand piano in his living room. The piano was later removed from the house by Walden Schmidt.
Charlie prides himself on his bachelor/playboy lifestyle in Malibu, California and drives a Mercedes, and used to own a Jaguar. He was also thinking of buying a Ferrari F430 or a Bentley. His lifestyle consists of living in a two-story beachfront house, drinking excessively, smoking cigars, womanizing and gambling constantly, and wearing shorts and bowling shirts. He sleeps in constantly and retains a full-time housekeeper, Berta. Money "falls into his lap" as he lives a life of free-spirited debauchery. He has a vast range of phobias, including stage fright (unless he is drunk), commitment, his mother, spiders, large birds, germs, change, and hard work.
Following Sheen's dismissal from the series in March 2011, the character was written off in the ninth season, with his wife Rose implying he was killed by a train in Paris while on vacation. Charlie's ghost, portrayed by Kathy Bates, returns as a hallucination to Alan, revealing that he is living in Hell trapped in a woman's body. However, in the series finale, "Of Course He's Dead," Rose reveals that Charlie had been alive all along (albeit brainwashed) and she was keeping him prisoner in the basement of a house that she purchased in Sherman Oaks after returning to the United States. He escapes from Rose's basement and returns to the beach house. As he rings the doorbell, a piano that is being transported by helicopter falls from the sky, killing him.
Both the character and Sheen's portrayal received a positive reception, with critics and fans feeling he was the best character on Two and a Half Men.
History When Charlie's mother Evelyn was pregnant with him (for 7 and a half months), his parents thought that he was going to be a girl, since the ultrasound showed no signs of a penis. By Charlie's own admission, he was a 'preemie' or born prematurely (Alan too) because, as he put it, "my mother waits nine months for NOTHING". According to Evelyn, Charlie was always "a little drama queen" when he grew up. After his father died of food poisoning, Charlie and his brother Alan had three stepdads. The first, Harry Luther Gorsky, left Evelyn for a young woman (Charlie refers to Harry as "a little tyrant"), and Evelyn was also present at his funeral, the second was a twitchy gay man from Texas who called him and Alan "buckaroos", and the third was "the Carpet King", a fat man whom Charlie liked the most because he had "a grateful daughter". Well into his 40s, Charlie believed "the Carpet King" owned a carpeting business until his mother explained that the man's name was actually sexual slang rather than his profession.
When Charlie was young, he was embarrassed by his younger brother Alan; on Alan's first-ever day of school, Charlie told everyone at school that Alan was his shaved monkey (he later explained he did this because he always wanted a shaved monkey). He also gave his brother frequent wedgies and bullied him whenever he could. Charlie has dependably had a troubled association with Alan, and would go to all expenses to escape being a decent sibling to him. As a child, Charlie once put a toy in Alan's pocket to shop-lift, and when they got caught, he influenced Alan to assume the fault. Charlie drank a lot when he was a teenager, was a chain smoker, and constantly ran away, nevertheless his mother did not mind because he always came back, and generally did not care about her sons. He once even, when he was 16, drove to Tijuana, Mexico with a school nurse. When he was 17, he almost married a woman whom he thought was the love of his life, but relented. Charlie says that if he did not, he would at that point be married to a "65-year-old retired belly dancer". Charlie constantly criticizes Alan and Jake's presence in his house, but generally seems happy that they are around, because they are the only people who have known him for a long time and accept his unconventional life. When Alan was surprised to find that Charlie did not have their mother's cell phone number in his contacts list, Charlie told him "If I can't eat it, bang it or bet on it, it's not in my phone." On a later episode, it is shown Charlie does have his mother's number. He has it on the speed dial address that he finds appropriate for her, "666".
Charlie and Alan have an estranged relationship with their mother and try to avoid her at all costs; Charlie refers to her as "a Satan". Not much is known about their biological father, Francis Harper, except that when Charlie thinks back he says he was a horrible son to him. Evelyn, even after multiple marriages, still keeps her first husband's name (Harper). Charlie also once had a hallucination of his father Francis telling him to take care of his mother, which horrified him, but when he saw an old gangster film, he realized that he "misunderstood"; his father actually wants him to kill her when he can manage this.
Charlie is often unappreciative towards Alan. In one episode he made Alan go on a date in spite of being sick with the flu, merely in order to afford him (Charlie) the opportunity to have "revenge sex". In another episode when Alan got upset in a bookstore and wanted to miss a movie that they were going to see Charlie replied, "So I'm supposed to miss the movie just because you had a nervous breakdown. Don't you think that is a little selfish, Alan?" Furthermore, after Alan's second divorce Alan tells Charlie that he needs him in front of a crowd of people to which Charlie retorts, "Anyone know a Charlie?" He additionally derives enjoyment from rubbing his own success in Alan's face and further worsening Alan's situations just for the fun of it. He is particularly critical about Alan's situation with Judith, especially since he told Alan not to marry her and tried to bribe him with a $1000 prostitute.
While Charlie cares about his nephew Jake and, at the beginning of the show, used him to get dates, he often makes jokes about Jake's apparent lack of intellectual ability, and often states that he is destined to be a doorstop or a fry cook, and states that he is not a kid, but a "gassy dwarf". Nevertheless, it is often shown that Charlie genuinely loves Jake, and sometimes acts like a father to him, giving him advice, that Alan is unable to give. In the episode "Ate the Hamburgers, Wearing the Hats" Jake gets an injury and Charlie goes out of his way to make sure that he's safe. In the episode "The Mooch at the Boo" Jake and his neighbor, a pretty girl named Celeste, disappear together and Celeste's father, ex-football player Jerome (Michael Clarke Duncan), comes looking for them; when they're found kissing, Charlie tells Jerome that he'll take the beating intended for Jake.
Despite his selfish attitude, Charlie can be caring at times. Though Charlie often scolds Alan for being a "sponge", he has continued to provide two out of his three bedrooms to Alan rent-free, and seemingly provides all of his meals, even when the two dine out together. In many occasions, he has stood up to Jake on behalf of Alan when Jake started roasting his father.
Charlie watches a lot of sports on TV, but has little interest in athletics per se; rather, Charlie is a frequent gambler. He watches sports to keep tabs on his investments, and bets on horse races, football matches, etc. Two of his favorite sitcoms are Dharma and Greg and Becker.
Despite his upper class and playboy persona (or because of it), Charlie can be remarkably naïve about everyday matters. In "Last Chance to See Those Tattoos," Alan observes that Charlie does not really understand how the Internet works. In "I Can't Afford Hyenas," Charlie is shown to have no understanding of how to care for his own living expenses because he entrusts an accountant with managing his cash flow and paying the bills. The accountant reveals his bills cannot be paid because Charlie has no savings due to spending his residual checks on his lavish lifestyle as soon as he receives them. Charlie becomes aware of his financial problems after he receives notices from the bank that his accounts are delinquent, his credit cards are maxed out and his car is in danger of being repossessed. He has never done his own laundry, and has no idea how a washing machine works; he genuinely believes Alan when he sarcastically says that the machine will call him when the cycle is complete.Episode 4.10 "Kissing Abraham Lincoln" In the final few months of his life after Chelsea left him, he reverts to his old ways: drinking heavily, gambling, smoking marijuana to help him sleep and partying hard for hours. This began to affect him psychologically and physically; he aged considerably, gave himself a bad haircut and broke several toes, and received a black eye from one of his trips to Las Vegas. He eventually admits that his behavior is a way to cope with depression and loneliness.
Reported death Charlie Harper was reported by Rose to have died in Paris after being struck by a train. The season 9 premiere featured his funeral with one of Charlie's trademark bowling shirts and a pair of cargo shorts hanging by his closed casket. Rose explained that he had proposed to her in Paris and the next few days had been happy, but when she returned from shopping one day, she found him showering with another woman. The next day he fell off a Paris Métro platform and was struck by a train, his body exploding "like a balloon full of meat". It is implied by Rose and suggested by Berta that Rose was responsible for Charlie's death.
Aftermath
Following his funeral, Charlie has been frequently mentioned by his surviving (though very few) loved ones. It tends to be in a disrespectful manner and secrets and previously unknown details about his life emerge.