Charlie Harper (Two and a Half Men)


 * This article is about the Two and a Half Men character, for the musician see: Charlie Harper

Charles Francis "Charlie" Harper is a fictional character from the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men. Played by actor Charlie Sheen, the character has garnered three Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor and two Golden Globe nominations for Best Performance by an Actor in a Comedy Series.

Charlie is the brother of Alan Harper and the uncle of Jake Harper. Charlie formerly wrote jingles for living, his most famous composition being the Maple Loops song, and became a successful children's music singer named "Charlie Waffles" when the jingle business dried up. The character of Charlie Harper is loosely based on Charlie Sheen, the actor who portrays the character. (In addition, it is the second character that has the same first name as Sheen, who had previously portrayed deputy mayor Charlie Crawford in Spin City.)

Charlie prides himself his bachelor lifestyle Malibu and drives a Mercedes (formerly a Jaguar). His lifestyle consists of living in a two-story Malibu beachfront home, drinking excessively, smoking cigars, constant womanizing, a full-time maid/housekeeper, gambling, and wearing expensive bowling shirts and shorts the vast majority of the time. Charlie sleeps in constantly, money "falls into his lap", and lives life on his own terms - one of free spirited debauchery. A notable character trait of Charlie is his ability to remain calm. Charlie rarely gets angry or yells, and when Charlie does get angry, he speaks in a calm voice.

History
When Charlie's mother Evelyn was pregnant with him, his parents thought that he was going to be a girl, since the echo showed no signs of a penis. According to Evelyn, Charlie was always "a little drama queen" when he grew up. After his father died, Charlie and his brother had three step dads. First, a man named Harry Luther Gorsky, who left Charlie and Alan's mother for a young woman, Charlie refers to him as "a little tyrant". Second was a twitchy gay man from Texas who called him and Alan buckaroos. Third, there was a fat guy with a carpet business, who Charlie liked the most because he had "a grateful daughter".

When Charlie was young, he was ashamed of his younger brother Alan, and when Alan had his first school day, 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 full-time wedgies and annoyed him whenever he could. Charlie drank a lot when he was a teenager, and constantly ran away, nevertheless his mother didn't mind because he always came back. Charlie constantly bemoans Alan and Jake's presence in his house but generally seems happy that they're around, because they are the only people who've known him for a long time and remain in his daily life. When Alan was surprised to find Charlie didn't have their mom'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 get his mother's number, in fact he has it on speed dial 666 as shown in the quote from the episode.

Love life
Charlie's love life is a recurring theme in his character - he is a drunken womanizer that has engaged in decades of frequent one night stands, prostitutes, booty calls, and "relationships" of short duration, in stark contrast to his brother Alan's inability to garner much female attention. Even though Charlie usually never calls any of his girlfriends again after he had sex with them, there are a few relationships on the show that lasted longer than one night, notably his neighbor Rose, who continues to stalk him after they spent one night together, and Jake's ballet teacher Mia, who Charlie was actually in love with, and almost married in Las Vegas. In Season 5, he pursued relationships that were a change of pace for him, including one with a respected judge played by Ming-Na and later with a substantially older single mother/author (Susan Blakely), but he later blew it with both women; in Season 6, Charlie proposed marriage to his girlfriend Chelsea (Jennifer Bini Taylor, who has also played 3 other roles in earlier seasons) just to get her to return his love for her.

Rose
Charlie and Rose spent one night together, a little before the show started; after this, Rose became increasingly obsessed with him. She usually spends time at his beachhouse when Charlie and Alan are gone, and when they come back they usually find a surprise, such as cabinets that are glued shut. Rose demonstrates her obsession with Charlie in numerous ways: she names her boyfriends Charlie; she encourages them to wear the same kind of bowling shirts Charlie usually wears; she has called all of her five ferrets Charlie. Charlie is usually charmed by Rose, but isn't interested in a relationship with her, even though Berta thinks they are a good couple together. When Rose decided to leave to go to London Charlie believed that she was only pretending in order to get him into a relationship with him; after she really left, Charlie realized that he made a horrible mistake by letting Rose go. He then went to London to meet her but quickly returned home when Rose started talking about his moving there and starting a family together. Rose has since returned to Malibu and continues to stalk Charlie. As of "The Devil's Lube," there is a chance of a relationship between the two in the future. However, in "Above Exalted Cyclops," Rose, after being set up by Chelsea, now has moved on from Charlie and is stalking Alan.

Linda Harris
Beginning in the fifth season, Charlie started to date Linda Harris (Ming-Na), a judge and professor of his own age. Charlie wanted to be with Linda badly enough to commit a drunken crime in order to see her in a courtroom. Their relationship ended in the middle of the same season, due to Linda concluding that "she can't be connected publicly to a guy like (Charlie)."

Angie
Towards the end of season five, Charlie met an older woman (Susan Blakely) named Angie who was also the author of a relationship self-help book that he was interested in reading. Angie has been described as a mother figure to Charlie, more so than even his own mother Evelyn. When Angie introduced him to her grown son Jeremy and his fiancee Tricia, Charlie realized that he had dated Tricia earlier in his life. After Tricia revealed that she still had feelings for Charlie, Tricia dumped Jeremy, and Angie became, as Alan describes, a "mean drunk" who verbally lashed out at Charlie and furiously broke up with him.

Mia
Mia (Emmanuelle Vaugier) is a ballet teacher who Charlie had a crush on, and was engaged to for a short while. Charlie decided not to marry Mia, so that Alan and Jake could stay with him; only to find out that Alan married Kandi and moved out. Charlie later became sexually reckless and depressed because he found out Mia was going to marry someone else.

Kandi
Charlie had a very brief relationship with Kandi (April Bowlby) before they broke up, and she married his brother, Alan. Kandi is depicted as a hot and young (half the age of Alan or Charlie), with a "dumb blonde" stereotype, even though she is a redhead.

Courtney Leopold/Sylvia Fishman
Charlie also fell for his future stepsister, "Courtney" (Jenny McCarthy), and after agreeing to stop seeing her due to their relationship to each other, he lends her a substantial amount of money and proposes moments before they become step-siblings. Charlie is heart-broken to learn that she is actually a con artist named Sylvia, but he apparently retains feelings for her, telling her that he will "wait" for her (to get out of prison).

Chelsea
Chelsea (Jennifer Bini Taylor) is the first woman that Charlie supposedly loves. He says this nearly by accident but claims he meant it. At first, Chelsea was another one of Charlie's one-night stands, but after some couples counseling, it quickly evolves. He proposes to her, ring and all, just to get her to say "I love you" back to him, and since then, they are engaged to be married.