Charlie Harper (Two and a Half Men)

Charles "Charlie" Francis Harper is a fictional character and one of the two main protagonists 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, taking drugs, 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.