: MediaTakeOut.com has learned that earlier this year comedian Chris Rock lost his brother Charles. According to reports, Chris' brother Charles was an alcoholic for more than 20 years. And it was alcohol that led the 52-year-old to die in such squalor.
But Chris' brother Charles was not always down and out. MediaTakeOut.com learned that Charles graduated from college and was accepted to a prestigious junior executive program. It wasn't until after Chris Rock's career took off, that Charles began abusing alcohol.
And years of excessive drinking took a toll of Charles' life. According to reports, Charles was in and out of alcohol treatment programs. Last year, he hit rock bottom - winding up living in a homeless shelter in NYC.
On January 26th, Charles came down with a deadly strain of pneumonia and was rushed from the shelter to a Harlem hospital. After 6 days in intensive care, the 52 year old Rock passed away. The official cause of death was "bronchopneumonia complicating chronic alcoholism."
But the story gets worse. Since no one knew Charles' identity, he was buried in an anonymous grave in a cemetery filled with unidentified persons.
Fortunately, MediaTakeOut.com has learned that Chris Rock later found out about his brother and held a wake for him in their home church in Brooklyn.
When you hear about stuff like this all I can say its a sad case. When you are that rich you mean to tell me Chris was unable to place his brother in a nice modest apartment with some cash and clothes. I don't know the level of there relationship but is sad when people with money only cares about themselves! My uncle had no food in his house to feed his family I went to the grocery store for him.......I don't have Chris Rock money! Save the speech about black folks because right now this is no case of someone sticking by this brother.
You never know where your path is going to lead. You could be ready to touch the stars one day and end up like Charles Rock the next. What does your future hold?
This would be a great time for that idiot who always post his psychic website to actually post his psychic website. I want to know what my future hold.
@Lockstress - I agree with you!
Each person came down the cervix along and will pass over with their unique experiences. It's not about blaming "black people" or family members or even about coming together. Life is made of individual decisions and each person casts a vote for a happy life or sad life - with each decision made minute by minute. It may be easy to blame Chris Rock because he is so public - but we really don't know every detail of what went on. In the end - Each woman/man is soley responsible for the decisions that she/he makes.
OK, MTO...got this from Wiki-pedia.
Christopher Julius Rock III[1] (born February 7, 1966)[2] is an American comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, film producer and director. He was described by Comedy Central as the fifth greatest stand-up comedian of all time.[3]
Contents [hide] 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Early career 2.2 Early to mid-1990s 2.2.1 Recurring characters on SNL 2.2.2 Celebrity impersonations on SNL 2.3 Stand-up success 2.4 Film career 2.5 Comedic style 2.6 Entertainment/wrestling 2.7 Academy Awards host 2.8 Music videos 2.9 Live Earth controversy 3 Personal life 4 Works 4.1 Filmography 4.2 Discography 4.3 Selected television work 4.3.1 HBO specials 4.4 Books 5 See also 6 References 7 External links
[edit] Early life Rock was born in Andrews, South Carolina. *** after his birth, his parents moved to Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York. A few years later, they moved to the working-class area of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn where they settled.[1] His mother, Rosalie (***ée Tingman), was a teacher and social worker with the mentally handicapped, and his father, Julius Rock, was a former truck driver and newspaper deliveryman.[4][5] Julius died in 1988 after ulcer surgery.[6] Rock has five younger siblings, Andre, Tony, Brian (a minister), Kenny, Andi, and a half-sibling, Jordan. Rock has said that he was influenced by the performing style of his paternal grandfather, Allen Rock, a preacher.[1][7] His brothers Tony and Kenny are also in the entertainment business.[8]
Why people getting mad at him for. You can't help someone who doesn't want to help themselves. *** for all we know Chris could have tried to help him over and over and he just couldn't be help. Stop passing judgement we don't know all the facts. Plus if people haven't learned anything from Vick when you start making money some peoople you need to cut loose cause they will bring your *** down!
MTO IS FULL OF ***! WHY DON'T YAR POST THE REAL STORY INSTEAD OF TRYING TO MAKE CHRIS ROCK LOOK LIKE THE BAD GUY! I'M FROM THE NYC/NJ AREA AND IT WAS SAID THAT CHRIS HAS HELPED HIS BROTHER NUMEROUS TIMES, BUT HIS BROTHER WAS A HEAVY ALCOHOLIC THAT DIDN'T WANT TO BE HELPED. CHRIS BOUGHT HIM A CONDO IN NY AND HE DIDN'T TAKE CARE OF IT AND LOST IT. ALSO WHEN A PERSON DOESN'T WANT TO BE HELPED WHAT DO YOU SUPPOSE TO DO? KEEP GIVING YOUR ALL AND WASTING YOUR TIME WITH THEM? HELL NO. CHRIS IS A BUSY MAN AND DON'T HAVE THE TIME TO KEEP PUTTING HIS LIFE ON HOLD FOR NO GROWN *** MAN THAT DON'T WANT THE HELP.
this is sad. i hope his drinking didnt have to do w/ sibling jealousies btwn he & chris. if no one knew where he was & he died anonymously, he & chris probably had bad blood & hadnt spoken in many yrs. unfortunately this is common when people hit the bigtime. theres always a family member or two who just cant handle it.
It's not Chris' responsibility to provide support for his brother; you don't know what their relationship was like, NOR do we know what support, if any, he did provide... maybe he supported him and then decided that he'd had enough of supporting a grown azzed man who chose to drink his life away.
People think that because you have money you're supposed to be the "savior" of your family and that's not true.
Check out Miss Pearl: She's funny as hell!
[link to external website removed] [link to external website removed] [link to external website removed]
African American News & Entertainment Blog
if any of this is true, dont be too quick to judge chris rock. it is really very textbook to say that family should stick together or he aint heavy he is my brother. it does not always apply. some family members are just too heavy, and they do things that for the safety of the family they have to be cut out of the family circle completely.
if u have have a family member who is a child molester u would not want him/her around. or a family member who has stabbed your mother because he/she want money to buy drugs or alcohol. you have to remember you cannot help these people unless they let you. they must be ready to let u help them. drug and alcohol abuse does make this person into someone that you do not know, but for your own safety u must remember that this person is no longer the person u used to know and u must take precaution and many of them become dangerous and u may not be able to bring them back.
MTO YOU KNOW YOU WRONG. I HAVE READ SEVERAL BIOS ON CHRIS ROCK AND NOT ONE OF THEM SAY THAT HE HAS A OLDER BROTHER NAMED CHARLES. GET YOUR LAWYERS TOGETHER BECAUSE YOU WILL BE SUED. MARK MY WORDS. PEOPLE YOU HAVE TO TAKE WHAT MTO SAYS WITH A GRAIN OF SALT AND DON'T BELEIVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR OR IN THIS CASE READ.
I'm not sure if I believe this one MTO. Because it has always been said that Chris was the oldest child. But if this is true, I agree with the other posters that say lay off Chris. 1) We don't know what went down and what type of help the whole family tried to get Charles. 2) You can only do so much and the rest is up to the addict. Actually it starts with them wanting to make a change. 3) After you've tried everything you can think of to help them and nothing's change when do you remove yourself from the situation to avoid any further strain on yourself? (you can't live someone's life for them) And how do we know that Charles didn’t distance himself from his family like a lot abusers are known to do? 4) Chris Rock said it best on one of his stand up specials..... “There is a difference between being rich and wealthy. You can blow being rich with one bad summer and a drug habit. End up doing Old Navy commercials”. And by his own admission he is rich not wealthy.
Chris Rock comes from a family of about 7-8.
Man MTO yall scared me as I thought is was Tony (who by the way looks waaaaaay betta than Chris)....Tony Rock is a straight nut on the now cancelled "All of Us".
And JesseJames is right....you can only do so much for a family member. Some family members are beyond repair and it takes TOUGH LOVE to get them to walk a straight path.
To all of you saying that it was *** up that Chris Rock didn't help his bro...how does anyone know what he did...Chris may have tried to help but you can only do so much. Chris did help with the memorial service which is good.
You can't force people to better themselves if they don't have the desire to do so. I have a brother, who i've tried to help on numerous occassions, and he insisted on getting in trouble, even though he had a place to live (free), free food, free access to transportation to get to and from work, nothing to do but fill out applications. And he STILL went back to jail for bad decisions. Goes to show you that old cliche is true: You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.
It's a sad story, but from what I understand Charles was an older stepbrother that was not really close to the rest of the family. And as for Chris helping him out, why should he have to do that? Charles was a grown man who was responsible for his own actions. When you are an alcoholic, you have to first acknowledge that, then you have to want to be helped. If Charles didn't want it, then there's no reason to blame Chris for that.
I agree Januaryreign, I have a friend right now who is going broke trying to help her daughter. Pretty soon she might be homeless herself. I also have family members that are drug and alcohol addicted. I have opened up my home only to have my things stolen and one of them flipped out me so bad when he was high on whatever he was on that I feared for my life and my kids lives. I had to say enough is enough and let these people go before they could drag me down with them. It is easy to say what someone else should be doing when you haven't been through it yourself.
Ok. I'm confused...
Who is Charles?????
From what I read from JustHangingOut post and Wiki-pedia...There are NO siblings named Charles. So, is this true and the names got screwed up or what?!? I refuse to comment for Chris sakes and the sake of a death, if there really is one!
I don't know anything about Chris except for the fact that he is married, has two daughters, and I know of ONE brother from the show "All of Us" and of course the new film he's got out. Other than that, I don't really get into celebrities personal business, UNLESS the meida throws it on our faces.
Peace.
If this is true (cuz his bio does not mention a brother named Charles), then here is my response to the people who think Chris Rock is wrong:
Why don't you go and give your alcoholic/crackhead/gangbanging/whoring/molesting/lazy/pothead/etc. family member YOUR hard earned money time after fricking time!!!
I've had people who just became homeless up in my house, and they had like 5 siblings. Why didn't they take that person in? Cuz that person was crazy! I eventually had to get them out MY house, as well!
Its not anyone else's job to take care of you! How his brother went to college just to become an alcoholic???
That's his personal demons!!! You can't walk up to a depressed person and ***, "BE HAPPY!!!" You think that would actually work??? You better wake the f*ck up...
Sorry, just had to vent.
There's only so much you can do for an ADULT that continuously CHOOSES to make bad decisions. He probably got to the point that he was tired of trying to help. And if you're down and out, alcohol should be your LAST choice. If you want to get yourself out of your hole, step one, STOP DRINKING. It's easy to talk about how you would have helped a drunk if you haven't had to actually deal with one. It's not easy. I had a similar situation with someone and on the last bailout, I told this person in no uncertain terms that it was the LAST TIME. Thankfully, this person straightened out but I would not have offered help any further. You can only give so many chances to someone before you have to let them go.
I love how someone early in the comments cut out the sentence that said he had an older brother named charles that died from alcoholism! Please do not try to change things to suit your own purpose... Also, I found a site that had an article on how Chris "failed" his brother, but he tried in vain to help him... Check it out... http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/rock-failed-dead-brother_1045637
