Green was raised in the neighborhood of Sherwood Forest in Charleston, South Carolina. He was the son of Sgt. Charles Marvin Green Sr. (January 25, 1925 – July 6, 1987), a World War II sergeant, and Dorothy Mae Green (née Meyer; March 18, 1926 – December 25, 1999). He was said to be of English, Irish, Scottish, Samoan Mapua Letui and remote Welsh ancestry. Green was a former firefighter for The North Charleston Fire Department, and held various jobs in the past including owning small businesses as well as working as an apartment maintenance worker. Green had bipolar disorder, for which he took medication. He credited his YouTube channel and making videos with heavily influencing his lifestyle, turning him around and encouraging him from being an "800-pound alcoholic and distant father" to being more conscious about his health and keeping him busy.
In his youth, Green spent a year travelling the United States, which involved attending the Woodstock festival of 1969. In 1975 Green became friends with American serial killer Donald Henry "Pee Wee" Gaskins. Once Gaskins was arrested, he wrote a letter to Green from prison. Green replied by telling Gaskins to never contact him again. Years later, Green took his children to South Carolina Correctional Institution - where Gaskins had been held - before it shut down. Whilst there, Green discovered a pentagram in Gaskins' cell, with Green's name written in the middle of it.
The videos featured Green reacting, usually angrily, to several things, such as pranks pulled by his youngest son, Michael Green (who works as a webmaster and graphic designer), to current events, such as the Casey Anthony trial; Michael was coined the nickname "Pickleboy" in 2009 after he attempted to prank Green, but it backfired. Michael jumped out of the bathtub and ambushed Green by throwing a bag of flour on him, but Green "pickled" Michael by throwing a jar of pickle juice on him and then shouted "PICKLE BOY! PICKLE BOY!!" Starting in 2014, Michael had a prank tradition on Easter mornings where he pranked Green by giving him chocolate-covered raw eggs. Michael's longtime girlfriend, Bridgette Nicole West, also nicknamed "Princess" or "Picklegirl", was usually in on Michael's pranks but sometimes she would deliberately foil upcoming pranks by tipping Green off beforehand, enabling him to turn the tables on Michael. An Example of this is in the 2014 video "Grandpa's Bodyguard - The Prank", in which Michael attempted to prank Green into thinking he got robbed by breaking into his house while he was sleeping and taking his valuables. This backfired after Bridgette deliberately called Green and informed him. As a result, when Michael and Bridgette got there, Green was wide awake. He told Michael his pranking days were over and revealed that he had hired a personal bodyguard.
In 2011, Michael pranked Green by having him try playing "The Maze", only for him to get scared of the girl in the game. A year later, a similar video was posted involving the then highly popular game Slender: The Eight Pages. The video ended with Green throwing him and Bridgette out of his house with his computer. In a 2013 article from the Charleston City Paper, Green stated that he has destroyed numerous articles of furniture, along with electronics, including laptop computers, televisions and cellphones in his fits of rage. He also made some more serious videos, such as in April 2012, when Green had posted a video to his main channel that aimed to publicize the proposed sale of his trailer park where he resided at the time, Trailwood Trailer Park, in North Charleston, South Carolina, to a developer who had aimed to rezone it to light industrial to build a road to a new Boeing plant in North Charleston. The sale, however eventually went through and Green relocated to another trailer park later in that same year.
Green was married twice, had five children and eight grandchildren. He married his second wife, Tina Marie Sharp, in 1982 and had four children with her. In 2012, Green separated from Sharp. Their divorce was finalized on May 25, 2012. On November 4, 2017, Green became engaged to his girlfriend, Lauren Davi, whilst hospitalized. Green had his own personal YouTube channel, called "GrandpasCorner", where he told stories about his life and made vlogs and cooking videos.
Among his most viewed videos are one featuring his reaction to the Casey Anthony trial, being featured on HLN's Dr. Drew; one showing his reaction to his missing pecan pinwheels, featured on Ray william Johnson's channel and Break.com; one where he does a significant amount of damage to his kitchen when he cannot find his candy, which gained over 2 million views; and one of him commenting on constantly hearing Justin Bieber songs on the radio, which gained over 3 million views. In December 2014, he destroyed Michael's PlayStation 4 console and coffee table with a utility bar during a heated argument with him about failing to show up and bake Christmas cookies. The video gained over 30 million views as of December 2017, and it has since become the most viewed video on The Angry Grandpa Show's YouTube channel. Green also ran a separate personal channel, "GrandpasCorner", where he posted personal vlogs, in which he shows his softer side more often. He was also featured on Paul Heyman's Heyman Hustle, where Heyman stated that he's a fan of Grandpa and that he always has time for him. His reaction video to Rebecca Black's single, "Friday", also went viral, and was included on The Guardian's viral video chart in 2011. One of the first videos under the "Angry Grandpa" moniker was one posted on Break.com around Christmas 2007, entitled "Grandpa Ruins Christmas". The video shows Green raging at his family on Christmas morning for prematurely opening gifts without waiting for him. Michael collaborated with country musician Shooter Jennings, and his now-deceased manager Jon Hensley, to pull pranks on Green; however, they were close friends in real life.
Green, who had lived in a trailer park until 2015, was estimated to have been worth $1.5 million in 2016. In a July 2015 video, Michael surprised Green by buying him a house. Green was given a 1955 Chevrolet by Michael for Christmas in 2016 in a video that received 1.5 million views in its first two days.
Green's health deteriorated over the next week, and he died in his home on December 10, 2017. His death was announced on Twitter by his son, Michael. Tributes were paid to Green by several YouTubers and celebrities, including Roseanne Barr, Steven Williams, Paul Heyman, Shooter Jennings, Devon Sawa, Jesse Wellens and Noelle Foley. Green's funeral was held on December 14, in Parks Funeral Home, Summerville, and he was cremated afterwards.
