Char is an important character in the universal century universe of Gundam. In particular the original "Mobilesuit Gundam" series, Zeta Gundam, the movie Char's counterattack (big surprise) and Gundam Unicorn, though he did go through a variety of names, but then Char isn't his real name either. I'll refrain from saying any more in case you want to watch for yourself (or just read it up on a variety of wikis and fanpages) to avoid spoiling things.
Oh and as was mentioned before, most of the time he wears a mask (though not in Zeta). He's also a top ace pilot, up to the point that he barely bothers to put a pilots suit on even when flying in space and he's the source of the "red goes three times faster" trope, due to his preferane of tuned red mobile suits (again with Zeta Gundam series being the exception, were he pilots a golden suit).
And while he has rare moment of compassion, he's mostly a stone cold killer.... at least on the battlefield.
