Eddie Murphy

• Born: April 3, 1961
• Place of Birth: Brooklyn, New York

Actor and comedian

After first capturing national attention on the television show Saturday Night Live, Murphy rose to international fame with a number of successful films and comedy albums. His dramatic performance in the 2006 film Dreamgirls earned him a Golden Globe award and his first Oscar nomination.

Early Life

Edward Regan Murphy was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Lilliane, a telephone operator, and Charles Edward Murphy, a New York City transit policeman. When Murphy was three years old, his parents divorced. Soon after, his mother fell ill with tuberculosis, which led to a lengthy hospital stay. Murphy and his older brother, Charlie, were sent to live with a foster mother named Miss Jenkins, whom Murphy described as cruel. However, this difficult time in his life sparked his interest in comedy. When Murphy was eight years old, his father. When he was nine, his mother married Vernon Lynch, who worked as a foreman at a Breyer’s Ice Cream factory. Lynch became the central male role model in Murphy’s life. The next year, Murphy’s family moved to Roosevelt, a middle-class town on the south shore of Long Island.

Murphy was consumed by his love for television, a passion that helped develop his talent for impersonations. He frequently put on performances in the basement to entertain family members. Murphy attended Rose Elementary School and Roosevelt High School, but he was not particularly interested in his studies. Murphy took to the stage for the first time on July 9, 1976, in the Roosevelt Youth Center in front of two hundred children and teenagers, hosting a talent show in which he impersonated Al Green. He was voted the most popular boy in his graduating class, and in his yearbook, he listed his career goal as “Comedian.”

Life’s Work

After high school, Murphy found work in local nightclubs. He honed his routine in Manhattan at the Comic Strip. He soon found out that the television sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live was auditioning for an African American cast member for its upcoming season, and he seized the opportunity. Murphy auditioned multiple times before landing a spot on the show as a featured player. At the time, he was only eighteen.

Early on, Murphy’s role on the show was somewhat limited, but his appearances increased in frequency as the season continued. By the end of the season, he had earned a regular role on the show. The 1980 season was a failure and most of the cast was eliminated, except for Joe Piscopo and Murphy.

In the succeeding seasons, Murphy became the star of the show. He did popular impersonations of Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Muhammad Ali, and Bill Cosby, while also creating iconic parodies of children’s television characters Gumby, Buckwheat, and Mister Rogers. His television popularity led Paramount Pictures to sign Murphy to his first film, 48 Hrs. (1982). In the action comedy, Murphy played Reggie Hammond, a convict who teams up with a police officer to catch two killers. The film was a box-office success and Murphy capitalized with the release of his first live comedy album, Eddie Murphy (1982). The record went gold and received two Grammy Award nominations.

Murphy’s second film was the rags-to-riches comedy Trading Places (1983). It was an instant hit, eclipsing the success of 48 Hrs. Murphy’s popularity swelled even more that year when HBO aired his stand-up comedy special Delirious. That same year, Paramount signed Murphy to a multi-picture deal. The first film he made under the contract was Best Defense (1984), but fans’ interest in the film disappeared when they learned that Murphy had only a small role. The film’s failure confirmed, rather than damaged, Murphy’s appeal. He left Saturday Night Live in 1984 and released a second comedy album, Eddie Murphy: Comedian. Murphy’s next film was another action comedy, Beverly Hills Cop (1984). The film was another major hit and catapulted Murphy to international stardom.

Murphy’s next role was the supernatural comedy The Golden Child (1986). The next year, he returned to the stage for his raunchy stand-up comedy film Eddie Murphy Raw, then made the sequel Beverly Hills Cop II, both of which were successful. The lighthearted comedy Coming to America (1987) gave Murphy the opportunity to embrace his fascination with makeup effects while also showcasing his ability to play multiple characters in the same film. The film earned more than $250 million worldwide. Next, Murphy starred in his pet project, Harlem Nights (1989), a film that he wrote, directed, and produced. Although the film was not well received by critics, it did had a respectable showing at the box office.

Murphy’s string of blockbusters made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1980’s and one of the most successful African Americans the film industry had ever seen. However, the 1990’s proved to be much more difficult, and Murphy was unable to duplicate his earlier run of success.

In 1990, Murphy renewed his role as Reggie Hammond in Another 48 Hrs. It did well at the box office, but critics responded with less-than-stellar reviews. After a two-year hiatus, Murphy returned with the romantic comedy Boomerang (1992), which was a success, and The Distinguished Gentleman (1992), which under-performed. The failure of Beverly Hills Cop III (1994) sent Murphy into a career slump. Vampire in Brooklyn (1995) marked a major low point, prompting speculation that Murphy had lost touch with his fan base.

Murphy experienced a revival with his remake of the classic Jerry Lewis comedy The Nutty Professor (1996). With the aid of makeup effects, Murphy played numerous characters in the film. For his many performances, Murphy won the Best Actor award from the National Society of Film Critics.

While Murphy’s next film, Metro (1997), was a disappointment, greater damage to his fragile comeback resulted from an incident on May 2, 1997, when police officers stopped him in West Hollywood with a transvestite prostitute in his vehicle. Although Murphy was not charged with a crime, he faced a tidal wave of bad publicity. After a poor showing by Holy Man (1998), Murphy scored a hit with the family comedy Doctor Dolittle (1998).

Murphy’s rebound continued with Bowfinger (1999), Life (1999), then followed with sequels Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000) and Dr. Doolittle 2 (2001). Both of these movies earned more than $150 million worldwide. He also provided the voice for a lead character in the animated film Shrek (2001). After these strong showings, however, the 2002 projects Showtime and I Spy were disappointing at the box office. The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002) easily became Murphy’s most legendary failure, costing $100 million to produce and earning less than $10 million overall. After this string of missteps, Murphy rebounded with three family-friendly films: The Haunted Mansion (2003), Daddy Day Care (2003), and Shrek 2 (2004).

In 2006, Murphy’s thirteen-year marriage to Nicole Mitchell, the mother of five of his children, ended in divorce. During this time, Murphy embraced a rare dramatic role as soul singer James “Thunder” Early in the film musical Dreamgirls (2006). He won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and an Academy Award nomination for the performance.

In 2007, Murphy returned to comedy with Norbit, a film he cowrote with his brother, Charlie. The film gave Murphy another opportunity to play multiple characters, but was critically panned.

For the rest of the decade, he released films to mixed results: the final two films in the Shrek film series, Shrek the Third (2007) and Shrek Forever After (2010), were major hits, while Meet Dave (2008) and Imagine That (2009) were disappointments. He began the 2010s by appearing in the comedy Tower Heist (2011), alongside Ben Stiller and Casey Affleck, and the comedy drama A Thousand Words (2012), with Cliff Curtis and Kerry Washington. He later starred as the titular character in the comedy drama Mr. Church (2016) and in the biographical comedy drama Dolemite Is My Name (2019), about comedian and rapper Rudy Ray Moore who created the character Dolemite.

In 2023 Murphy starred in the Netflix-produced film entitled You People. The movie featured other notable artists such as Jonah Hill, Lauren London, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. In 2024, the comedian reprised the role of Axel Foley for Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.

Significance

Murphy’s films had grossed more than three billion dollars at the box office. His dramatic rise to fame during the 1980s made him an important and powerful figure in a predominantly white industry. Although his career included some major missteps, his success opened doors for other African American entertainers. In 2015, he was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in recognition of his accomplishments. In 2023, Murphy was awarded the Cecil B. DeMille Award for outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment.

Bibliography

"Eddie Murphy." Internet Movie Database, 2024, www.imdb.com/name/nm0000552/. Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.

Jacobs, Julia. "Eddie Murphy Receives the Cecil B. DeMille Award." The New York Times, 10 Jan. 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/01/10/movies/eddie-murphy-cecil-b-demille-award.html. Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.

Kamp, David. “The Return of Eddie Murphy.” The Atlantic, Dec. 2020, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/12/the-return-of-eddie-murphy/616937. Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.

Martinez, Natasha. "Eddie Murphy Reveals What His Next Stand-up Special Will Be Like." Complex, 25 Jan. 2023, www.complex.com/pop-culture/eddie-muphy-talks-you-people-stand-up-return-interview. Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.

Rottenberg, Josh. “How Eddie Got His Groove Back.” Entertainment Weekly, nos. 918/919 (February 2, 2007).

Samuels, Allison. “Leader of the Pack: Eddie Murphy.” In Off the Record: A Reporter Unveils the Celebrity Worlds of Hollywood, Hip-Hop, and Sports. New York: HarperCollins, 2007.

Sanello, Frank. Eddie Murphy: The Life and Times of a Comic on the Edge. Secaucus, N.J.: Carol Publisher’s Group, 1997.