Murphy, Eddie

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Murphy, Eddie

April 3, 1961

Actor and comedian Eddie Murphy was born in Brooklyn, New York. His father was a New York policeman and amateur comedian, and his mother a phone operator. Murphy's father was killed on duty when his son was three years old; his mother remarried, and the family moved from Brooklyn, when Murphy was nine, to the Long Island, New York, town of Roosevelt.

Murphy's talent at "ranking," a version of the "dozens" (a traditional street pastime of trading witty insults), earned him a position as a host of an after-school talent show at a local hangout, the Roosevelt Youth Center. After the favorable response he received from his Al Green impression, Murphy became a stand-up comedian, and soon was making $25 and $50 a week performing at Long Island nightclubs. In 1979, when he was just out of high school, he appeared at the Comic Strip in Manhattan, which led to a successful audition for the television show Saturday Night Live.

Murphy emerged as a success on Saturday Night Live through his satirical impressions of such well-known African Americans as Bill Cosby, Stevie Wonder, and Muhammad Ali. Among his most famous characters were "Mister Robinson," a mean-spirited inner-city version of the children's television host Mister Rogers; a grown-up "Buckwheat" from "The Little Rascals"; "Velvet Jones," a book-writing, irreverent pimp; and "Tyrone Green," an illiterate convict poet.

In 1982 Murphy recorded an album of live stand-up material, earning him a gold record and a Grammy nomination. In the same year he costarred in his first motion picture, the highly successful 48 Hours, playing a fast-talking convict who is released for two days to help track down a criminal. Murphy reached the height of his popularity in the 1980s with the films Trading Places (1983), Beverly Hills Cop (1985), The Golden Child (1986), Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), and Raw (1987), a highly successful though controversial, full-length concert film. In 1988 he played multiple roles in Coming to America, and in 1989 he wrote, directed, and starred in Harlem Nights ; he also made his recording debut with the album So Happy. In 1992 Murphy starred in two more films, Boomerang and The Distinguished Gentleman, though their box office success was only moderate.

Following a stream of largely unsuccessful films, including Vampire in Brooklyn (1995), Murphy's career was revitalized in 1996 by The Nutty Professor, a remake of the Jerry Lewis classic that was successful enough to prompt a sequel, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000), also starring Murphy. In 1998 the actor starred in another popular remake, Dr. Dolittle, which was also followed by a sequel, and in the same year his voice was featured in the animated film Mulan. In another animated offering, Murphy was heard in the voice of a donkey in the hit movie Shrek (2001), a popular and critical success that led to the sequel Shrek 2 in 2004. In 2003 Murphy starred in the Walt Disney film The Haunted Mansion.

Murphy started his own company, Eddie Murphy Enterprises, Ltd., in 1986, which, in a special agreement with CBS, has produced series, pilots, and specials for network television.