Eddie Murphy

Although he’s mostly known as an actor, Eddie Murphy has also been a famous comedian, voice talent, and even a singer for a brief time. Born in New York on April 3, 1961, Eddie Murphy lived and grew up with his mother, Lillian Murphy, brother, Charlie Murphy (also an actor), step dad, Vernon Lynch, and half-brother, Vernon Lynch, Jr.

Eddie Murphy did stand-up comedy as a teen before hitting the film industry, working at one Bay Area Comedy Club where Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg also did routines. He then became a comedian and performer on the popular American late-night comedy show on NBC, Saturday Night Live at the tender age of nineteen. His stint on SNL is really what put him on the map as a comedian and comedic actor. Margaret Humphert, a former SNL writer, has said she considers Eddie Murphy, along with comedic actor Bill Murray, the two most talented people in the history of Saturday Night Live—a show which has included such established actors as Mike Myers, Chevy Chase, Adam Sandler, the late Chris Farley, Will Ferrell, Norm Macdonald, Ben Stiller, and Molly Shannon, among countless others.

After his SNL stretch—he left during the 1983 to 1984 season—Eddie Murphy branched off into film comedy, making his film debut in 1982 in the cop-buddy thriller 48 Hrs. with actor Nick Nolte. He also starred in such films as Beverly Hills Cop along with Judge Reinhold—for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe for best actor—and other movies such as Trading Places with Dan Aykroyd.  In 1983 Eddie Murphy put out a comedy album Comedian’, for which he won a Grammy.

Eddie Murphy is also renowned for his voice acting, especially for voicing the dragon Mushu in the Disney flick Mulan and Mulan II, as well as Donkey for Shrek, Shrek 2 and the up-coming Shrek the Third. He has also starred in many sequels, such as Beverly Hills Cop II and III in 1987 and 1994. One of his trademarks is playing multiple roles in one movie, as seen in Nutty Professor and its sequel, as well as 1988’s Coming to America with Arsenio Hall and James Earl Jones.

His singing career is hardly worth mentioning, although it is interesting to note. Eddie Murphy did produce a few hit singles, “Party All the Time,” produced by Rick James; and “Put Your Mouth in Me” in the 1980s, as well as an album titled Love’s Alright. Murphy even performed with Michael Jackson in various music videos, although those videos have been considered by critics to be some of the worst around.

In recent years Eddie Murphy’s acting career has gone a bit downhill as most consider his prime years were in the 1980s and into the 1990s. More recent films, which are mainly geared toward young audiences, include The Adventures of Pluto Nash, I Spy in 2002, Daddy Day Care, and The Haunted Mansion in 2003. However, a 2005 poll on a U.K.-broadcast TV program called The Comedian’s Comedian pegged Eddie Murphy as one of the top 50 comedic actors ever.

Eddie Murphy has been married once, to Nicole Mitchell in 1993; a marriage that lasted twelve years before she filed for divorce for “irreconcilable differences.” The couple has five children together.

YUDDY