The 90s left us icons on a par with Power Rangers, Johnny Depp and Pokémon. But, if we talk in terms of humor, few are up to the level of Eddie Murphy, the iconic actor of family comedies who starred in The Prince of Zamunda, Super Detective in Hollywood or Dr. Dolittle.
So it has seemed, at least, to the organizers of the Golden Globes, who have awarded him the honorary Cecil B. DeMille honorary award in recognition of his entire career. In his speech, in fact, he made a joke about Will Smith’s wife, making it clear that the joke has not yet expired.
Murphy created a genre in itself. He became popular, in addition to his relentless charisma, because in many of his films he played multiple characters. On most occasions it worked as a hilarious element, especially in The Nutty Professor and its sequel, two unforgettable Murphy hits. Although on one occasion or another it ended up being a less flattering resource, as in the case of Norbit (released in 2007, although it did not receive much acclaim).
According to Murphy, he got this resource from none other than Stanley Kubrick. After seeing Red Telephone? We’re Flying to Moscow, the actor noticed that Peter Sellers, one of his greatest references, played several characters, so he decided to imitate his technique.
Another of his most outstanding characteristics was his interpretative excess, which led him to play some of the most outlandish roles of the time. Even when it was his turn to play a tough guy, instead of taking it seriously, he would say “I’m imitating Bruce Lee” to look the part.
A childhood marked by tragedy
But, until he reached fame, Eddie Murphy had a really hard time. Raised in Brooklyn (New York), the actor was abandoned by his father when he was just a child, and died shortly after being stabbed several times by a mistress. His mother, meanwhile, fell ill with tuberculosis. So both Murphy and his older brother, Charlie, were raised for the next year in foster homes, until they returned to their mother and stepfather, a drunk who gave his last name a bad name.
Despite the drama, Eddie Murphy took advantage of this time to, according to him, “tan” his sense of humor, camouflaging himself in it to get away from reality. Thus, he began to look at comedians like the aforementioned Sellers or Bill Cosby, and decided to also become a comedian. The first sketches that brought him to fame were characterized by being very incorrect, ridiculing all kinds of groups such as African-Americans, Italian-Americans, overweight people or homosexuals. In short, those were different times.
His big break came when, in 1980, he entered as part of the cast of Saturday Night Live, a program in low hours at that time that managed to revitalize thanks in large part to the work of Murphy. From that moment on, he did not stop gaining popularity, and the 80s became his conversion to a great promise in acting, starring in blockbusters such as Super Detective in Hollywood. Curious fact: he rejected Ghostbusters to star in this film, which would have changed the course of his story.
But if in the 80’s he was a promise, in the 90’s he became a big star. Already one of the most sought-after faces in Hollywood, his cache did not stop increasing, up to the 15 million dollars per film that he currently earns. Beyond the big blockbusters he starred in, his voice became so recognizable that animated characters were made in his image and likeness, being Mushu (Mulan) and Donkey (Shrek) the most remembered.
In the early 2000s, Murphy continued to string together roles in what was already considered his genre, but after 2003 (when he starred in The Haunted Mansion and Daddy Kangaroo) he went four years without appearing in films, and his reappearance with Norbit didn’t coax anyone.
Murphy’s career gradually faded through attrition, and although he’s been back in the ring lately with films like Coming to America, which tried unsuccessfully to follow up the initial blockbuster, it doesn’t look like he’ll ever be what he was again.
Controversies, wives and children everywhere.
If anything has characterized Eddie Murphy, beyond his career as a comedian and actor, it is the controversies he has generated throughout his life. Murphy has 10 children by 5 different women, even having simultaneous relationships with some of them. The oldest of his children is 34 years old and the youngest is 5, so he still doesn’t seem to want to stop.
In 1997, at the height of his career, Murphy was caught by the police with a trans prostitute in his car. She was arrested and he defended himself by saying that he had only offered her a ride home, but all the media made the news and his image was splashed all over the place.
He also earned backlash from Spice Girls fans when he got Melanie Brown pregnant after a brief relationship. Murphy did not recognize the baby, but the singer reported him and, after undergoing a paternity test, it was proven that Brown was right. Murphy had to give her his last name and $35,000 a month in child support.
Beyond the controversies and the fact that he has “gone out of style”, Eddie Murphy is still one of the highest paid actors in the industry, with a fortune valued at 200 million dollars that he has invested in luxurious mansions in Los Angeles and The Bahamas. We don’t know if he will star in big movies again, but his fame will certainly last in time.
