Eddie Murphy

Eddie Murphy Bio

Edward Regan Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is an American actor, comedian, and singer whose career has spanned stand-up, film, television, and recorded music. He first gained national attention as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1980 to 1984, where characters such as Mr. Robinson, Buckwheat, and Gumby made him a breakout star and helped revitalize the long-running sketch show.

Murphy then transitioned into film with 48 Hrs. (1982), Trading Places (1983), and Beverly Hills Cop (1984), becoming one of the highest-grossing movie stars of the 1980s. Across decades, he has built a résumé that includes dramatic turns, family comedies, voice roles, and directing work, earning recognition that includes a Golden Globe Award, a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and the Cecil B. DeMille Award.

Early Life and Background

Edward Regan Murphy was born on April 3, 1961, in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, and raised in the Bushwick neighborhood. His mother, Lillian Murphy, worked as a telephone operator, and his father, Charles Edward Murphy, was a transit police officer and an amateur actor and comedian. His father was murdered in 1969, leaving the family without him when Murphy was a child.

After his mother’s illness, eight-year-old Murphy and his older brother Charlie were placed in foster care for a year. Murphy has said that this period was influential in developing his sense of humor. He and his brother were later raised in Roosevelt, New York, by his mother and stepfather Vernon Lynch, a foreman at an ice cream plant, where he grew up surrounded by the everyday experiences that would later shape his comedy.

Path to Acting

Murphy credits Richard Pryor’s comedy album That Nigger’s Crazy, which he heard at age fifteen, with inspiring him to pursue comedy as a career. He also developed a love of performing multiple characters in imitation of his acting hero, Peter Sellers, listing Bill Cosby, Redd Foxx, Robin Williams, Muhammad Ali, Bruce Lee, and Charlie Chaplin among his other early influences.

On July 9, 1976, Murphy marked the start of his career by performing an impersonation of singer Al Green at a talent show at the Roosevelt Youth Center. The success of that set led to work at nearby clubs and, eventually, to late-night performances that required him to secretly commute by train while skipping school. After his mother discovered the absences, he was required to attend summer school, but he had already caught the attention of club bookers and was on his way to the stand-up circuit.

Eddie Murphy Career

Early Career (1976-1980)

Through the late 1970s, Murphy worked the stand-up circuit, sharpening impressions and characters that would later translate to television and film. He appeared on the local comedy scene in New York and released early recordings that introduced his voice to a wider audience.

His growing reputation eventually brought him to the attention of Saturday Night Live, and in 1980 he joined the show as a regular cast member, quickly becoming the most talked-about performer in the cast and a central reason the program remained on the air.

Breakthrough (1980-1989)

Murphy’s early work on Saturday Night Live featured characters including a grown-up version of Buckwheat, a streetwise children’s show host named Mr. Robinson, and a morose Gumby whose trademark line, “I’m Gumby, dammit!,” became a catchphrase. Rolling Stone later ranked him second on its appraisal of all SNL cast members to that point, behind only John Belushi.

He made his film debut in 48 Hrs. (1982) opposite Nick Nolte, followed by Trading Places (1983) with Dan Aykroyd and Beverly Hills Cop (1984), which became the highest-grossing film of 1984 and his first solo leading role. The same year, he won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording for his album Eddie Murphy: Comedian. He went on to star in The Golden Child (1986) and Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), and by the end of the decade, he was Hollywood’s biggest box-office star, with a near-exclusive deal at Paramount Pictures.

Notable Works and Milestones

By the close of the 1980s, Murphy had starred in 48 Hrs., Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop, Beverly Hills Cop II, The Golden Child, Coming to America (1988), and Harlem Nights (1989), the last of which he also directed, produced, and co-wrote with his brother Charlie Murphy. He had also released two stand-up specials and earned his first Grammy Award, establishing himself as a multi-hyphenate entertainer whose work spanned comedy, film, and music.

Eddie Murphy Award Nominations

Murphy earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 2007 for his role as soul singer James “Thunder” Early in Dreamgirls. He has also received nominations from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the Screen Actors Guild, and the Recording Academy, in categories spanning film acting, voice acting, and comedy recording. For his voice performance as Donkey in Shrek (2001), he received a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, the only voice-over performance to be nominated in BAFTA history at the time.

Eddie Murphy Awards Won

Murphy has collected major honors across film, television, and music, including a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording for his album Eddie Murphy: Comedian, a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for Dreamgirls, and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 2020 for hosting Saturday Night Live. In 2015, he received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and in 2023, he was presented with the Cecil B. DeMille Award.

Eddie Murphy Family

Murphy’s father, Charles Edward Murphy, was a transit police officer and amateur actor and comedian who died in 1969. His mother, Lillian Murphy, worked as a telephone operator, and his older brother, Charlie Murphy, was a performer and writer who collaborated with him on the film Harlem Nights and died of leukemia in 2017. His stepfather, Vernon Lynch, raised him alongside his mother in Roosevelt, New York.

Personal Life

Murphy married Nicole Mitchell at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City on March 18, 1993, and the couple had five children together before Mitchell filed for divorce in 2005, with the divorce finalized on April 17, 2006. He was later engaged to Australian model Paige Butcher, with whom he has two children, and the two married in a private ceremony in Anguilla in July 2024.

Murphy is a father of ten children, including sons Eric, Christian, Myles Mitchell, and Max Charles, and daughters Bria, Shayne Audra, Zola Ivy, Bella Zahra, Angel Iris Murphy Brown, and Izzy Oona. In 2025, his son Eric married Jasmine Lawrence, daughter of entertainer Martin Lawrence.