Eddie Murphy Trivia: 32 interesting facts about the actor!

Eddie Murphy is an American comedian, actor, writer, singer, and producer. He garnered critical acclaim with his role in the movie “Dolemite is My Name”.

Let’s dive into some trivia and facts about his life and career.

1. Edward Regan Murphy was born April 3, 1961 in Brooklyn, New York City, and raised in the borough’s Bushwick neighborhood.

2. His mother, Lillian, was a telephone operator, and his father, Charles Edward Murphy, was a transit police officer and an amateur actor and comedian.

3. His father died when he was young.

“My mother and father broke up when I was three, and he died when I was eight, so I have very dim memories… He was a victim of the Murphy charm (laughs). A woman stabbed my father. I never got all the logistics. It was supposed to be one of those crimes of passion: ‘If I can’t have you, no one else will’-kind of deal. Someone said to me one day, ‘That’s why you don’t trust women.’ Get the fuck outta here. What are you, a fucking psychiatrist?” – Eddie Murphy

4. When Murphy’s single mother became ill, the eight-year-old and his older brother lived in foster care for one year.

5. In interviews, Murphy has said that his time in foster care was influential in developing his sense of humor. Later, he and his older brother Charlie were raised in Roosevelt, New York by his mother and stepfather Vernon Lynch, a foreman at an ice cream plant.

6. Around the age of 15, Murphy was writing and performing his own routines, which were heavily influenced by Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor.

7. His early comedy was characterized by frequent swearing and sketches lampooning a diverse group of people (including White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs), African Americans, Italian Americans, overweight people, and gay people).

8. Murphy released two stand-up specials.

9. Eddie Murphy was his first album, released in 1982. Delirious was filmed in 1983 in Washington, D.C. Due to the popularity of Delirious, his concert film Eddie Murphy Raw (1987) received a wide theatrical release, grossing $50 million; the movie was filmed in the Felt Forum section of Madison Square Garden in New York.

10. Murphy was a regular cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1980 to 1984. He has worked as a stand-up comedian and was ranked #10 on Comedy Central’s list of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time.

11. In films, Murphy has received Golden Globe Award nominations for his performances in 48 Hrs., the Beverly Hills Cop series, Trading Places, and The Nutty Professor.

12. In 2007, he won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of soul singer James “Thunder” Early in Dreamgirls.

13. Murphy’s work as a voice actor in films includes Thurgood Stubbs in The PJs, Donkey in DreamWorks’ Shrek series, and the Chinese dragon Mushu in Disney’s Mulan.

14. In some films, he plays multiple roles in addition to his main character, intended as a tribute to one of his idols Peter Sellers, who played multiple roles in Dr. Strangelove and elsewhere.

15. He has played multiple roles in Coming to America, Wes Craven’s Vampire in Brooklyn, the Nutty Professor films (where he played the title role in two incarnations, plus his character’s father, brother, mother, and grandmother), Bowfinger, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Norbit, and Meet Dave.

16. As of 2014, Murphy’s films have grossed over $3.8 billion in the United States and Canada box office and $6.6 billion worldwide.

17. In 2015, his films made him the 6th-highest grossing actor in the United States.

18. Murphy was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

19. As of 2008, Murphy resides in Long Island, New York.[45]

20. Murphy has a son, Eric (born circa 1989), with then girlfriend Paulette McNeely, and a son, Christian (born circa 1990) with then girlfriend Tamara Hood.

21. Murphy began a longtime romantic relationship with Nicole Mitchell after meeting her in 1988 at an NAACP Image Awards show. They lived together for almost two years before getting married at the Grand Ballroom of The Plaza Hotel in New York City on March 18, 1993.

22. Murphy and Mitchell had five children together: Bria, Myles, Shayne, Zola, and Bella.

23. In August 2005, Mitchell filed for divorce, citing “irreconcilable differences”. The divorce was finalized on April 17, 2006.

24. Following his divorce from Mitchell, in 2006, Murphy began dating former Spice Girl Melanie Brown, who became pregnant and stated that the child was Murphy’s. When questioned about the pregnancy in December 2006, by RTL Boulevard, Murphy told Dutch reporter Matthijs Kleyn, “I don’t know whose child that is until it comes out and has a blood test. You shouldn’t jump to conclusions, sir”.

25. Brown gave birth to a baby girl, Angel Iris Murphy Brown, on Murphy’s 46th birthday, April 3, 2007.

26. On June 22, 2007, representatives for Brown announced in People that a DNA test had confirmed that Murphy was the father. Brown had stated in an interview that Murphy has not sought a relationship with Angel, although it was later reported in 2010 that Murphy was getting to know her.

27. Murphy exchanged marriage vows with film producer Tracey Edmonds, former wife of Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, on January 1, 2008, in a private ceremony on an island off Bora Bora.

28. On January 16, 2008, the couple released a statement saying, “After much consideration and discussion, we have jointly decided that we will forgo having a legal ceremony as it is not necessary to define our relationship further,” and called the Bora Bora wedding a “symbolic union”. The two had planned on having a legal ceremony upon their return to the U.S. but did not, and their wedding was never official.

29. Murphy began dating model Paige Butcher in 2012. Their daughter Izzy was born May 3, 2016.

30. In 1988, Art Buchwald sued Murphy and Paramount Pictures, alleging that they had used ideas from a screenplay he had submitted to Paramount as the basis for Murphy’s film Coming to America.

31. In 1992, Buchwald was awarded $150,000 in a summary judgment; Buchwald’s producing partner, Alan Bernheim, was awarded $750,000. Both sides described the outcome as a “victory”.

32. On May 2, 1997, Murphy was stopped by police after having been observed picking up a transvestite prostitute. The prostitute, Atisone Seiuli, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for prostitution. Murphy was not arrested or charged and claimed he was just giving Seiuli a ride.