Tragic Details About Eddie Murphy

Comedy superstar Eddie Murphy has made waves in the entertainment world for more than four decades, and all of that time in the spotlight has brought both its ups and downs. From massive blockbuster successes to harrowing Hollywood misfires, and with a few personal and professional blunders thrown into the mix, Murphy has made a name for himself both in and out of the spotlight. Some of those name-making moments have been of a tragic nature, including racism, familial loss, and even an on-set accident. But Murphy has risen above it all to continue with his career, something that he had been dreaming of creating from the very beginning. "When I was around 13, 14 [years old], I started saying I was gonna be famous," Murphy shared with ExtraTV. "... It was more magic when I first was a boy ... I still believed in magic. And as you get old, it's like, ain't no f***ing magic."

Eddie Murphy's childhood was impacted by the murder of his biological father, Charles Edward Murphy when he was 8 years old. The elder Murphy was stabbed by an unidentified woman. "I never got all the logistics," Murphy shared with Rolling Stone in 1989. "It was supposed to be one of those crimes of passion: 'If I can't have you, then no one else will' kind of deal ... I was really f***ed up about his death. It was really traumatic."

The Murphy patriarch, who wanted to be an entertainer in his own right, had already divorced Eddie's mother, Lillian, years earlier when Eddie was just three years old. In the years since the tragedy, the comedian has incorporated his childhood into his work — for better and for worse. "I have very dim memories," he continued to Rolling Stone. "Every now and then, I wonder what it would be like if [my father] was still here."

After his biological father passed away, Eddie Murphy and his family experienced additional hardships. At one point, Eddie and his older brother, fellow comedian Charlie Murphy, were placed in foster care while their mother, Lillian, battled a long illness that kept her hospital-bound. Their tumultuous time with their caretaker, whom Murphy referred to as "a kind of black Nazi," ironically inspired the comedian's future career. "One day she gave us pigs' tails for dinner and then, when I told my grandmother that we were being fed snakes, the woman grabbed Charles and whipped him," Murphy shared with Time Magazine in 1983. "Those were [sic] baaaad days. Staying with her was probably the reason I became a comedian."

Despite the stint away from their mother, among the other hardships they faced in their youth, the Murphy patriarch still described her son as a lovable figure growing up. "He was such a lovable kid," Lillian Lynch (nee Murphy) shared with Time Magazine. "He'd sit on your lap until you moved him. Your leg would fall asleep, and he'd still be sitting there."

As the funnyman eventually earned his spot on the comedy mecca "Saturday Night Live" in 1980, the then-19-year-old faced ongoing racism as he rose through the ranks. "Back in the old days, they used to be relentless on me, and a lot of it was racist stuff," Murphy recalled to The New York Times in 2024. "... This business, it's not set up for a black artist."

Murphy's post-"SNL" career exploded with big blockbuster films like "48 Hours" and "Beverly Hills Cop," earning him a fortune and making him a target within the industry. "The black artist as a leading man [in] a big movie that's watched all around the world ... [it] was like, I'm doing this stuff that no one's ever done and it's in a business that's not set up for me," he continued to the outlet.

Despite his meteoric successes, the entertainer was still pressed to perform a caricature-like version of himself as his Hollywood star continued to rise, on top of altering his material to fit what studios wanted at the time. "[Producers will] come to you with this stuff, dialogue like 'Hey, jive turkey,' [or] 'Like, you can play this irate black man,'" he once shared with People. "I'm going, 'Hey, you have a script?' 'No, that's it ..."

It wasn't just the industry as a whole that Eddie Murphy battled racist comments from — some of those barbs came from much closer to home. Murphy's fellow "Saturday Night Live" star David Space once aimed a barb at Murphy during a live "SNL" broadcast in 1995, a time when Murphy's projects were decidedly not as popular, saying, "Look children, it's a falling star. Make a wish."

Needless to say, Murphy was not a fan of the on-air commentary. "It was like 'Yo, it's in-house! I'm one of the family, and you're f****ing with me like that?' It hurt my feelings like that," the comedian revealed to The New York Times. He affirmed that the "cheap shot" was part of the reason that he stayed away from the late-night staple for three decades, as well as attributed it to him taking a step away from stardom for a while. But in that time, both comedians and the team at "SNL" were able to make amends. "In the long run, it's all good, worked out great. I'm cool with David Spade, I'm cool with Lorne Michaels. I went back to SNL," Murphy continued to the outlet. "It's all love ... but I had a couple of cheap shots!"

While his career took somewhat of a slide what during the mid-1990s, Eddie Murphy made headlines for a more salacious reason. In 1997, Murphy's car was pulled over in Hollywood, and his passenger, then 20-year-old Atisone "Shalimar" Seiuli, was arrested for prostitution. At the time, the headlines became more scandalous, as Shalimar identified as transsexual.

Murphy himself was not arrested during the incident, but he did provide his side of the story to the police (and the press). According to CNN, the actor was feeling restless late one night, went for a drive, and stopped to help someone on the side of the road that he thought was "having a problem." "I did nothing wrong," he said via his spokesperson (per CNN). "I was trying to be a good Samaritan and this is what happens."

However, according to other sources, Murphy's "good Samaritan" routine was a decidedly darker one. In the days that followed the incident, the press descended upon both Murphy and Seiuli, with the latter only speaking publicly to one source, the National Enquirer. "It's unfair I went to jail while Eddie Murphy walked away scot-free," she's quoted as saying to the outlet (via UTOPIA Washington). Murphy sued the Enquirer (among other outlets) for libel, later settling out of court. Tragically, Seiuli was found dead on the streets of Hollywood not one year later. Many were suspicious about the "accidental" death, with some having taken to social media to go as far as theorizing that Murphy might've been involved.

Eddie Murphy has a large, entertainment-minded family, including his brother Charlie Murphy. Charlie lost his life to leukemia in 2017 at the age of 57. "Charlie filled our family with love and laughter and there won't be a day that goes by that his presence will not be missed," the star's family released in a statement at the time (per The Hollywood Reporter).

Throughout the years, Charlie would appear in some of his little brother's films, including "Harlem Nights" and "Norbit." He also made a name for himself as a featured player on "Chappelle's Show," where he was part of one of the show's most notorious bits featuring the "True Hollywood Story" of funk singer Rick James.

But even though their paths took them on separate spins within the entertainment world, the elder Murphy brother didn't fault his brother for his shine. "I can't tell you how proud I am [of] my brother," Charlie once said on "The Howard Stern Show." "There's nothing bitter about it ... The first time I [saw] my brother perform on stage, the feeling that he gave me, I can still feel that feeling right now."

Eddie Murphy has worked with scores of comedy and entertainment greats over the years, and many of those greats have unfortunately gone on to have tragic ends. Murphy, who affirms that he does not drink and has only smoked marijuana, remembers spending time with some of those comedy legends prior to their untimely deaths. "Those guys are all cautionary tales to me," he shared with The New York Times. "I remember I was 19 [and] I went to The Blues Bar. It was me, [John] Belushi, and Robin Williams. [They started to do] coke and I was like 'Oh, no, I'm cool,' and every now and then over the years, I would trip about that moment, because I was really young and it would have been so easy to try some coke. I wasn't taking some moral stance, I just wasn't interested in it."

Even Murphy's own inspirations have left their mark on him in their own way. "When I saw Richard [Pryor], I realized what I was," Murphy once shared with Entertainment Weekly. Similarly to many other entertainers at the time, Murphy's idol once had a well-known drug problem, which the pair even discussed in an interview with People in 1983: "Getting drugs, that's all I knew," Pryor shared. "The pain, good old pain. It's real strange being straight now, I mean real straight." The two would go on to star together in 1989's "Harlem Nights," which Murphy also wrote and directed. They maintained a friendship until Pryor's death in 2005.

In April 2024, several crew members were injured on the set of Eddie Murphy's film "The Pickup." While Murphy and his co-stars, including Keke Palmer and Pete Davidson, were not involved in the incident, there were reports of behind-the-scenes members receiving a variety of injuries. "It was a completely freak accident," an anonymous source told AP at the time. "It wasn't even a complicated or dangerous stunt."

The accident occurred while filming a stunt that involved an armored GMC car and a BMW outside of Atlanta, where the movie was being shot. Eight crew members were hospitalized following the incident, and several families of those affected started GoFundMe pages to help cover their ongoing medical costs. "We are so grateful and blessed that our beloved friend is still alive, but his road to recovery will undoubtedly be long, difficult, and faced with unimaginable challenges," one of the pages reads (per People). Murphy has not publicly commented on the incident.

Over the years, many celebrities have been part of an ongoing viral death hoax order, and that includes Eddie Murphy. There have been multiple reports of Murphy's untimely (and untrue) death dating back to 2012 when a story was shared that he died in a snowboarding accident. "My brother is fine," Murphy's brother, the late Charlie Murphy, posted on X (formerly Twitter) at the time (per The Hollywood Reporter). "People who start these type of rumors are sick people. It's really astounding how low people will go for attention."

Even though he is alive and well, Murphy has nonetheless waxed poetic on how he would like to be celebrated when he actually passes away — at least, in jest. In an Instagram interview with journalist Kevin McCarthy, the comedian teased that the theme from his blockbuster series "Beverly Hills Cop" should be played for the audience of mourners to enjoy. The irony? Murphy claims he isn't even going to have a funeral. "I mean I'm gonna die like everyone else," he added. "But [my family] ... they know not to, no funeral, no, just let me just go out quietly."