Trivia

The first actor to receive $1,000,000 for his first film.

The first (and so far only) actor to receive a BAFTA nomination for a voice-over performance - Best Supporting Actor for Shrek (2001).

He doesn't drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes and the only drug he takes is caffeine.

Is the only cast member of Saturday Night Live (1975) to host while still a cast member. Nick Nolte was to host but fell ill and Eddie replaced him.

He was offered the lead role in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) that went to Bob Hoskins, but turned it down. He deeply regrets this decision.

Paid for the funeral of comedic inspiration Redd Foxx.

The role of Winston Zeddemore in Ghostbusters (1984) was originally written with him in mind and was meant to be much bigger. He turned it down in favor of starring in Beverly Hills Cop (1984) and the role went to Ernie Hudson.

Older brother Charlie Murphy is also an actor. Younger brother Vernon Jr. was half of the hip-hop group K-9 Posse, which released two albums in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Idolized Richard Pryor and was inspired by him to do comedy. Went on to cast Pryor in his directorial debut Harlem Nights (1989).

He has donated money to the AIDS Foundation, and cancer, education, creative arts, family/parent support, health and homeless charities. He has donated to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center, various cancer charities and $100,000 to the Screen Actors' Guild's strike relief fund.

Born to Charles Edward Murphy, a transit police officer, and his wife Lilian, a telephone operator. Charles left the family when Eddie was three years old and was stabbed to death five years later. Charles was also an amateur stand-up comedian.

Was in a relationship with singer Whitney Houston before she married former husband Bobby Brown.

Did stand-up comedy at the same Bay Area Comedy Club as Robin Williams and Caryn Johnson (whose stage name eventually became Whoopi Goldberg) before getting into acting.

Got the idea of playing multiple roles in one film after watching another one of his idols, Peter Sellers, in one of his all time favorite films Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).

Was voted Most Popular while attending Roosevelt Junior-Senior High School in Roosevelt, New York, due to the stand-up comedy routines he would perform in the school's auditorium and jokes he would tell classmates during lunch.

Has 10 children: son, Eric Murphy (b. July 10, 1989) with 1st ex-girlfriend, Paulette McNeely, daughter, Bria L. Murphy (b. November 18, 1989), son, Myles Murphy (b. November 7, 1992) and daughters, Shayne Audra Murphy (b. October 10, 1994), Zola Murphy (b. December 24, 1999) & Bella Murphy (b. January 29, 2002) with ex-wife, Nicole Mitchell Murphy, son, Christian E. Murphy (b. November 29, 1990) with 2nd ex-girlfriend, Tamara Hood, daughter, Angel Murphy Brown (b. April 3, 2007) with 3rd ex-girlfriend, Mel B and daughter, Izzy Oona Murphy (b. May 3, 2016) & son, Max Charles Murphy (b. November 30, 2018) with fiancée, Paige Butcher.

Was considered for the role of Furious Styles in Boyz n the Hood (1991), which went to Laurence Fishburne.

At first, he denied that he was the father of Mel B's daughter Angel until a DNA-test proved that he was.

Is an avid fan of professional wrestling, with Hulk Hogan as his all time favorite wrestler.

He agreed to star in Bowfinger (1999) purely to work with Steve Martin, whom he had long admired.

Is an admirer of martial artist Bruce Lee, naming him as the only actor he has ever consciously imitated onscreen. Murphy first adopted Lee's "tough guy face" in 48 Hrs. (1982) and has quipped that, since then "whenever you see me holding a gun onscreen, I'm doing Bruce!".

Considers his impression of his brother Charlie his best impression.

Was one of the last movie actors to sign an exclusive contract with a studio. In this case, it was Paramount Pictures, which released all of his early films.

His comedic influences include Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, and Robin Williams.

Although arguably the biggest movie star ever to come out of Saturday Night Live (1975), he has never attended a cast reunion and is not known to even talk about having been on the show.

Graduated high school as Most Popular boy.

Ranked 5th highest grossing actor of all time with his previous films grossing $3.8 billion, as of 2016.

Is a huge fan of the original Star Trek (1966) series.

Keeps a bowling alley in the basement at his home.

He does an excellent impersonation of Stevie Wonder. This can be seen and heard on Saturday Night Live; Best of Eddie Murphy (last scene).

Is a huge fan of the bands Ratt and Cinderella, particularly the former as can be seen in The Golden Child (1986) where their song "Body Talk" (from their 1986 album "Dancing Undercover") is featured.

The 2015 recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

Was cast by Saturday Night Live (1975) and NBC in 1980 when he was 19 years old.

Owns the original Ernie Barnes painting "The Sugar Shack" from the popular TV series Good Times (1974).

Chris Rock is an admirer of Murphy and considers him his role model and inspiration to become an actor and comedian.

At the height of his popularity in the mid 1980s, he began a music career, spawning the popular song "Party All the Time", which he recorded with Rick James. Also recorded an album in the early 1990s, entitled "Whazzupwitu", in which he performs in a video of the single of the same name, alongside Michael Jackson. Murphy appeared in Jackson's video "Remember the Time" in 1992 alongside fellow celebrities Magic Johnson and Iman.

Chosen as #10 in Comedy Central's 100 Greatest Stand-Up Comics of All Time.

Attended Nassau Community College in Garden City, New York, before beginning his acting career.

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on June 26, 1996.

Is a huge fan of Elvis Presley and Kylie Minogue.

He turned down the role of James Carter in Rush Hour (1998) in order to star in Holy Man (1998). The role went to Chris Tucker.

Scored two hits on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts with "Party All the Time" (US #2, 1985) and "Put Your Mouth on Me" (US #27, 1989).

Two of his movies - Beverly Hills Cop (1984) and The Golden Child (1986) - started out as serious action films with Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson respectively, before becoming comedies.

Was considered for the title role in Candyman (1992), which went to Tony Todd.

He originally wasn't supposed to be a cast member on Saturday Night Live (1975). When Jean Doumanian was gathering her cast, she had another token black cast member in mind (Robert Townsend, after failing to get comedian and street performer Charlie Barnett, who, despite being talented enough for TV, was a barely-literate high school dropout), but an SNL writer at the time named Neil Levy and Murphy's agent urged Doumanian to give him a chance. Murphy was let on the show after Townsend forgot (or refused) to sign his cast member contract, and even then, Murphy was relegated to background roles (even though he was a feature player along with Patrick Weathers, Yvonne Hudson, and Matthew Laurence) and fought hard to be more prominent on the show. When Doumanian was running out of material for the episode hosted by Ray Sharkey, Murphy stepped in and did a stand-up bit about black people fighting and was promoted to repertory player on the next episode (hosted by Karen Black.

Even though he played cops or characters with guns, he deeply dislikes guns.

Married Tracey E. Edmonds in a private ceremony on an island off Bora Bora on 1 January 2008, but their nuptials were not legal in the United States. They initially decided to renew their vows in America, but eventually separated two weeks after their island wedding.

He agreed to star in Showtime (2002) purely to work with Robert De Niro.

Although he frequently plays multiple characters in films and television, and has lent his voice to a dozen animated projects, he has never once voiced more then one character in the same animated project.

He refused to return to Saturday Night Live (1975) for several years after David Spade made an insulting joke about him on Weekend Update in the 90's. However, Murphy himself made an similarly insulting joke about Garrett Morris on Weekend Update in the early 80's.