Eddie Murphy was born in Brooklyn New York, in 1961, the youngest son of Lillian Murphy, a widow who married Vernon Lynch, the step-father of Eddie, his brother Charles Q. Murphy, and Vernon Jr.
Eddie himself had aspirations of being in show business since he was a child. A bright kid growing up in the streets of New York, Murphy spent a great deal of time on impressions and comedy stand-up routines rather than academics. His sense of humor and wit made him a stand out amongst his classmates at Roosevelt Junior-Senior High School.
By the time he was 15, Murphy worked as a stand-up comic on the lower part of New York, wooing audiences with his dead-on impressions of celebrities and outlooks on life.
Some Random Eddie Facts
His favorite TV show is "Star Trek".
He was the first actor to receive $1,000,000 for his first film.
Chosen as #10 in Comedy Central's 100 Greatest Stand-Up Comics of All Time.
Close friends with former late night talk show host Arsenio Hall
Turned down the role of Winston Zeddemore in Ghost Busters
Edward Regan Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is a Golden Globe-winning and Grammy Award-winning American actor and comedian. He has also enjoyed a minor singing career.
The African-American comic and actor began his career as a comedian at the age of 13, as part of a comedy duo with fellow comedian Mitchell Kyser at the Roosevelt Youth Center in Roosevelt, Long Island, where he was raised.
At 19 he became a performer on NBC's Saturday Night Live television show, not long after graduating from Roosevelt Junior-Senior High School. His characters include a parody of Buckwheat from the Little Rascals and an inner-city black version of Fred Rogers known as "Mr. Robinson". Former SNL writer Margaret Humphert has said Murphy and Bill Murray are the two most talented people in the history of the show. Murphy left the show midway through the 1983–1984 season, appearing in filmed sketches for the remainder of that season.
