When Colonel Tom Parker crossed the line with Eddie Murphy: “Too old to be taught the limits of racism”
Few famous Elvis Presley fans are as dedicated as Eddie Murphy. From the very start of his career, the iconic comedian broadcast his love for The King at every opportunity. He wore jumpsuits inspired by Elvis during his stand-up acts, raved about him in interviews, and even showed journalists around his office, which was adorned top to bottom with Elvis memorabilia. However, while Murphy never met his idol in person, he did cross paths with Colonel Tom Parker, the King’s notorious manager—and let’s just say, Parker didn’t exactly make it a pleasant experience.
In 1989, Rolling Stone interviewed Murphy about everything from his Saturday Night Live days to his rise through the Hollywood ranks and his disastrous experience directing Harlem Nights. However, when talk turned to his deep, abiding love of Elvis, he truly came to life. “I love Elvis,” he gushed. “He had the strongest presence of anyone ever in this business.”
Murphy marvelled at how Elvis always seemed perfectly in control on stage, even when his personal life and career were spiralling into oblivion toward the end of his life. In this period, though, Murphy felt Parker let Elvis down and bled the icon dry instead of helping him get a grip on his life again. “This guy was a fucking recluse, doing drugs, fucking up his body and his diet,” Murphy lamented. “He had this terrible deal with his manager, who got maybe 50% of all his money, and he paid a 70% tax bracket. It’s lunatic, man.”
This led Murphy to detail the few occasions he met Parker, who was played with villainous gusto by Tom Hanks in Baz Luhrmann’s 2023 Elvis biopic. They crossed paths in Las Vegas, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Murphy didn’t have many nice things to say about the Dutch-American talent manager.
“A couple of times, he set me up in the Elvis Presley suite on top of the Hilton, and I would go play Elvis for a week, which was real cool,” Murphy explained. “One night, we were at the crap table together, and he rubbed my head for luck.”
At this point, Murphy saw red, admitting he wanted to choke Parker for overstepping his bounds in such a disrespectful way. He felt dehumanised by Parker’s act, which has its roots in the horrifying days of slavery in the US. Back then, a horrific myth was prevalent that rubbing a Black man’s head would steal his luck, and the context in which Parker did it indicated he knew exactly what it would symbolise to Murphy.
“I wanted to punch him in the face,” Murphy admitted. “But this guy is like 80 years old – too old to be taught the limits of racism. There was nothing I could do.”
It was clear that Parker’s joke, which was insensitive at best and cruelly racist at worst, had a deep effect on Murphy, and he didn’t particularly like talking about it. He tried to play it off by quipping, “What would it look like in the papers? ‘Eddie Murphy beats up Colonel Parker!'” before giving Parker the benefit of the doubt by theorising that perhaps someone of his generation “probably doesn’t realise how horrible a thing that was to do.”
Still, when he repeated Parker’s words, “Let me rub your head for luck, boy,” he admitted, “My blood was boiling.”
