“That was my idol”: the icon Eddie Murphy called the greatest entertainer who ever lived
Entertainers come in all forms, shapes, and sizes, with Eddie Murphy weaponising several different mediums to speed up his ascent to superstardom in the 1980s, when he became one of the most famous faces in Hollywood in a very short amount of time.
Beginning on the stand-up circuit, Murphy gained nationwide prominence in the United States when he ventured into the sketch comedy world of Saturday Night Live, with the television special Delirious winning further acclaim before the theatrical release of Raw saw it become the highest-grossing comedy concert film ever released, a record it still holds almost 40 years later.
At the same time, he earned consecutive Golden Globe nominations between 1983 and 1985 for three of his first four movie appearances, with the trio of 48 Hrs, Beverly Hills Cop, and Trading Places elevating him onto the A-list and transforming a relative rookie into one of the industry’s most popular and bankable leading men.
That’s without even mentioning his debut album, How Could it Be, which was certified gold in America and spawned the hit single ‘Party All the Time’. In addition to his three Golden Globe nods, Murphy won ‘Best Comedy Album’ at the Grammys for Comedian and notched three Primetime Emmy nominations for his work on SNL, making him an undeniable megastar.
This all happened well before the end of his 20s, too, which is an unimaginable level of success to experience so early on. A decade previously, Murphy had been trawling the club circuit in search of his big break, only for his wildest dreams to have been realised to an extent he couldn’t have possibly conceived.
Attaining so much adulation at an early age often brings with it the risk of a swift and sudden downfall, and while that did happen to Murphy eventually, it was down to his poor selection of big screen roles more than anything else. It was always going to be difficult to maintain the constant greatness that defined his breakthrough, and he was well aware of the pitfalls established by a hero of his, who he’d later describe as a cautionary tale.
“Elvis Presley, that was my idol,” he told Rolling Stone in 1984. “He’s just the greatest entertainer who ever lived. When Elvis Presley walked into a room, Elvis Presley was in the fucking room. I don’t care who was in there with him – Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, anyone – he was cool. The girls wanted to fuck him, and the guys said, ‘Damn, I’d like to be like him.'”
Presley was in a class of his own when it came to recognition and visibility, which brought its own set of drawbacks. An era-defining legend and one of pop culture’s most indelible figures ever before dying young when failing health and personal issues got the better of him, he was truly one of a kind. Murphy enjoyed a stratospheric rise that wasn’t quite Presley-esque but rapid enough for the star to try and ensure he didn’t fall into the same traps.
