What To Know
- The Netflix documentary Being Eddie offers an intimate look at Eddie Murphy’s personal life, including his family, career, and formative experiences.
- Murphy candidly discusses the painful impact of his parents’ divorce and the traumatic murder of his father.
- After his father’s death, Murphy credits his stepfather, Vernon Lynch, as a positive and influential role model.
In Netflix’s Being Eddie, fans are treated to a rare, unfiltered look at the personal life of comedy icon Eddie Murphy. From his marriage and family moments to behind-the-scenes stories from his biggest hits (and a few misfires), Murphy opens the door to his world like never before. The documentary also delves into the most painful chapters of his life, including the divorce of his parents, the murder of his father, and the lasting impact it had on shaping the man he became.
Murphy’s parents, Lillian and Charles Edward Murphy, married at the age of 18 and welcomed Eddie a year later. Their relationship ended over something surprisingly small: a photograph. As Murphy recalls, his mother wanted a professional portrait of him and his brother Charlie, so she dressed them in their best clothes and sent them to a local photographer when he was only three years old.
“My father came home and found out that my mother had spent some money on some pictures. ‘You spent our money on some goddamn pictures?!?’” recalled the comedian. “I’m sure they were having issues, but that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. This was the last straw.”
Eddie Murphy/Courtesy of Netflix
“My dad was a character. Supposedly, my dad was the life of the party. The party started when my dad came. He was loud and funny, you know, and…I am not the life of the party,” admitted Murphy. “Ever.”
“I have a handful of memories. But my very, very first memory of all is of my mother and father fighting. That’s my very first memory,” recalled Murphy. “And I remember my mother threw — she had a porcelain Virgin Mary on the desk. She threw the Virgin Mary at him. And I remember seeing that broken, and then I remember seeing my mother on the floor in the hallway crying.”
He continued, “My dad came, and he picked me and Charlie up and put us on his lap, and he said that my pajamas was crooked. I remember it was pulled all the way backwards. We were crying. He said, ‘You can go with me or you can go with your mother.’ And I said, ‘I want my mommy.’
“My dad died when I was seven or eight years old,” revealed Murphy. “I know stuff, but I don’t know everything. I know that he was killed.”
At this point, it was up to Murphy’s older brother, the late Charlie Murphy, to fill in the gaps. In a clip taken from The Howard Stern Show, Charlie talks about his father’s killer.
“The woman that killed my father…,” begins Charlie. “It was a woman?!?” exclaimed Robin Quivers in the background. “Yeah.”
Howard Stern asked, “Why did a woman kill your father?” to which Charlie replied, “Lovers’ quarrel.”
“It’s one of the oldest stories in the books,” explains Charlie. “I tell my kids, man, ‘Hey, man, if the girl is mad, don’t close your eyes.’”
The Murphy Clan (Eddie Murphy / Netflix)
After losing his father, Lillain married the man who became his role model and stepfather, Vernon Lynch, whom Murphy credited as a “solid father figure in my life for the rest of my life — Vernon Lynch — that’s who raised me.”
“That’s the sweet blessing, to have a man like that come into your life and be the type of man that he was,” explained Murphy. “The example that he set, and I saw what he did, you know, and I feel like I’m the man that I am because of him.”
Being Eddie, Premiere, Wednesday, November 12, Netflix