On This Day in History, April 3: Brooklyn Beginnings for Eddie Murphy
BROOKLYN — Eddie Murphy was born in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn on April 3, 1961, the son of Charles Murphy, a New York City policeman and amateur comedian and his wife, Lillian, a telephone operator.
The Murphys were divorced when Eddie was three, and Charles Murphy died about five years later. For a time, the family had to struggle to survive, and when the mother was hospitalized for an extended period, Eddie and his older brother, Charles, were placed in the care of a woman whom Eddie recalls as “a kind of black Nazi,” adding, “Staying with her was probably the reason I became a comedian.”
As a kid, Murphy did imitations of such cartoon characters as Bugs Bunny or Tom and Jerry, and film comics like Laurel and Hardy and Jerry Lewis. As he grew older, he began preparing comic routines with almost professional care, often rushing home from school to “rehearse” his impressions of Elvis Presley, Jackie Wilson, Al Green, and the Beatles.