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MURPHY, EDDIE (1961– ). American comedian and actor.
In
some respects, though, we shouldn't have been surprised by this development,
because during his years on Saturday Night Live Murphy's most memorable
creations were his cantankerous updating of the clay-animation hero Gumby and
the charmingly seedy Mr. Robinson, a brilliant impersonation of Mr. Rogers
considered as an urban con artist who addressed his youthful audience with
affecting warmth and sly humor. No one should doubt, whatever cynical motives
may also be influencing his recent decisions, that Murphy genuinely likes
children and relates to them very well, perhaps being something of an overgrown
child himself.
One
way to ingratiate yourself with the kids, and with the people who make movies
for kids, is to volunteer your services as a voice for animated movies. And,
after his highly celebrated work as the wise-cracking animal sidekicks of Mulan
and Shrek, Murphy may forever be first on every animator's list of stars
to recruit, an expressive voice to liven up dull plots with a steady stream of
irreverant insults and complaints. Based on my viewing of these films, however,
this would appear to be a characterization that can grow very old very quickly.
Working in territory closer to his old stomping grounds in Brooklyn, New York,
Murphy enjoyed less success with his clay-animation series The P.J.s, a
series that lacked both the droll wit and the heart displayed by Mr. Robinson.
However,
despite earlier flirtings with the fantastic in a Michael Jackson music video,
"Remember the Time," in the mildly diverting The Golden Child, and in
the miscalculated Vampire in Brooklyn, the true turning point in
Murphy's career was the brilliant and disturbing The Nutty Professor.
Whereas Jerry LEWIS's original film employed the Jekyll-and-Hyde story to
attack his former screen partner Dean Martin, Murphy's film surprisingly serves
as a sustained attack on Eddie Murphy himself. Plump, insecure, and humorless,
Professor Klump represents everything Murphy never was; he drinks a potion to
transform himself into the athletic, brash, and sarcastic Eddie Murphy long
familiar to screen audiences. In the film, Klump triumphs over and suppresses
the evil Murphy persona and learns to love himself for the dull, stolid person
that he truly is. I cannot recall another film in which a actor so resoundingly
and vitriolically repudiated his own screen persona; Murphy all but announces
to the world, "I'm not going to be that cocky, foul-mouthed comedian any more;
from now on, I'm going to be this big, bland, lovable teddy bear of a guy." And
it is a message delivered with a purposefulness and panache rarely observed in an
Eddie Murphy performance.
Indeed, since The Nutty Professor, being a
family man has been Murphy's visible agenda, despite occasional forays like Holy
Man into somewhat edgier territory. The results so far have not been
encouraging: Dr. Dolittle, lacking any sort of personal theme that could
energize Murphy, fell back on the crude humor of the elementary-school
playground to engage its viewers; the sequels to that film and to The Nutty
Professor were enervated exercises; and after botching his efforts to
revive another wholesome chestnut with I Spy and to launch a new
franchise with The Adventures of Pluto Nash, we are now left to look
forward (if that is the proper phrase) to Murphy's visit to The Haunted
Mansion without an overabundance of optimism. Fred McMurray made tons of
money presiding over unobjectionable family comedies on screen and television
during the 1960s, but the roles he is remembered for today, in the
not-suitable-for-families films Double Indemnity and The Apartment,
were as sleazy scoundrels. Besides The Nutty Professor, what roles are
audiences of the future going to remember Eddie Murphy for?
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