Who was Eddie Murphy’s father and what happened to him? Actor recalls dad Charles Edward Murphy’s violent death in documentary

Actor, comedian, and singer Eddie Murphy shared memories of his father in his latest Netflix documentary, Being Eddie. Eddie’s father, Charles Edward Murphy, died from a fatal stabbing when he was 7-8 years old. He was a police officer.

“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,” the ‘Dreamgirls’ actor stated.

Eddie Murphy recalled that after the fight, his mother, Lillian, was crying in the hallway, while his father came to pick him and his brother Charlie up and put them on his lap.

“We were crying. He said, ‘You can go with me or you can go with your mother.’ And I said, ‘I want my mommy,’” Eddie shared.

He mentioned not knowing the details of his dad’s death, but only knowing that he was killed by a woman.

Everything to know about Eddie Murphy’s father

Charles Edward Murphy was born in Brooklyn, New York City, in October 1940. He was 28 when he died in NYC on August 22, 1969. His parents were Henry Roosevelt Murphy Sr and Rosa V Boykins Murphy.

Charles Edward had five siblings, including Henry Roosevelt Jr, William Leroy, James Earl, Virginia Mae, and Raymond Leon Murphy Sr, better known as Uncle Ray by Charlie and Eddie Murphy.

Charles Edward Murphy was a policeman and an aspiring comedian and actor. He married Lillian Laney Murphy in 1960, and together they had two children, Charlie and Eddie Murphy. When Charlie was 5 and Eddie was 3, their parents divorced.

Five years after that, in 1969, Charles Edward was stabbed to death by a woman in a crime of passion. During a 1989 interview with Rolling Stone, the Saturday Night Live alum stated:

“My mother and father broke up when I was 3, and he died when I was 8, so I have very dim memories. Every now and then, I wonder what it would be like if he were still here.”

Eddie added, “He was a victim of the Murphy charm ‘chuckles.’ A woman stabbed my father. I never got all the logistics. It was supposed to be one of those crimes of passion: ‘If I can’t have you, then no one else will’ kind of deal… But I was really f**ked up about his death. It was really traumatic.”

Murphy filed a $60 million lawsuit against the National Enquirer for their 1986 article “Eddie Murphy Haunted By Dad’s Brutal Murder — He’s Afraid He’ll Die The Same Horrible Death.”

His lawyer, Leonard Marks, claimed at the time that the article was “totally false and defamatory.” Marks added that it suffered “injury” to his client’s

“reputation, exposure to public ridicule and contempt, distress, humiliation, shame, mortification, hurt feelings, and other damages to be proven at trial.”

The civil suit was later dropped.

During a recent interview with USA Today, the comedian also recalled that the first funeral that he ever attended was that of his father. Since then, he has only attended his stepfather’s funeral in 2001 and skipped the rest, including his brother Charlie’s, who died from leukaemia in April 2017.

It is noteworthy that Eddie Murphy’s mother, Lillian, married Vernon Lynch Sr, who raised him and Charlie as his own son. Lynch Sr was also the father of Lillian’s son, Vernon Jr. The stepfather was even Eddie’s best man during his 1993 wedding to Nicole Mitchell.

In his latest documentary, Being Eddie, the actor-comedian shared how his dad deeply influenced his life. However, he has turned out nothing like him.

“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, ever,” he stated.

The Golden Globe winner also shared that the “last straw” in his parents’ marriage was his father discovering that his mother sent him and Charlie to get their portraits taken. Charles Edward Murphy was upset that his wife spent money on pictures.

Eddie Murphy also called Vernon Sr a “solid father figure in my life” who not only raised him but also became his lifetime role model. Charlie Murphy, too, shared similar sentiments in his past conversation with Howard Stern on the latter’s show. However, the Chappelle’s Show alum mentioned that his dad’s murder was a result of a “lover’s quarrel.”

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Being Eddie premiered on November 12.

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