Eddie Murphy awarded with a Lifetime Achievement Award from American Film InstituteThe AFI Board of Trustees made the announcement Friday. The award will be presented at a gala in Los Angeles at the Dolby Theater on April 18.
“Eddie Murphy is an American icon,” said Kathleen Kennedy, chair of the institute’s board of trustees. “A pioneering force in the arts such as film, television and stand-up comedy, his versatility knows no bounds.”
Murphy, 64, has been a major part of the entertainment industry for nearly 50 years as a teen stand-up phenomenon on television. “Saturday Night Live” actors, as well as in movies, where it dominated the box office for decades, with hits such as Beverly Hills Cop, Coming to America, The Nutty Professor and the Shrek films. In 2007 he was nominated for an award Best Supporting Actor Oscar for “Dreamgirls,” which already won him a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Golden Globe, but he did not receive an Oscar.
In a new documentary about his life and career, Being Eddie, currently streaming on Netflix, Murphy noted that he was more annoyed by having to put on a tuxedo and go to the event than by losing.
“It’s always nice to win, but if I don’t win, I don’t give a (expletive),” he said. “I'm still Eddie in the morning.”
In 2023 Murphy received the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes, where he cut his speech to two minutes. He told The Associated Press in 2021 that he has a different outlook than he did at the height of his fame.
“When you’re young, you take everything for granted, how successful I am,” Murphy said. “Now I take nothing for granted and appreciate everything.”
AFI's gala performances are often star-studded. Last year in Francis Ford Coppola's DinnerSteven Spielberg, Robert De Niro and Harrison Ford were among those who came to toast Coppola.
Murphy is the 51st recipient of the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award, which was first presented in 1973 to John Ford. Other recent winners include: Nicole Kidman, Julie Andrews And Denzel Washington.
