Eddie Murphy To Receive Huge Honor
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organization that administers the Golden Globe Awards, has chosen Eddie Murphy to receive this year’s Cecil B. DeMille Award. Deadline reports that HFPA President Helen Hoehne has confirmed the news on behalf of the journalistic society’s board of directors. This honorary award is for a lifetime of achievement in the entertainment world.
When Eddie Murphy is given the award on January 10, 2023, he will represent the 68th honoree since its 1952 inception. Only in 1976, 2008, and 2022 was the Cecil B. DeMille Award not handed to someone in the entertainment industry. Former recipients are a who’s who of Hollywood celebrities and influencers such as DeMille himself, Bob Hope, Samuel Goldwyn, Oprah Winfrey, and Tom Hanks.
As an actor, writer, producer, and comedian, Eddie Murphy has certainly been a major influence in entertainment. He has been nominated for a Golden Globe six times and won in 2007 for the musical Dreamgirls, which also earned him an Oscar nomination. His other Golden Globe nominations were for 48 Hrs., Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop, The Nutty Professor, and Dolemite is My Name.
However, this year’s Cecil B. DeMille Award winner has far more to his name than the movies that earned him honors, which is why he is receiving this nod from the HFPA. Eddie Murphy is almost like a chameleon, known for playing many different roles at once in some of his movies, from a group of barbershop gossips in Coming to America to the chaotic, but loving, family in The Nutty Professor. He also loaned his distinctive voice and vocal style to the Disney hit Mulan as Mushu, and as Donkey in the Dreamworks blockbuster franchise Shrek.
As well as acting and producing, Eddie Murphy is a writer, a necessary job in the stand-up comedy world he originated in during the late 1970s. With Saturday Night Live sketches and hit specials like Delirious and Raw under his belt, screenplays were the next step, starting with 1989’s crime dramedy Harlem Nights. He also developed the stories that became Vampire in Brooklyn, Coming to America, and Boomerang, which was both a movie and a television series.
With numerous stand-up comedy recordings, television shows, movies, and production credits in his name, Eddie Murphy certainly worked hard to earn the Cecil B. DeMille Award, which represents significant contributions to entertainment. On the strength of his ability to play several roles in the same film, the celebrity had already displayed great talent, but those roles were only the foundation of a prolific career that started back when he was on stage with just a microphone. This honor rewards him for a lifetime of working to climb to the top and excel.
This award is also timely for the HFPA, which has been navigating accusations of racism and sexual harassment, which caused the awards broadcast to be canceled in 2022. Only four Black people have received the award out of 68 nods: Sidney Poitier in 1982, Morgan Freeman in 2012, Denzel Washington in 2016, and Oprah Winfrey in 2018. Eddie Murphy is the fifth Black recipient of the award since its 1952 inception.
There are many deserving candidates for the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and Eddie Murphy is certainly on the shortlist for this honor. Fans can watch him receive it at the Golden Globes ceremony on NBC on January 10, knowing that this year’s honor could not be in better hands.
