{"id":22013,"date":"2025-12-08T13:22:41","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T18:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=22013"},"modified":"2025-12-08T13:22:41","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T18:22:41","slug":"eddie-murphy-reveals-he-quietly-paid-for-funerals-of-celebrity-friends-who-died-penniless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/12\/eddie-murphy-reveals-he-quietly-paid-for-funerals-of-celebrity-friends-who-died-penniless.html","title":{"rendered":"Eddie Murphy Reveals He Quietly Paid For Funerals of Celebrity Friends Who Died Penniless"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Featureflash Photo Agency \/ Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Eddie Murphy is known for making the world laugh, but behind the scenes, the comedy legend has also quietly carried the burden of saying goodbye to some of his closest friends. In Netflix\u2019s new documentary, Being Eddie, the 64-year-old actor opened up about paying for the funerals and even one tombstone for several beloved stars who died without enough money to cover their own burial expenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Redd kicked out, I had to bury Redd. I had to bury Redd. I had to bury Rick. I bought Buckwheat a tombstone. Buckwheat didn\u2019t have no tombstone,\u201d Murphy revealed in the film. \u201cI\u2019m always burying these people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy was referring to comedian Redd Foxx, musician Rick James, and actor William Thomas Jr., best known for playing Buckwheat in The Little Rascals films. Each was a cultural icon in their own right, but Murphy said what shocked him most wasn\u2019t just their deaths\u2014it was how quickly they were forgotten financially.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt tripped me out, these people you\u2026 show business and all that, and then when they pass away, there\u2019s not even the money to bury these people?\u201d he said. \u201cWhere are their families? Where are these people? It\u2019s a lot of people like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foxx, the groundbreaking comedian who brought Fred Sanford to life on Sanford and Son, died of a heart attack in 1991 at 68. Murphy, who had idolized Foxx for years, finally got the chance to work with him in the 1989 hit Harlem Nights. \u201cRedd was just funny effortlessly. I love Redd,\u201d Murphy recalled. \u201cTo work with somebody you idolize\u2026 On the outside, I\u2019m unflappable. On the inside, I was like\u2026 \u2018Ahh!\u2019 When we were doing Harlem Nights, I wanted to do a movie with some of my old heroes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rick James, Murphy\u2019s friend and collaborator on the 1985 hit \u201cParty All the Time,\u201d died of heart failure in 2004. William Thomas Jr., who brought joy to audiences as Buckwheat, passed away much earlier in 1980 from a heart attack.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Murphy says he\u2019s \u201cpaid for a lot of funerals,\u201d but admitted to USA Today that he doesn\u2019t attend them. The only funerals he\u2019s ever been to, he said, were for his biological father, Charles Edward Murphy, and his stepfather, Vernon Lynch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I kick out, I’m not having no funeral and be laying up there and people coming and looking at me, lowering me in the ground,\u201d he said. \u201cI am to be cremated immediately. And there’s no funeral, and there’s no memorial or none of that s—. Just keep it rolling. None of that trauma. \u2026 It’s way too f—— much, a funeral.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t give a f— what they do with [my ashes],\u201d he continued. \u201cJust as long as you don’t have people standing around with my ashes. … I’m not trying to be in the urn while everybody’s crying. I don’t want to have that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy added that he doesn\u2019t mind if people cry for him \u2014 he just doesn\u2019t want the spectacle that often comes with celebrity funerals. \u201cCrying is allowed,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m just talking about the whole ritual of a funeral is just too much for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Murphy, laughter has always been his way of dealing with life\u2019s toughest moments. And even in death, he wants to keep things simple \u2014 no spotlight, no ceremony, just peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eddie Murphy is known for making the world laugh, but behind the scenes, the comedy legend has also quietly carried the burden of saying goodbye to some of his closest friends. In Netflix\u2019s new documentary, Being Eddie, the 64-year-old actor opened up about paying for the funerals and even one tombstone for several beloved stars…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":462,"featured_media":22016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-messages"],"yoast_head":"\nEddie Murphy Reveals He Quietly Paid For Funerals of Celebrity Friends Who Died Penniless<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Eddie Murphy financially covered the funeral costs for Rick James and Redd Foxx, and purchased a tombstone for William Thomas Jr.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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