Trivia: The son of a Brooklyn policeman who died when he was eight, African-American comedy superstar Eddie Murphy was raised in the comfortable middle-class community of Hempstead, NY, by his mother and stepfather. A natural-born class clown, he was voted the most popular student at Roosevelt Junior and Senior High. By the age of 15, he was doing standup gigs at 25 to 50 dollars a pop, and within a few years he was headlining on the comedy-club circuit.Murphy was 19 he was when hired as one of the backup performers on the NBC comedy weekly Saturday Night Live. His unique blend of youthful arrogance, sharkish good cheer, underlying rage, and street-smart versatility transformed the comedian into SNL's prime attraction, and soon the country was reverberating with imitations of such choice Murphy characterizations as sourball celebrity Gumby, inner-city kiddie host Mr. Robinson, prison poet Tyrone Green, and the Little Rascals' Buckwheat. Just when it seemed that he couldn't get any more popular, Murphy was hastily added to the cast of Walter Hill's 1982 comedy/melodrama feature film 48 Hours, and voila, an eight-million-dollars-per-picture movie star was born. The actor followed this cinematic triumph with John Landis' Trading Places, a Prince and the Pauper update released during the summer of 1983, the same year that the standup album Eddie Murphy, Comedian won a Grammy. In 1984, he finally had the chance to carry a picture himself: Beverly Hills Cop, one of the most successful pictures of the decade. Proving that at this juncture Murphy could do no wrong, his next starring vehicle, The Golden Child (1986), made a fortune at the box office, despite the fact that the picture itself was less than perfect. After Beverly Hills Cop 2 and his live standup video Eddie Murphy Raw (both 1987), Murphy's popularity and career seemed to be in decline, though his staunchest fans refused to desert him. His esteem rose in the eyes of many with his next project, Coming to America (1987), a reunion with John Landis that allowed him to play an abundance of characters -- some of which he essayed so well that he was utterly unrecognizable. Murphy bowed as a director, producer, and screenwriter with Harlem Nights (1989), a farce about 1930s black gangsters which had an incredible cast (including Murphy, Richard Pryor, Della Reese, Redd Foxx, Danny Aiello, Jasmine Guy, and Arsenio Hall), but was somewhat destroyed by Murphy's lazy, expletive-ridden script and clichéd plot that felt recycled from Damon Runyon stories. Churned out for Paramount, the picture did hefty box office (in the 60-million-dollar range) despite devastating reviews and reports of audience walkouts. Murphy's box-office triumphs continued into the '90s with a seemingly endless string of blockbusters, such as the Reginald Hudlin-directed political satire The Distinguished Gentleman (1992), that same year's "player" comedy Boomerang, and the Landis-directed Beverly Hills Cop III (1994). After an onscreen absence of two years following Cop, Murphy reemerged with a 1996 remake of Jerry Lewis' The Nutty Professor. As directed by Tom Shadyac and produced by the do-no-wrong Brian Grazer, the picture casts Murphy as Dr. Sherman Klump, an obese, klutzy scientist who transforms himself into Buddy Love, a self-obsessed narcissist and a hit with women. As an added surprise, Murphy doubles up his roles as Sherman and Buddy by playing each member of the Klump family (beneath piles and piles of latex). The Nutty Professor grossed dollar one and topped all of Murphy's prior efforts, earning well up into the hundreds of millions and pointing the actor in a more family-friendly direction. His next couple of features, Dr. Dolittle and the animated Mulan (both 1998), were children-oriented affairs, although in 1999 he returned to more mature material with the comedies Life (which he also produced) and Bowfinger; and The PJs, a fairly bawdy claymation sitcom about life in South Central L.A.Moving into the new millennium, Murphy resurrected Sherman Klump and his brood of misfits with the sequel Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000) before moving on to yet another sequel in 2001, the decidedly more family-oriented Dr. Dolittle 2. That same year, sharp-eared audiences were served up abundant laughs by Murphy's turn as a donkey in the animated fairy tale spoof Shrek. Nearly stealing the show from comic powerhouse co-star Mike Myers, children delighted at Murphy's portrayal of the put-upon sidekick of the kindhearted ogre and Murphy was subsequently signed for a sequel that would go into pre-production in early 2003. After bottoming out with the subsequent sci-fi comedy flop The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Murphy stepped into Bill Cosby's old shoes for the mediocre big-screen adaptation of I Spy. With the exception of a return to donkeydom in the 2004 mega-hit Shrek 2, Murphy stuck with hapless father roles during the first several years of the new millennium, Daddy Day Care being the most prominent example, with Disney's The Haunted Mansion following closely behind.In December 2006, however, he emerged with a substantial part in Dreamgirls, writer/director Bill Condon's star-studded adaptation of the hit 1981 Broadway musical about a Supremes-esque ensemble's ascent to the top. Murphy plays James Thunder Early, an R&B vocal sensation for whom the titular divas are hired to sing backup. Variety's David Rooney proclaimed, "Murphy...is a revelation. Mixing up James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Jackie Wilson, and some of his own wiseass personae, his Jimmy leaps off the screen both in his scorching numbers (his proto-rap is a killer) and dialogue scenes. It's his best screen work." A variety of critics groups and peers agreed with that assessment, landing Murphy a number of accolades including a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Around the same time, Murphy wrapped production on director Brian Roberts' Norbit. In that picture, the actor/comedian retreads his Nutty Professor work with a dual turn as Norbit, an insecure, backward geek, and Norbit's monstrous wife, an oppressive, domineering loudmouth. The story has the unhappy couple faced with the possible end of their marriage when Norbit meets his dream-girl (Thandie Newton). Never one to stray too far from familiar territoryMurphy next reteamed with the vocal cast of Shrek yet again for the next installment in the series, Shrek the Third.Over the coming years, Murphy would appear in a handful of comedies like Meet Dave, Imagine That, and Tower Heist. In 2011, he was announced as the host of 2012 Academy Awards, with Brett Ratner (his Tower Heist director) producing the show, but Murphy dropped out after Ratner resigned. In 2013, a fourth Beverly Hills Cop was announced, but the film was pulled from Paramount's schedule after pre-production issues.

Trivia: Following his training at the North Carolina School of the Arts, actor Judge Reinhold worked in regional repertory, dinner theaters, and "outdoor" dramas. He gained prominence in TV roles as gawky teenagers, notably the lead in the syndicated Capital Cities Special A Step Too Slow. In films from 1979, Reinhold's first major role was high schooler Brad in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. He hit his stride in 1984, playing the nice-guy detective sent to trail Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop (1984). Though he has proven a convincing villain when the need has arisen, Judge Reinhold has thrived in parts calling for decency and dependency. Reinhold's career slowed down a bit during the '90s and in the early part of the decade he seemed destined to be relegated to B-movies and television films such as Four Eyes and Six Guns (1993), but in 1994, he appeared in two major features, Beverly Hills Cop III and The Santa Clause.

Trivia: Memorably portraying gruff authority figures in such features as Beverly Hills Cop (1984) and King Kong Lives (1986), longtime character actor John Ashton possesses just the sort of rough-around-the-edges, grating quality that viewers love to hate. A native of Springfield, MA, who graduated from the University of Southern California School of Theater, Ashton got his start onscreen with a supporting role in the 1973 thriller The Psychopath, a role that served to define his future career path in cinematic law enforcement. Small-screen roles in Kojak and Police Story only served to reinforce this path, and in 1978 Ashton became a familiar face to television viewers when he joined the cast of the prime-time hit Dallas. Continuing to alternate between television and film into the following decade, the 1980s proved a lucrative period for Ashton as roles in Honky Tonk Freeway (1981), The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai (1984), Beverly Hills Cop (as well as its sequel), and Midnight Run (1988) found him toying with his haggard image to the amusement of movie lovers worldwide. Though not as prominent onscreen in the 1990s, Ashton averaged about two films a year with roles in The Tommyknockers (1993), Trapped in Paradise (1994), and Meet the Deedles (1998), culminating with an impressive performance as the eponymous character in the 2001 thriller Bill's Gun Shop, which proved once and for all that his edge was still very much intact. His performance was so impressive, in fact, that he was subsequently cast in the lead of the 2002 drama Sweet Deadly Dreams.

Trivia: Born in the Middle East to American parents, Lisa Eilbacher was the sister of busy child actress Cindy Eilbacher. Likewise launching her career at an early age, Lisa made her film debut as Jason Robards Jr.'s teenage daughter in The War Between Men and Women (1972). Best remembered for her portrayal of pilot trainee Cory Seegar in An Officer and a Gentleman (1984) and for her work as Eddie Murphy's leading lady in Beverly Hills Cop (1984), Eilbacher also has the distinction of being the first actress to portray kidnaped heiress Patricia Hearst in the 1979 TV movie The Ordeal of Patty Hearst. Lisa Eilbacher's other TV work has included regular roles on such series as The Texas Wheelers, The Hardy Boys: Nancy Drew Mysteries and Ryan's Four, and the starring role in the 1985 private eye weekly Me and Mom (1985, as "Me").

Trivia: An alumnus of Eastern New Mexico University, American actor Ronny Cox received one the best early film showcases an actor could ask for. In 1972, he was cast as one of the four unfortunate rafters in Deliverance; it was Cox who engaged in the celebrated "dueling banjos" sequence with enigmatic albino boy Hoyt J. Pollard. Two years later, Cox found himself in Apple's Way, a homey TV dramatic weekly described as a "modern Waltons". Most of his subsequent roles were in this benign, All-American vein--and then Cox shocked his followers by portraying Jerry Rubin in the 1975 PBS TV drama The Trial of the Chicago Seven. During this telecast, Cox became one of the first (if not the first) actors to mouth a now-familiar expletive of disgust on American television. As his physique thickened and his hairline thinned in the 1980s, Cox was much in demand in films as a corporate villain, notably in Paul Verhoeven's Robocop (1984) and Total Recall (1990). The flip side of this hard-nosed screen image was his portrayal of the apoplectic but scrupulously honest police chief in Eddie Murphy's Beverly Hills Cop films.

Trivia: Manhattan-born character actor James Russo has been showing up in hard-bitten film supporting roles since 1981. In the otherwise teen-oriented Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Russo brought a welcome gust of reality as a nasty robber. His gangster characters have borne spell-it-out names like Bugsy (1982's Once Upon a Time in America) and Vince Hood (1984's Cotton Club). Even in such westerns as 1994's Bad Girls, James Russo could be counted upon to show up as a Bad Boy (in this instance, a worthy by the name of Kid Jarret).

Trivia: Jonathan Banks began his film career in the sort of roles described by character actor Frank Faylen as "sneezers." For example: if you sneezed, you'd miss Banks' microscopic part in 1980's Stir Crazy. He was more visible in such roles as the hitchhiker in the 1982 biopic Frances and Algren in the 1983 seriocomedy 48 Hours. On television, Jonathan Banks was cast as the scurrilous extraterrestrial Commander Kroll in Otherworld (1985) and as Frank McPike, Ken Wahl's choleric boss, in Wiseguy (1987). Banks would continue to appear in several more films over the coming years, like Dark Blue and Reign Over Me, as well as TV shows like Breaking Bad.

Trivia: Most of actor Stephen Elliot's film credits were piled up after he reached the age of fifty. The best of these include Hospital (1971), Death Wish (1974), The Hindenburg (1978) and Taking Care of Business (1988). Elliot was cast as Jill Eikenberry's bullying millionaire father in Arthur (1981), in which he pummeled prospective son-in-law Dudley Moore to a pulp when Moore balked at the altar; he repeated this ham-fisted characterization in Arthur 2, On the Rocks (1985). Stephen Elliot's acting contributions to television include patriarch Benjamin Lassiter on Beacon Hill (1975), Jane Wyman's ex-husband (not Ronald Reagan) on Falcon Crest (1981-82), and several years in the role of Paul Ailey on the daytime drama Love of Life.

Trivia: Gangly, sweet-faced actor Bronson Pinchot was born in New York and raised in California, then returned to the East Coast to study at the Yale School of Drama. The common misconception is that Pinchot sprang fully grown as a comedian with his performance as an effete, bizarrely accented art gallery assistant in Beverly Hills Cop (1984). Actually he'd been in films since 1982, including Risky Business, but his Cop appearance was his breakthrough role, and was instrumental in his receiving the starring assignment of Balki Bartokomous ("Doan be reedeeculus!"), ingenuous immigrant from the mythical country of Mypos, in the popular TV sitcom Perfect Strangers (1986). Pinchot and his co-star, Mark-Linn Baker, worked together as though they'd been a team for years. In fact, they did have something in common: Both had appeared in Woody Allen films, and both had had their scenes cut before release. Since the cancellation of Perfect Strangers, Bronson Pinchot has appeared in important feature-film roles, generally amusing in nature; he was far less funny as the megalomaniac villain of the 1995 Stephen King TV miniseries The Langoliers. He appeared in Courage Under Fire, Slappy and the Stinkers, and Boardheads. In the 21st century he could be seen in Second Best, Icemaker, Cluster, and Pure Country 2: The Gift. He also found stead work in animated film lending his vocal talent to projects like Babes in Toyland, Quest for Camelot, and Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure.

Trivia: One of the salutary byproducts of the TV series Seinfeld is that it created a market in the '90s for sitcoms built around the comedy routines of young, hip New York comics. One of the best of these programs was Mad About You, created by and starring Manhattan-born Paul Reiser. Reiser and Seinfeld share more than a similarity of sitcoms; together with comedians Larry Miller and Mark Schiff, they comprise what has been unofficially dubbed the Four Funniest Men in the World Club, which has met for lunch each New Year's Day for the past several years. Reiser's credentials include a degree from S.U.N.Y.-Binghamton, a short stint as a health food distributor, and a 1982 film debut in Diner. Most of his film roles have been in comedies, though he was effectively cast as a greedy space traveler (who comes to a well-deserved bad end) in 1986's Aliens. Reiser has noted that his weekly series Mad About You, in which he co-starred with Helen Hunt, was based on his relationship with his wife, Paula. In 1995, Paul Reiser took a brief respite from Mad About You to star in the "single dad" comedy Bye Bye Love.As the new decade began, and Mad About You came to a close, Resier appeared in One Night at McCool's, and four years later realized a personal dream by co-starring with Peter Falk in The Thing About My Folks, a film Resier co-wrote as well. He was interviewed in The Aristocrats, and appeared as himself in Funny People. In 2011 he masterminded the very short-lived NBC sitcom The Paul Reiser Show.

Trivia: Lead actor Champion began appearing on screen in the '80s.

Trivia: Like his older brother, Keenan Ivory Wayans, African-American performer Damon Wayans matriculated from standup comedy to series television to movies. He was a regular on TV's Saturday Night Live and -- along with virtually everyone else in the Wayans family -- In Living Color. Exhibiting a fondness for the outrageous, Wayans attracted both adulation and condemnation for his many In Living Color characterizations, notably the dour Homey the Clown and the excessively effeminate co-host of the "Men on Film" skits. Damon's first film was 1984's Beverly Hills Cop 2; he has since functioned as co-star (with brother Marlon Wayans), co-producer, co-writer, and director of Mo' Money (1992), and has been heard but not seen as the voice of a troublesome baby in Look Who's Talking 2 (1992). In 1995, Damon Wayans played a role once essayed by Charlton Heston, in Major Payne, a remake of Heston's The Private War of Major Benson (1955).

Trivia: Supporting actor, onscreen from the late '80s.

Trivia: First acting gig was in his senior year of high school in a production of Fiddler on the Roof, in which he was cast as the lead, Tevye. Studied sports medicine before changing his focus to acting. Won the Natalie Wood Acting Award at UCLA. Nearly left the acting profession when he was offered a lucrative job in financial services. Served as Georgia's representative on the National Board of the Screen Actors Guild from January 2002 to September 2004. Advocated for the merger of SAG (Screen Actors Guild) and AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) prior to their 2012 merger as SAG-AFTRA. Has also served as the Atlanta Local First Vice-President of SAG-AFTRA. Has used acting principles and experience to launch a successful business as a career coach.

Trivia: Singer Jack Heller sang in a few movies during the '30s and '40s. Before that he had been a juvenile singer, an adolescent prizefighter, and a popular vaudeville singer. During the '30s, Heller frequently performed on the radio. During WW II, he worked with the USO and entertained troops overseas. Towards the end of his career, Heller became a popular performer in Las Vegas.

Trivia: David Patrick Kelly specializes in playing sleazeballs, oily little punks, and crazies in actioners and urban dramas. While Kelly excels at such roles, they do not fully represent his training and potential. A former student of Stella Adler in New York and mime Marcel Marceau in Paris, Kelly first made his name on the New York stage, appearing in everything from musicals to experimental theater. Producer Joel Silver started him down the road to movie villainy when he cast him in Walter Hill's The Warriors (1979) and then 48 Hrs. (1982). Kelly has subsequently appeared in several more Hill films, including Last Man Standing (1997). Kelly also played supporting roles in two Spike Lee films, Malcolm X (1992) and Crooklyn (1994).

Trivia: While attending New York University, Martin Brest directed the award-winning student project Hot Dogs for Gaugin, starring a then-unknown Danny De Vito. Brest went on to produce, direct, write, and edit Hot Tomorrows (1977) for the American Film Institute. These formative efforts caught the eye of Warner Bros.; the studio hired the 27-year-old Brest to direct the venerable George Burns, Art Carney, and Lee Strasberg in the melancholy comedy Going in Style (1979). The handling of this film evinced a maturity well beyond Brest's physical age, and it looked for awhile as though Hollywood had another wunderkind on its hands. Brest developed the teenage-oriented suspense film WarGames, but the project was wrested from his control after an on-set tiff with the producers. For nearly two years, Brest was virtually blacklisted, surfacing only for an acting assignment in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). The director made a successful comeback with the mega-hit Beverly Hills Cop (1984); he has continued to prosper professionally, winning an Oscar nomination for Scent of a Woman (1992), which he produced as well as directed. Brest is married to producer Lisa Weinstein.

Trivia: Her early career showed great promise, and though she is still a highly respected and talented actress, Lisa Eichhorn has never quite reached the rarified heights of movie stardom. The U.S.-born actress studied at Oxford and then received dramatic training from London's prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She made her film debut in John Schlesinger's Yanks starring opposite Richard Gere and then appeared in the Merchant/Ivory production The Europeans (both 1979). Neither were box-office hits, and Eichhorn's budding film career languished. But then she played John Heard's wife in Cutter's Way/Cutter and Bone, a powerful drama about the complex relationships between an embittered crippled veteran, his former army buddy, and his depressive wife. The film was initially panned and pulled from release, but later it was rediscovered by critics and given rave reviews. Eichhorn's performance was particularly notable. Her subsequent film appearances have become increasingly sporadic. In addition to her film career, she has found success on television and particularly on the stage, where she has particularly shone in classic dramas.