Word: stardom
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Your article on black Comedian Eddie Murphy [July 11] was a shallow, superficial puff piece. You would have served your readers far better if you had chosen to analyze the reasons behind Murphy's rise to stardom. Why is he, along with Richard Pryor, finding such enormous success while serious black dramatic actors and actresses rarely work...
...sounded like a match made in show business heaven. John Travolta: instant superstar when he strode down a Brooklyn sidewalk, the white-suited knight in a grungy Camelot, as Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever; consolidation of stardom in Grease and Urban Cowboy; a sensitive actor with a stud's lean physique. Sylvester Stallone: instant superstar when he laced up his gloves and socked it to the champ for the full 15 in Rocky; consolidation of stardom in Rockys II and III, which he directed as well as wrote, mixing sentimental bravura with slam-bang action sequences...
...neophyte actor took a couple of Richard Pryor hand-me-down roles and parlayed them into movie stardom. In 48 HRS., released last Christmas, Murphy played a sassy convict sprung from stir for two days to help Tough Cop Nick Nolte catch a couple of killers. The film's director, Walter Hill, says of Eddie: "This kid is so enormously talented he can get away with anything." This time Eddie ran away with the movie: 48 HRS., for which he was paid $200,000, has tallied an imposing $78 million at the box office...
...other big difference between the two men is that Murphy shot into prominence within the dangerous discipline of television sketch comedy. From TV's long and distinguished list of skitcom graduates, the few who made a successful transition to movie stardom were usually those who had created and sustained their own ingratiating personalities on the small screen: Goldie Hawn's daffy blond, Chevy Chase's overage preppie. Bill Murray's blitzed-out party guy. The other group-the inspired mimics who hid themselves behind the galaxy of comic characters they portrayed-looked both stretched and cramped...
Jamie Lee Curtis puts Murphy's leap to stardom in perspective: "I love it that despite all his success, Eddie acts like he's 22 years old. His life is cars and girls, girls and cars. More cars. More girls." Last September Murphy broke off with Shirley Fowler, a student of social work at the University of Pittsburgh, and is now assiduously playing the field. Observes Walter Hill: "Eddie can hear the rustle of nylon stockings at 50 yards." If anything bugs Murphy, it is the matter of image: "I don't think that entertainers should...