ARTNEWSPRESS: Just who will receive the Critics’ Choice Lifetime Achievement Award this year? It’s Gumby, dammit! Well, Eddie Murphy, to be exact, as the veteran comic and actor’s resurgence continues.
The Saturday Night Live alum and Oscar-nominated actor will be feted for his extraordinary roles over the years, most recently his portrayal of Rudy Ray Moore in Netflix’s Dolemite Is My Name, for which he is up for Best Actor at the 25th annual Critics’ Choice Awards and the 77th Golden Globes.
The Critics’ Choice Association notes that Murphy is the most commercially successful African-American actor in movie business history and one of the top-five box-office performers overall. He is on the short list of actors who have starred in multiple $100 million pictures during the past three decades, from Beverly Hills Cop to Daddy Day Care. Some of his other most beloved hits include 48 HRS., Trading Places, Coming to America, Harlem Nights, Bowfinger, The Nutty Professor and Shrek.
He hosted Saturday Night Live this month in his first full visit to the NBC late-night staple since he was a castmember from 1980-84, drawing the show’s best ratings in 2 1/2 years. During the December 21 episode, he reprised his famous Gumby, Buckwheat and Velvet Jones characters and paid a return visit to “Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood.”
Murphy, who scored a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for 2007’s Dreamgirls, will accept his CCA honor on Sunday, January 12, at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. The CW will air the silver anniversary Critics’ Choice Awards live at 7 pm ET and delayed in the West at 7 p.m. PT. Taye Diggs will host the show, and Kristen Bell will receive the fourth annual #SeeHer Award.
https://deadline.com
Erik Pedersen
