To call him the most successful African American actor in history would be to damn him with faint praise. His total gross income from his movie career to date is estimated at $3.4 billion, recently leapfrogging Tom Hanks ($3.3 billion) and well ahead of Harrison Ford and Tom Cruise. And yet the Hollywood establishment still treats him in much the same way Randolph and Mortimer treat Murphy’s Billy Ray Valentine in Trading Places: as an uncouth, uninvited interloper into their genteel world. 

He’s a star and everyone seems to know it but the elite in Hollywood.  Or maybe they do, but are just jealous that Murphy is so commercially successful.   If its commercial than Hollywood believes it is not “art” and therefore worthy of awards.  They continually honor films that no one goes to see or no one cares about.  Yes, Eddie Murphy makes some films that are “low humor” but he’s brilliant.  Yes, he makes outrageous remarks.  “I’ve got some rules when I do stand-up: faggots aren’t allowed to look at my ass when I’m on stage. That’s why I keep moving when I’m up here: you don’t know where the faggot section is.”  But there are no denying the numbers.  They speak volumes.

Guardian