Film & TV / Comedy / Music
Eddie Murphy
born 1961 · comedian, actor, singer
Brooklyn-born comedy star whose Axel Foley, the wisecracking Detroit police detective of Beverly Hills Cop, is one of the most famous Detroiters in film.
- Born
Brooklyn, New York
age 65- Birth name
- Edward Regan Murphy
- Detroit years
- 1984, 1987, 1994, 2022
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Eddie Murphy grew up in New York, yet for moviegoers around the world he is the face of a Detroit cop. In Beverly Hills Cop (1984) he played Axel Foley, a fast-talking Detroit detective who follows a friend's murder to California, and most of the film's Detroit scenes were shot in the city. Foley's Mumford High School gym shirt was a nod to the northwest Detroit school attended by producer Jerry Bruckheimer; after the film opened, the school was flooded with orders for copies. Murphy played Foley again in 1987 and 1994, and in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024), whose prologue used a Red Wings game at Little Caesars Arena in December 2022 as its backdrop, although Murphy himself did not travel to Detroit for that shoot. He also had a Motown connection: the label released his 1993 album Love's Alright.
Highlights
- Saturday Night Live cast member 1980–1984
- Played Detroit detective Axel Foley in four Beverly Hills Cop films (1984–2024)
- Golden Globe win and Oscar nomination for Dreamgirls (2006), a story modeled on Motown-era Detroit
- Motown Records released his album Love's Alright in 1993
- Mark Twain Prize for American Humor (2015), Cecil B. DeMille Award (2023)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Related place · 1984
Mumford High School
Northwest Detroit high school whose gym shirt Axel Foley wears in Beverly Hills Cop; the film crew had noticed it next to a real crime scene, and it was also Jerry Bruckheimer's alma mater.
Related place · 2022
Little Caesars Arena
A Red Wings–Golden Knights game here on December 3, 2022 served as the backdrop for the Detroit prologue of Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.