Eddie Murphy will receive the 51st AFI Life Achievement Award, the American Film Institute Board of Trustees announced on Friday. The comedian will collect his award at a gala on April 18, 2026, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
Kathleen Kennedy, chair of the AFI Board of Trustees, said in a statement, “Eddie Murphy is an American icon. A trailblazing force in the art forms of film, television and stand-up comedy, his versatility knows no bounds. Across five decades, his enduring impact on our culture has inspired artists and audiences alike.”
Hard to argue with that. After getting his start on “SNL” in 1980, Murphy became one of the biggest stars of the decade, shooting to the top of the box office with movies including “48 Hours,” “Trading Places,” “Beverly Hills Cop” and “Coming to America.” More hits followed, from “The Nutty Professor” to “Dr. Dolittle” and the “Shrek” movies to “Dreamgirls,” which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He is still the “SNL” graduate with the highest box office gross of all time and one of the top-five box-office stars ever, with a combined gross of more than $3.8 billion. In the new documentary “Being Eddie,” streaming on Netflix, he looks back on his life in show business.
The AFI Board of Trustees created the AFI Life Achievement Award, “America’s highest honor for a career in film,” in 1973 and gave the inaugural prize to John Ford. Since then, it has been given annually to an honoree who meets the following criteria: “The recipient should be one whose talent has in a fundamental way advanced the film art; whose accomplishment has been acknowledged by scholars, critics, professional peers and the general public; and whose work has stood the test of time.”
Last year, Francis Ford Coppola received the Life Achievement Award. Other luminaries who have been honored include Bette Davis, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Sidney Poitier, Elizabeth Taylor, Jack Nicholson, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton.
