Eddie Murphy is to receive the 2015 Mark Twain prize for American Humour, the first major movie star to pick up the prestigious award in four years.
The prize, considered the US’s foremost comedy honour, was won by Will Ferrell in 2011 and Tina Fey in 2010. In the past two years it has been handed to US television stars Jay Leno and Carol Burnett, while previous recipients include Richard Pryor, Whoopi Goldberg and Steve Martin.
“I am deeply honoured to receive this recognition from the Kennedy Center and to join the distinguished list of past recipients of this award,” Murphy, 54, said on his website.
The former standup comic and Saturday Night Live alumnus is best known on the big screen for 80s blockbusters such as Beverly Hills Cop and Trading Places. He later had box office success with the 1996 comedy The Nutty Professor and voiced Donkey in the hugely profitable Shrek series of animated movies. Murphy, who also suffered one of the most infamous box office turkeys of all time in the shape of 2002 science fiction comedy The Adventures of Pluto Nash, is due to appear as Pryor’s father in an upcoming biopic and will reprise his role as street-smart detective Axel Foley in a long-gestating fourth Beverly Hills Cop film.
Murphy will be feted during a gala performance at the the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts concert hall in Washington, DC, on 18 October.
