Eddie Murphy, the legendary actor and stand-up comedian, will receive the AFI Life Achievement Award, America’s highest honor for a career in film, the American Film Institute‘s board of trustees announced Friday.
Murphy will be honored at a gala tribute at the Dolby Theatre on April 18, 2026, just two weeks after his 65th birthday. He will be the fourth Black recipient of the honor, following Sidney Poitier (1992), Morgan Freeman (2011) and Denzel Washington (2019).
“Eddie Murphy is an American icon,” Kathleen Kennedy, the chair of AFI’s board of trustees, said in a statement. “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, and AFI is proud to honor him with the 51st AFI Life Achievement Award.”
Murphy shot to stardom on Saturday Night Live in the early 1980s and then quickly began to receive offers to do movies, too, a few of which he took on during breaks from the show and which quickly confirmed him as the most bankable movie star of the ‘80s: 1982’s 48 Hours, 1983’s Trading Places and 1984’s Beverly Hills Cop. After focusing on stand-up for a few years, he returned to acting and anchored several more blockbusters targeted at adults, including 1987’s Beverly Hills Cop 2, 1988’s Coming to America and 1996’s The Nutty Professor, before shifting into family-friendly fare such as 1998’s Dr. Dolittle and Mulan, 2001’s Shrek and 2003’s Daddy Day Care. He has worked less frequently in recent years but received critical raves and awards attention for his turns in 2006’s Dreamgirls, 2016’s Mr. Church and 2019’s Dolemite Is My Name.
The American Film Institute is a nonprofit organization with a mandate to champion the moving image as an art form. All proceeds from the 51st AFI Life Achievement Award Tribute Gala will support AFI’s education and arts initiatives.
AFI’s 50 previous Life Achievement Award recipients were…
1973: John Ford
1974: James Cagney
1975: Orson Welles
1976: William Wyler
1977: Bette Davis
1978: Henry Fonda
1979: Alfred Hitchcock
1980: James Stewart
1981: Fred Astaire
1982: Frank Capra
1983: John Huston
1984: Lillian Gish
1985: Gene Kelly
1986: Billy Wilder
1987: Barbara Stanwyck
1988: Jack Lemmon
1989: Gregory Peck
1990: David Lean
1991: Kirk Douglas
1992: Sidney Poitier
1993: Elizabeth Taylor
1994: Jack Nicholson
1995: Steven Spielberg
1996: Clint Eastwood
1997: Martin Scorsese
1998: Robert Wise
1999: Dustin Hoffman
2000: Harrison Ford
2001: Barbra Streisand
2002: Tom Hanks
2003: Robert De Niro
2004: Meryl Streep
2005: George Lucas
2006: Sean Connery
2007: Al Pacino
2008: Warren Beatty
2009: Michael Douglas
2010: Mike Nichols
2011: Morgan Freeman
2012: Shirley MacLaine
2013: Mel Brooks
2014: Jane Fonda
2015: Steve Martin
2016: John Williams
2017: Diane Keaton
2018: George Clooney
2019: Denzel Washington
2022: Julie Andrews
2024: Nicole Kidman
2025: Francis Ford Coppola
