Eddie Murphy vs. Will Smith

Just the facts

Eddie Murphy

Born: Edward Regan Murphy on April 3, 1961 in Brooklyn, New York.

Mother Lillian was a telephone operator; father Charles Edward Murphy was a transit cop and amateur comedian who left the family when Eddie was 3 years old. Five years later, Eddie’s dad was stabbed to death. Murphy and his brother Charlie, also a comedian, were raised in Roosevelt, on Long Island by his mother and his stepfather Vernon Lynch, who was an ice cream factory foreman.

Will Smith

Born: Willard Christopher Smith Jr. on Sept. 25, 1968 in Philadelphia, Pa.

Smith is the second of four kids born to Carolina, who worked as a school board employee, and Willard Sr., who owned a refrigeration company. He grew up in the middle-class area of Wynnefield and attended Overbrook High School. He was given the nickname ‘Prince’ because he could charm his way out of any situation.  (Charley Gallay / Getty Images)

Height

Murphy

5’9 1/2”

Smith:

6’ 2 1/2”

Winner: Smith, though, Murphy’s ego often is over 6’3.”  (Andrew Gombert / EPA)

Beginnings

Murphy

Citing Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor among his influences, Murphy spent most of his formative years entertaining his friends and classmates at Roosevelt Junior-Senior High School. At just 15, he began working in earnest as a stand-up comedian, eventually finding himself performing at the Manhattan club The Comic Strip. He so impressed the club’s co-owners Robert Wachs and Richard Tienken that they began to manage his career. At 19, he became the youngest regular on “Saturday Night Live,” (here, with Robert Culp), playing hilarious characters such as Velvet Jones, Mr. Robinson and a very cranky Gumby.

Smith

Smith decided to forgo a scholarship to MIT to pursue a career as an MC with his childhood buddy Jazzy Jeff. As the hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The French Prince, they hit the charts with their often humorous — and clean — raps, including “Parents Just Don’t Understand” and “Summertime,” winning the first Grammy in the rap category in 1988. After spending too much money too soon, Smith was nearly bankrupt when he landed the starring role on his own NBC sitcom in 1990, “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” Smith continued on the show until 1996.

Winner: Though both hit it big when they were young, Murphy has the edge, achieving TV stardom at 19.  (George Rose / Los Angeles Times)

Awards

Murphy

Won: Best actor from the National Society of Film Critics for 1996’s “The Nutty Professor”; the Golden Globe, the Broadcast Film Critics Assn. and Screen Actors Guild awards for supporting actor for 2006’s “Dreamgirls.”

Oscar: Was nominated for supporting actor Oscar for “Dreamgirls.”

Embarrassment: Murphy set a record earlier this year when he won five Razzie awards for his multiple roles in the comedy “Norbit” — worst actor, worst supporting actor, worst supporting actress, worst screenplay and worst screen couple.

Smith

Won: The MTV Movie Award for best male performance in 2007’s “I Am Legend” and 2001’s “Ali”; the People’s Choice Award for favorite male action star in 2005; the Teen Choice Awards for dramatic actor and movie chemistry (with son Jaden) in 2006’s “The Pursuit of Happyness.”

Oscar: Nominated twice for lead actor for 2001’s “Ali” and 2006’s “The Pursuit of Happyness.”

Embarrassment: Won the Razzie Award in 2000 for worst original song, shared with Stevie Wonder and Kool Moe Dee, and worst screen couple, shared with Kevin Kline for “Wild Wild West.”

Winner: Toss-up. Murphy has won more awards, but Smith also has two Oscar nominations, and in the lead actor category.  (Kevin Winter / Getty Images)

Personal Life

Murphy

Was married from 1993 to 2006 to Nicole Mitchell. Together they had four daughters and one son. He has another son by a previous relationship, and a daughter born last year to Spice Girl Melanie B. On New Year’s Day this year, he exchanged marriage vows with Tracey Edmonds, the former spouse of Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, in a private ceremony in Bora Bora. They announced two weeks later the ceremony wasn’t legal and decided just to remain friends. He has recently been linked with the sister of “CSI: Miami” star Eva La Rue.

Smith

He married Sharee Zampino in 1992. Together they have a son, Willard Christopher IIII, who known as Trey. They divorced in 1995. Two years later, he married actress Jada Pinkett — now Jada Pinkett Smith — and have two children, both actors: Jaden born in 1998, who was his co-star in “The Pursuit of Happyness,” and Willow, born in 2000, who appeared in “I Am Legend” and is competing opposite her father in “Kit Kittredge: An American Girl,” which opened wide on July 2.

Winner: Both have failed marriages, but Smith seems to have a solid relationship with Jada and his kids are adorably precocious.  (Matt Sayles / Associated Press)

Scandals

Murphy

The actor hit the tabloids in 1997 when he was pulled over by sheriff’s deputies in the wee small hours of the morning in West Hollywood with a cross-dressing prostitute, 20-year-old Atisone Kenneth Seiuli, who was arrested on a prior warrant. Murphy, though, wasn’t charged. He later told “Entertainment Tonight”: “It was like they pulled me over. ‘That’s a hooker.’ She has warrants. You be careful, Eddie. Go on home.’ That was it.” Murphy told E! that he had stopped to help Seiuli, who seemed “disjointed” and asked for a lift home.

The following year, Seiuli fell to his death from the roof of an apartment building.

Smith

Just prior to Christmas last year, Smith was quoted in the Scottish newspaper the Daily Record that “Even Hitler didn’t wake up going, ‘Let me do the most evil thing I can do today.’ I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set to do what he thought was ‘good.’”

After the Anti-Defamation and several other organizations were in an uproar over the remarks, Smith issued a statement saying that the article misrepresented what he said: “It’s an awful and disgusting lie. It speaks to the dangerous power of an ignorant person with a pen.... Adolf Hitler was a vile, heinous, vicious killer responsible or one of the greatest acts of evil ever committed on this planet.”

Just this past Sunday in The Times, an article focused on the controversy surrounding the Smiths’ new private school, New Village Academy in Calabasas, because some of the teachers are members of the Church of Scientology — the Smiths are close friends with Tom and Katie — and the school will utilize teaching methods that were devised by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

Loser: (No one wins in scandals). Both have had their share of troubles, but hands-down this category goes to Murphy.  (Niko-Lorenvu / EPA)