Eddie Murphy Loathes Funerals: ‘The Whole Ritual Is Too Much’

When it comes to funerals, don’t expect Eddie Murphy to attend one anytime soon.

“I’ve paid for a lot of funerals, but I don’t go to funerals,” he recently told USA Today. “They shouldn’t even have funerals. I’m like, ‘This funeral is morbid.’ The whole people [in attendance] and seeing your loved one out there, and just emotionally, the whole ritual is too much.”

The 64-year-old comedy legend said he’s attended only two funerals in his life: for his father, Charles Edward Murphy, who died in 1969, and his stepfather, Vernon Lynch Sr., who died in 2001.

The former Saturday Night Live cast member and Oscar nominee says when it’s all said and done, he won’t have a funeral and will not “be laying up there and people coming and looking at me, lowering me in the ground.”

“I am to be cremated immediately,” Murphy stated. “And there’s no funeral, and there’s no memorial or none of that s---. Just keep it rolling. None of that trauma.… It’s way too f------ much, a funeral.”

The Shrek actor reaffirmed his end-of-life views regarding his remains, saying: “I don't give a f--- what they do with them.”

“Just as long as you don’t have people standing around with my ashes,” he explained. “I’m not trying to be in the urn while everybody’s crying. I don’t want to have that moment.”

He emphasized that “crying is allowed,” but “the whole ritual of a funeral is just too much for me.”

Murphy’s life is the subject of a new Netflix documentary, Being Eddie, which premieres on Nov. 12.

The conversation about death and funeral planning is a complex one. A 2024 AARP survey of adults age 45 and older found that 83 percent believe understanding the end-of-life process is an important part of life and have positive views about it.

While 69 percent say they usually avoid the subject, most (85 percent) feel comfortable discussing death and dying. Still, over a third (35 percent) agree with the statement “There is no reason to talk about dying, you die when you die, and there isn’t anything you can do about it.”

Memorial services have grown more popular, with cremation being chosen over traditional burials in the U.S. In 2023 the cremation rate was 60.5 percent of deaths, according to the National Funeral Directors Association. By 2045, it is projected to surpass 81 percent.

AARP has 10 ways to save on funeral costs and eight tips for funeral planning.