Credit: Far Out / YouTube Still
Wed 29 July 2026 18:45, UK
The wise-cracking Eddie Murphy once said, “I started out as an impressionist and that’s all about observing – how people move, their voice quality, their attitudes and quirks.”
In the process, he learned the secrets of charisma, and his defining conclusion was that you can only fake it so far. Some people just have a certain je ne sais quoi that causes heads to turn and the masses to swoon.
In Murphy’s view, nobody has had more of it than the King. “That’s my idol, Elvis Presley,” the famed Nutty Professor actor once said. As it happens, he was practically a fanboy. “If you went to my house, you’d see pictures all over of Elvis.”
However, there is a good reason for his adoration. “He’s just the greatest entertainer that ever lived. And I think it’s because he had such presence,” Murphy explained. Born in 1961, the comic actor might not have seen Elvis’ peak in real time, but there are legions of folks for whom that makes little difference.
Owing to Presley’s shattering swagger, for millions of fans, he represents something that cuts through the stilted mundanity of modern life. According to Eddie, he even had that effect on the rooms he walked into. “When Elvis walked into a room, Elvis Presley was in the f***ing room. I don’t give a f*** who was in the room with him, Bogart, Marilyn Monroe.”
While Murphy might have only been 16 when the King departed, so he was never in the same room, he’s been on the receiving end of a plethora of stories from his older peers over the years that testify to this head-swivelling belief. Even when the King’s power was waning, his charisma still commanded a room like no other.
In many ways, Elvis changed the very nature of stardom, let alone music. As even BB King recalled, hinting that his charm was always inherent, “I remember Elvis as a young man hanging around the Sun Studios. Even then, I knew this kid had a tremendous talent.”
Further reading: Cutting Room Floor
BB King continued, “He was a dynamic young boy. His phraseology, his way of looking at a song, was as unique as Sinatra’s. I was a tremendous fan, and had Elvis lived, there would have been no end to his inventiveness.”
All the same, Murphy’s devotion (and that of millions of others like him) is proof that the mark the King made on the world was comparable to the effect he had on any given room he swanned into, and that will always remain. For Murphy, it was clear from there that to be a true entertainer, you needed more than just talent; you had to appeal to people with charm. From the outset, he looked to emulate that (just in a more mortal, less earth-shattering way).
As Elton John attested, “Ask anyone. If it hadn’t been for Elvis, I don’t know where popular music would be. He was the one that started it all off, and he was definitely the start of it for me.”
