Whatever happened to…

WHEN YOU THINK BACK TO THE NAMES THAT IMPRESSED YOU IN YOUR GROWING UP YEARS, THE STARS THAT MADE YOUR HEART BEAT THAT LITTLE BIT FASTER, THE SPORTS PERSONALITIES YOU WANTED TO EMULATE... YOU WONDER HOW THE DECADES HAVE TREATED THEM

Words: JILL ECKERSLEY

Eddie Murphy

New York-born Eddie Murphy became famous at 19, when he joined the cast of US TV’s top variety show Saturday Night Live in 1980. As an actor, singer and stand-up comic, he was sometimes controversial, sometimes outspoken, but always watchable. After a difficult childhood, part of which was spent in foster care, he admits he used to bunk off high school to appear on the stage in local clubs.

The many roles he took on in Saturday Night Live made him a star. He soon branched out into movies. In 1982 he starred alongside Nick Nolte in 48 Hours, and the the following year in Trading Places with Dan Aykroyd. Beverly Hills Cop was another smash hit. In the new century, he was most often seen in movies but returned to Saturday Night Live in 2019, winning both Grammys and Emmys. A series of relationships has produced ten children – six daughters and four sons – some of whom have followed Dad into show-business. “I love fatherhood,” he has said, “and my kids are all great, normal people!” A romance with former Spice Girl Mel B produced a daughter called Angel Iris Murphy Brown, born in 2007.

Eddie owns property on Long Island, New York and is an active supporter of many good causes, including AIDS and cancer charities as well as those working for the homeless and improvements in education. He also donated US$100,000 to the Screen Actors Guild Strike Relief Fund.

Glamour model and pop singer Samantha Fox became one of the most photographed women of the 1980s. Her career as a ‘Page Three’ girl began after her mother sent a snapshot of her to a competition in The Sun newspaper.

Sam – a native East Ender – had attended stage school from the age of five but had ambitions to become a police officer until she found that as a petite 5’ 1’ she wasn’t tall enough. She was happy to pose topless, and in those days there was no bar on teenagers appearing on Page Three.

By 1986, Sam decided that a career in pop music was what she wanted, and her first record Touch Me (I Want Your Body) was a worldwide hit. Several successful albums and singles followed.

In 1989, she presented the Brit Awards alongside Mick Fleetwood, but the presenters were given the wrong information and the autocue didn’t work! With her band Sox she tried her hand at a British Eurovision entry in 1995 but wasn’t selected.

Sam had always been a supporter of LGBT charities and had a long relationship with her manager, eventually ‘coming out’ as gay in 2003. She is now married to her former tour manager Linda Olsen and continues to make music. She said recently that 2023 has been a great year for her.

“I’m glad to still be here and be sane,” she says, “even after 40 years.

Glamour modelling has changed since my time – we Page Three girls were just the girls next door!”