Murphy was a quadriplegic as the result of a diving accident that took place at Martha's Vineyard on August 8, 1974.

His friend and director, Peter Farrelly, was with him at the accident.

[1] Murphy criticized Farrelly for not including disabled people in his movie Dumb & Dumber.

Murphy died in Florida from cancer, aged 58, on August 8, 2014, exactly 40 years after his catastrophic accident.

This article about a United States film actor born in the 1950s is a stub.