Eddie Murphy to receive Kennedy Center’s 2015 Mark Twain Prize

Eddie Murphy will receive the Kennedy Center’s 2015 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Murphy will be honored with the 18th annual prize at a gala performance Oct. 18 featuring as yet unnamed comedians. The program will be televised nationally.

Murphy, 54, was a teenager when he helped reinvigorate “Saturday Night Live” with his impressions of James Brown and Michael Jackson and such characters as Little Richard Simmons — a composite of the singer and the fitness guru — and Mr. Robinson of “Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood.” . . .