New Eddie Murphy film debuts on Netflix. Here's his connection to Rochester

Eddie Murphy’s “ Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F ” starts streaming on Netflix today.

But long before even the original movie came out in 1987, Murphy’s comedic gifts were obvious, including to a Brighton family that hosted the Brooklyn native as a Fresh Air Fund kid for several summers starting in 1968. (The program brings New York City children upstate for vacation.)

“He was funny even then,” Beverly Kildea told Democrat and Chronicle reporter Andy Smith in 1983, by which point Murphy was a household name. “He was always telling jokes — he was a little wild and crazy, but a really good kid. We all had a lot of fun.”

At age 19 (around 10 years after he last stayed with the Kildeas), Murphy saved “Saturday Night Live” from one of its most disastrous seasons and went on to star in the movies “48 Hrs.” and “Trading Spaces.”

In 1983, his standup special, “Delirious,” premiered on HBO, and in it he described his Fresh Air Fund experience, noting it was his first exposure to a white family.

“I went there, and I found out that some white kids can curse around the house,” he said. “I couldn’t even say ‘dag’ around my house. My father would say, ‘That sounds too much like damn.’”

Murphy then recalled one of the Kildea children, Tom, being told by his mother that he was running late, and Tom replying, “C’mon mom, shit! I’m moving as fast as I can! Shit!”

In an interview with the D&C’s Smith, grown-up Tom Kildea said Murphy’s account “was probably true” but added that Murphy wasn’t exactly innocent when it came to using profanity.

However, what impressed him was that Murphy remembered the family, Kildea said. “We all had a good time with him. I think it’s just wild he remembered us after all this time.”

Eddie Murphy talks new 'Beverly Hills Cop' movie

If you’re amazed that we’re talking about “Beverly Hills Cop” some 40 years after that movie essentially birthed the buddy-cop comedy genre (here's looking at you, "Lethal Weapon" and "Bad Boys" ), Eddie Mur p hy shares your sense of wonder.

“The pope was 47 when the first movie came out, I’m talking about the sitting one (Pope Francis),” Murphy reflects in a conversation with USA TODAY. “So he might have seen it. The pope has probably seen ‘Beverly Hills Cop.’ Wow.”

Murphy’s somewhat tongue-in-smirking-cheek speculation might extend to the movie’s two sequels, in 1987 and 1994. And perhaps – if the pontiff indeed is an Axel Foley fan – the fourth film of the enduring franchise, “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” ( streaming Wednesday on Netflix ).

“Axel and all the characters, they’re very much part of the lexicon,” says Murphy, 63. “I mean, somewhere in the world, one of those movies is on TV right now."

For this installment, “it really was mainly about getting a good script and getting to the set, and that was it. As soon as they said ‘Action,’ I was Axel again.”

Judge Reinhold , who returns once again as Foley sidekick Billy Rosewood, joining fellow returnee John Ashton as cop John Taggart, says when the trio hopped in a squad car again, fireworks ignited.

“I hadn’t seen Eddie in maybe 10 years, but when the three of us were together, it was magic, it was like we’d never stopped,” Reinhold says. "The night of that shoot was special. The three of us showed up dressed the same as we used to, and the crew, it was spooky for them, it was like we’d walked out of their past. Things got quiet.”

Reporter Marcia Greenwood covers general assignments. Send story tips to mgreenwo@rocheste.gannett.com . Follow her on Twitter @MarciaGreenwood .

Contributing: USA Today Network

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: New Eddie Murphy film debuts on Netflix. Here's his connection to Rochester