Secrets about the making of ‘Coming to America,’ 25 years later

coa, eddie murphy jewish character

Director John Landis was the brains behind Murphy playing a white Jewish man in Coming to America.  He read that in the early 1900s Jewish comedians often wore blackface to portray racist caricatures of African Americans so he decided to have Eddie play a Jewish man in “whiteface” for the now-famous barbershop scene.

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