Eddie Murphy Says He Paid For Funerals for Rick James and Other Famous Friends In ‘Being Eddie:’ “Where Are Their Families?”

In an unexpected somber moment in the new Eddie Murphy Netflix documentary, Being Eddie, the storied comedian opened up about paying for funerals of show biz legends, including musician and producer Rick James, Emmy-nominated comedian Redd Foxx, and Little Rascals child actor Billie “Buckwheat” Thomas.

Directed by Angus Wall, Being Eddie—which began streaming on Netflix today—centers on a long, intimate conversation with Murphy in his lavish California mansion, where he reflects on his near-50-year career. While remember his directorial debut, 1989’s Harlem Nights—in which Murphy directed two of his heroes, Richard Pryor and Redd Foxx—Murphy gets on the subject of funding funerals for friends.

“I love Redd, but he’s a cautionary tale too, because he had drugs, all that shit going on,” Murphy said of Foxx, a stand-up and TV actor known for Sanford and Son, The Redd Foxx Show, and The Royal Family. “Then his paper was all fucked up. When Redd kicked out, I had to bury Redd.”

Murphy goes on to say that Foxx was not the only person he did this for. He also, he says, paid for a funeral for musician Rick James, who collaborated with Murphy on the 1985 hit song “Party All the Time;” as well as paid for a tombstone for Billie “Buckwheat” Thomas, a former child actor who Murphy used to impersonate on Saturday Night Live.

“I had to bury Rick,” Murphy said in Being Eddie. “I bought Buckwheat a tombstone. Buckwheat didn’t have no tombstone. I’m always burying these people. It tripped me out, these people in show business, when they pass away, there’s not even no money to bury these people? Where are their families? There’s a lot of people like that.”

In a recent interview with USA Today, Murphy said that though he often pays for funerals, he rarely attends them. “I’ve paid for a lot of funerals, but I don’t go to funerals,” Murphy said. “They shouldn’t even have funerals. I’m like, ‘This funeral is morbid.’ The whole people [in attendance] and seeing your loved one out there, and just emotionally, the whole ritual is too much.”

The 64-year-old comedian added that when he goes, he doesn’t want to have a funeral.

“When I kick out, I’m not having no funeral and be laying up there and people coming and looking at me, lowering me in the ground,” Murphy told USA Today. “I am to be cremated immediately. And there’s no funeral, and there’s no memorial or none of that shit. Just keep it rolling. None of that trauma.”