Who is Eddie Murphy's Real Life Character in Dreamgirls?

Folks keep emailing me and asking me who Eddie was playing in Dreamgirls. Here's the answer according to the Los Angeles Daily News...

Character: James "Thunder" Early (Eddie Murphy)

Real-life counterpart: Jackie Wilson/James Brown with a dash of Marvin Gaye

Backstory: Early mixes the 1950s R&B of Wilson with 1960s soul power of Brown, with results that will be familiar to anyone who saw Murphy's Godfather of Soul sketches on "Saturday Night Live." Later, when Early attempts a social-message record a la Gaye's "What's Going On," he wears the same kind of crocheted hat that Gaye favored at the time.

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