Barry Blaustein, ‘SNL’ And Movie Writer For Eddie Murphy, Dies At 71

BusinessHollywood & EntertainmentBarry Blaustein, ‘SNL’ And Movie Writer For Eddie Murphy, Dies At 71ByTim Lammers,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I cover Hollywood and entertainment.Follow AuthorMay 13, 2026, 01:47pm EDTMay 13, 2026, 01:47pm EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.Barry Blaustein and guest at Netflix's "Being Eddie" Los Angeles premiere held at Tudum Theater on November 12, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Chad Salvador/Variety via Getty Images)Variety via Getty ImagesBarry Blaustein, a writer who collaborated with Eddie Murphy on Saturday Night Live and his Coming to America and Nutty Professor movies, has died.Blaustein died Tuesday, his longtime employer, Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, announced (via The Hollywood Reporter). He was 71. THR reported that Blaustein, who had been battling Parkinson’s disease since 2017, also learned in April that he had stage four pancreatic cancer.ForbesDonald Gibb, Ogre From ‘Revenge Of The Nerds,’ Dies At 71By Tim LammersAccording to the Chapman University professor’s bio page, Blaustein and fellow SNL head writer/supervising producer David Sheffield wrote and developed Murphy’s classic characters Gumby, Buckwheat, Mr. Robinson and Velvet Jones.“Barry understood what made comedy function better than anyone I know,” Dodge College Dean Stephen Galloway said in a statement (via the Los Angeles Times). “He knew that it includes darkness as well as light. And yet it was the light that filled his last years. Even as he declined with Parkinson’s, he showed a positivity that always stunned me. He’ll be remembered as a wonderful writer, but an even more wonderful human being.”Born Barry Wayne Blaustein on Sept. 10, 1954, in Long Island, N.Y., Blaustein’s first screen credit came in 1979 as a writer for The Mike Douglas Show, where he c...