The Memoir Of Ms. Butterfly

Born in Germany in 1965, comedian Martin Lawrence did stand-up for several years before getting his big break as the host of HBO’s Def Comedy Jam. He then moved into film acting, appearing in hits such as Bad Boys and Big Momma’s House.

Lawrence also had his own sitcom, Martin, which ran on Fox in the 1990s. Actor and comedian Martin Lawrence was born in Frankfurt, Germany, on April 16, 1965. Lawrence’s father served in the U.S. military and left the family when Martin was 8 years old. As a teen, he pursued a love of boxing and displayed a gift for comedy.

A teacher encouraged Lawrence to attend an open mic night at a local comedy club, and his career as a comic was born. Shortly after moving to California, Lawrence got a guest spot on the television show What’s Happening Now!!

 This appearance led to his big break in television as the host of HBO’s groundbreaking Def Comedy Jam. Lawrence moved into the spotlight with the launch of the Fox sitcom Martin in 1992.

Along with starring as disc jockey Martin Payne, Lawrence often appeared as other characters like Mama Payne and the outrageous neighbor Sheneneh Jenkins. Martin was a big hit for Fox, although the final season, which ended in the spring of 1997, was clouded by accusations of sexual harassment from co-star Tisha Campbell.

Lawrence also parlayed his early successes into a movie career. After appearances in features like House Party (1990) and Boomerang (1992), he hit it big with a co-starring role alongside Will Smith in the buddy cop flick Bad Boys (1995).

Five years later, the actor seized the opportunity to shine in Big Momma’s House, with audiences responding favorably to his brand of crude but endearing comedy. Lawrence went on to reprise his roles in Bad Boys II (2003), Big Momma’s House 2 (2006), and Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son (2011).

In early 2020, he readied to rejoin Smith in Bad Boys for Life. In 2007, Lawrence co-starred with Tim Allen, John Travolta, and William H. Macy in the midlife crisis comedy Wild Hogs, which earned lukewarm reviews from critics but grossed more than $250 million globally.

He followed with roles in the ensemble comedies Welcome Home Roscoe Jennings (2008) and Death at a Funeral (2010).

By the 2010s, Lawrence was looking to regain the mojo that had once propelled him to the upper rungs of the Hollywood pecking order. But, unfortunately, a planned sitcom with CBS fell through, and Partners, a legal comedy that co-starred Kelsey Grammer, was canceled after 10 episodes on FX in 2014.

In 2016, Lawrence released his first stand-up special in 14 years with Showtime’s Doin’ Time: Uncut. Three years later, he returned to the big screen with the role of Captain Wack in the stoner comedy The Beach Bum.

Martin Lawrence is an American actor and comedian who has starred in numerous Hollywood hits. He was born on April 16, 1965, to John and Chlora Lawrence. John Lawrence was enlisted in the U.S. military and serving in Frankfurt, Germany, at the time, so Martin was born there.

He was named after the iconic civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. His parents divorced when he was 8 years old, and subsequently, Lawrence rarely met with his father, who was now a police officer.

His mother worked several jobs to support herself and her children. He attended several schools, including Thomas G. Pullen School of Creative and Performing Arts in Maryland. During his teenage, he was a skilled boxer and might even have turned pro if not for an eye injury which made him reconsider his decision.

Lawrence was a gifted comedian from an early age, and with the encouragement of one of his teachers, he attended an open mic night at a comedy club, “The Improv.” Soon, he was accepted as a contestant on “Star Search,” a talent competition with different entertainment genres. Lawrence made it to the finals but eventually lost.

However, his impressive performance landed him another role, this time on the television sitcom “What’s Happening Now!!”. The show was canceled shortly, and Lawrence accepted several minor functions before making his breakthrough in the Spike Lee film “Do the Right Thing.” This was soon followed by other concrete roles, including “Boomerang,” a romantic comedy starring Eddie Murphy.

Lawrence was then selected to host the HBO television series “Def Comedy Jam,” which featured several prominent future comedians such as Chris Tucker, Dave Chappelle, and Bernie Mac. During this time, he started his own television series called “Martin,” which aired from 1992 to 1997 and became such a massive success that it was single-handedly responsible for boosting FOX TV’s ratings against NBC as the top network contender.

Lawrence hosted the hit television show “Saturday Night Live” once. Still, the executives considered his humor extremely crude, and he was banned from the show for life. However, his ratings as a comedian continued to soar elsewhere.

When his show ended, Lawrence ventured into movies, including “Nothing to Lose,” “Life,” “Blue Streak,” “Bad Boys,” “Bad Boys 2”, “A Thin Line Between Love and Hate” and “Big Momma’s House.

” Several of his films were blockbusters, and he quickly became one of the highest-paid entertainers, pocketing more than $10 million per film. His hits continued with the sequel to “Big Momma’s House,” titled “Big Momma’s House 2,” which grossed almost $140 million at the box office.

The sequel to this came in 2011, titled “Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son,” but it was not as successful. In 2013, he announced plans to star in a comedy with Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor and comedian Kelsey Grammar, as well as the third movie in the “Bad Boys” series.

Lawrence has been married and divorced twice and has three children from his two marriages. He has had several run-ins with the law, including arrests for carrying a loaded gun on an airplane and charges of assault and harassment from one of his female co-stars, which were later settled out of court.

He was once hospitalized for collapsing from heat exhaustion, during which he almost died from an extremely high fever. Lawrence has been nominated for and received several awards and honors, such as NAACP Image Award, Blockbuster Entertainment Award, and MTV Movie Award.

Martin Lawrence is finally speaking about the real reason he ended his hit series, Martin, explaining that he walked away from the show after co-star Tisha Campbell filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against him in 1997.

“Well, how can I say this? It just was time to end,” Lawrence told GQ magazine, initially hesitant to open up.

When asked if his reason involved the lawsuit brought forth by Campbell, who played Lawrence’s onscreen wife Gina in the series from 1992 to 1997, the actor confirmed it was why he walked away from the show.

“Yeah, because none of that was true. It was all a lot of bullshit and, just whoever’s side it was, it was bulls–t,” he said, adding that the two never spoke about the lawsuit.

“We don’t need to talk about something that just didn’t happen. So I just decided to walk away from the show. I just decided to end it. People said that I got canceled, but that wasn’t the case. So I decided to just leave the show.

Campbell, who left the show in November 1996, charged Lawrence with “repeated and escalating sexual harassment, sexual battery, verbal abuse, and related threats,” according to People magazine. The suit was settled out of court.

Lawrence said he’s since bumped into Campbell, and there’s nothing but love between the two.

“I love Tisha. I’ve seen her then and now, now and then, always with nothing but love. I have nothing but love for her, and I always have.”

Campbell confirmed that the two have since made up, saying on an episode of The Real last October that Lawrence reached out after the actress split from her longtime husband, Duane Martin.

“This is how I knew things were going to be okay: Martin called me the day after I separated to just reconnect,” she recalled.

Campbell called the reunion a part of her “healing.”

During the GQ interview, the actor also revealed that he stepped away from Hollywood for some time due to suffering from a coma and having to relearn how to talk. In addition, people reported back in the 90s that the actor’s then-wife accused him of drug abuse and violent behavior.

“I had to step back and get some time for myself. I was getting worn down a little bit. Scripts were just coming and coming and coming. So I couldn’t do anything,” he recalled. “And I went through a coma and all that stuff.”

He added that the experience taught him that “God is great. That there is a God. And to value my life. I want to be here. And to show my kids a positive light. And that’s where I’m at. So I give all praises to God.”

Will Smith and Martin Lawrence revealed Tuesday that they’re definitely reteaming for a fourth Bad Boys movie in early pre-production at Sony Pictures with Bad Boys for Life’s director Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah returning to helm from a script by Chris Bremner. 

Before Covid shut everything down in March 2020, the third movie, Bad Boys for Life, made more than $426 million at the worldwide box office; with a domestic four-day opening of $73M, the pic notched the second-best MLK weekend ever. Altogether, the Bad Boys franchise counts $840.7M at the global box office.

Jerry Bruckheimer, Smith for Westbrook, Doug Belgrad, and Chad Oman is back producing; Martin Lawrence, James Lassiter, Mike Stenson, Barry Waldman, and Jon Mone are executive producers.

El Arbi and Fallah recently directed and co-wrote the feature film Rebel, which portrays a family torn apart over a Muslim boy’s future and had its world premiere at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. In television, the duo served as executive producers and directors for the pilot and finale of the Marvel series Ms. Marvel, which remains the highest-rated Marvel project (for both films and series) on Rotten Tomatoes thus far.

Ms. Butterfly Genesis