Which two actors starred in film roles as "The Nutty Professor"?

The first actor to embody this dual-personality role was comedy legend Jerry Lewis in the 1963 classic. Lewis not only starred but also co-wrote and directed the film, which served as a parody of Robert Louis Stevenson's *Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde*. He portrayed the nerdy and socially inept chemistry professor, Julius Kelp, who invents a serum that transforms him into the handsome, smooth-talking, but obnoxious lounge singer Buddy Love. The film was a major success and remains a landmark of Lewis's career.

In 1996, the concept was famously reimagined with comedy superstar Eddie Murphy in the lead. Murphy played the brilliant, kind-hearted, and morbidly obese Professor Sherman Klump. Desperate to win the affection of a colleague, he develops a weight-loss formula that turns him into the slim, arrogant, and hyper-confident Buddy Love.

While both films share a premise, Murphy's version is celebrated for its groundbreaking makeup effects and his incredible versatility. In a tour-de-force performance, Murphy portrayed a total of seven characters, including Sherman Klump, Buddy Love, and five members of the Klump family. This massive undertaking earned the film an Academy Award for Best Makeup and cemented its place as a 90s comedy classic.