By MARK SPIVEY
STAFF WRITER
PLAINFIELD - Maurice Murrell’s mother says she knew from an early age that her son was gay.
What she couldn’t have known then was that he would grow up to become a renowned model and actor, not to mention a popular figure in the urban LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community. Or that it just might have been her love, acceptance and nurturing that helped get him there.
It’s part of what made it so difficult for Sheryl Murrell and her son’s many fans when he died this week at the age of 32.
“I knew before he was four years old what his sexuality was,” Murrell, a Piscataway resident, said. “We love him. And if you love your child, you have to love them the way they are.”
An illness that remained undiagnosed to the end claimed her son’s life, Murrell said, adding that he died in a local hospital surrounded by family members and friends.
“Everything they (doctors) thought it possibly could be was ruled out,” she said. “But he was extremely tired and was not the same person for the last two years. He was still smiling, he would stay positive, he would say he was OK, even though you could see he was not.”
Fans flocked by the hundreds to Murrell’s Facebook page this week to express shock and dismay about his death, which interrupted a career on the rise. Murrell appeared on the cover of the popular LGBT magazine Clik in 2006, then in 2009 starred in “Finding Me,” a film about a young gay man living in New York City and struggling to come to terms with his father’s homophobia. Murrell also starred in the film’s sequel, which is slated for a September release.
“I still have all this footage behind the scenes, with pictures and audio,” said Roger Omeus Jr. of Jersey City, the writer and director of both films. “I’m still hearing his voice, seeing him interact with people.”
Omeus called Murrell a “larger than life” personality who still came off as accessible.
“It’s funny, because the perception of Maurice after he played the character in my film was that he was very catty and mean, even vicious in certain ways,” Omeus said. “He played the part so well that people wanted to tag Maurice as that, when he was actually the complete opposite of that character.”
“He lifted your spirit just by his presence,” agreed Maurice Jamal, president of GLO TV, which is marketed as the nation’s first urban LGBT television network.
“In a community that faces so many challenges … Maurice reminded you that being gay was OK – that it could be fun, that it could be loving, that it could be joyous,” Jamal said.
Family members recalled Murrell as having seemingly endless reserves of energy as a child, a characteristic that clearly carried over into his adult life – in addition to modeling and acting, he also worked as a personal trainer and bartender, and enjoyed baking and traveling in what little spare time was left over.
“We had a stationary bike and as a child he would get on that thing and stay up there pedaling it all day,” recalled Geneva McCleod of Piscataway, Murrell’s aunt.
“He was always very artistic, too … he could really draw and paint,” added Ebony Sacenda, Murrell’s cousin who works in a Plainfield charter school. “He could dance, he acted – he always put on shows for the family, just making up routines.”
One of those routines carried Murrell and Sacenda to a 1996 performance at Harlem’s famed Apollo Theater, she recalled. They were booed off the stage when their musical accompaniment faltered, Sacenda said, but it didn’t even seem to bother him.
“He wanted to go back on,” she said. “I refused.”
Later in life Murrell would become known perhaps best for his statuesque physique, but he wasn’t always so sculpted, friends said. Eric Jones, a Plainfield native who now works for the city’s school system, said he was a junior at The College of New Jersey when he met Murrell, an incoming freshman at the time.
“He was very meek, shy, even scrawny at first,” Jones said. “He just reinvented himself. He went to Bally’s on Route 22 every day working out.”
Jones recalled Murrell’s kindness first and foremost, describing him as someone who would help strangers home from bars if they appeared too intoxicated to drive.
“The very first thing that ever caught my eye about him was that everybody just loved this guy. Everybody wanted to be around him,” Jones said. “He had this ability to truly accept himself for whoever he was and to help you embrace whoever you were.”
“I don’t think I could say a bad thing about him,” agreed Eugene Turner, an actor who co-starred with Murrell in “Finding Me.” “Maurice was probably one of the sweetest people on the planet.”
Murrell’s funeral is scheduled for Tuesday morning at St. John’s Baptist Church in Scotch Plains.
“Maurice lived a good, exciting life,” Sheryl Murrell said of her only child. “He was just a beautiful human being, but he had an old soul. I don’t know what it was about me to be so blessed to have him.”
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