The Wayans family has to be one of the most decorated and talented families in comedy. They are behind some of the most successful comedy franchises in history. This morning, the youngest of the Wayans clan, Marlon Wayans, announced that their mom, Elvira Wayans, the matriarch of the talented family, has died at the age of 81.
Marlon Wayans shared the sad news of her passing in an emotional series of Instagram posts on Thursday, which would have been her 82nd birthday. Marlon shares his own birthday with his beloved late mother. He turned 48 on the same day.
Marlon shared three loving posts about his loving mother on Instagram writing 'losing you shattered me into 1000 pieces.'
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Elvira died several weeks ago but, according to TMZ, Marlon decided to wait until their shared birthdays to tell fans about the emotional news.
In a heartfelt social media post, he questioned his loss in the post wanting to 'ask God "why me"' but deciding to lean into his faith and 'trust in God' and 'your design.'
"On the other side of all this tragedy is victory. So I trust you. This is merely a journey to challenge me. You're not breaking me, you're making me," he continued.
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The Wayans family was such a close-knit family. After all, they didn't have much, just each other.
While Marlon's father, Howell Wayans, was a supermarket manager, his mother was a homemaker. Marlon, being the youngest, was picked on and was the butt of many jokes growing up. Packed into a small apartment in the Fulton housing projects on the West Side of Manhattan, the family came up from very humble beginnings and struggled to get by.
"We called my dad an entre-poor-neur," Marlon says.
Simply feeding all those mouths was difficult. After all, you had:
Keenan Ivory Wayans
Damon Wayans
Dwayne Wayans
Kim Wayans
Elvira Wayans
Nadia Wayans
Deidre Wayans
Vonnie Wayans
Shawn Wayans
...and Marlon Wayans.
Many mornings, breakfast was just puffed rice cereal bought in bulk. Lunch was grilled cheese sandwiches with, as Shawn described it...
... "government cheese where the cheese don't melt." Sometimes, they ate ''peanut butter or jelly," Marlon added. "We never had peanut butter and jelly."
The Wayans Bros., which ran from 1995 to '99, helped transform Marlon Wayans into one of the most prominent members of his decorated family. Then, in 2000, he co-wrote and acted in his most popular film to date, the blockbuster horror spoof Scary Movie. The film, which cost only $19 million to make, earned an astounding $157 million at the box office, making it the highest-grossing film ever directed by an African-American (Keenen Ivory Wayans) before getting beat out by 2017's Get Out.
"But God I'm most grateful for this permanent smile. Thank you for the fire. Kiss my mom for me. Tell her that her baby boy misses her and I feel her presence more now than ever," he wrote.
"The joy you can always share. The sweetness and affection we all possess but we're to damaged to just let go. Thank u ma for gifting me pure love. You will always be my first love happy bday woman. Baby boy misses you."
