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Bill Murray

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See also William Murray (disambiguation).

William James "Bill" Murray (born September 21, 1950) is an Academy Award-nominated, Emmy-winning and Golden Globe-winning American comedian and actor. He is most famous for his comedic roles in Groundhog Day, Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, and What About Bob?. He has gained further acclaim for recent dramatic roles, such as in the acclaimed films Lost In Translation and Broken Flowers.

Bill Murray
File:Bill murray.jpg
Born
William James Murray

Biography

Early life

Murray was born and raised in Wilmette, Illinois, the fifth of nine children of Edward J. Murray II, a lumber salesman, and Lucille Collins,[1] both Irish American Catholics. Three of Murray's siblings are also actors: John Murray, Joel Murray, and Brian Doyle-Murray. A sister, Nancy, is an Adrian Dominican Sister in Illinois. Murray graduated from Loyola Academy. He went to Regis University in Denver, Colorado before dropping out to pursue his comedy career.

Early career

File:Bill Murray making pizza Evanston Illinois 1971.jpg
Bill Murray making pizza at Little Caesar's Pizza, Evanston, Illinois, 1971

With an invitation from his older brother, Brian, Murray got his start at Second City Chicago studying under Del Close. The improvisational comedy troupe was a perfect fit for Murray's clever, dry humor and ad-libbing. While in Chicago, Murray worked at Little Caesar's alongside now-celebrity chef Kerry Simon. He eventually became a featured player on The National Lampoon Radio Hour, aired on some 600 stations between 1973 and 1975.

Saturday Night Live

In 1975, he landed his first television role as a cast member of the ABC variety show Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell. That same season, another variety show titled NBC's Saturday Night premiered. Cosell's show lasted just one season.

Murray rose to prominence when he joined the cast of NBC's newly-titled Saturday Night Live the following season, replacing Chevy Chase. This was initially a turbulent experience for Murray. He often flubbed his lines and seemed awkward on camera. Chase had been the most popular cast member and some fans sent Murray hate mail stating he was a poor replacement. When Chase appeared as a guest host that season, they reportedly got into a fist fight backstage. But by the end of Murray's first season, he had begun to display his witty, laid-back persona. His characters, such as Nick the Lounge Singer and nerd Todd DiLamuca, became very popular with viewers. With the departure of Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi in 1979, Murray became the most popular member of the ensemble cast. In 1980, the entire cast left the show.

Murray later revisited the troupe he started with in the TV special Bill Murray Live From the Second City in 1980.

Film career

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Murray with Scarlett Johanson in Lost in Translation

Murray landed his first starring role with the film Meatballs in 1979. He followed up with his portrayal of famed writer Hunter S. Thompson in 1980's Where the Buffalo Roam. In the early 1980s, he starred in a string of box-office hits including Caddyshack, Stripes and Tootsie.

Murray began work on a film adaptation of the novel The Razor's Edge. The film, which Murray also co-wrote, was his first starring role in a dramatic film. He later agreed to star in Ghostbusters in a role originally written for John Belushi. This was a deal Murray made with Columbia Pictures in order to gain financing for his film. Ghostbusters became the highest-grossing film of 1984. But The Razor's Edge, which was filmed before Ghostbusters but not released until after, was a box-office flop. Upset over the failure of Razor's Edge, Murray took four years off from acting to study French at the Sorbonne. With the exception of a memorable cameo in the 1986 movie Little Shop of Horrors, he did not make any appearances in films.

Murray returned to films in 1988 with Scrooged and followed up with the long-awaited sequel Ghostbusters II in 1989. In 1990, Murray made his first and only attempt at directing when he co-helmed Quick Change with producer Howard Franklin. Subsequent films What About Bob? (1991) and Groundhog Day (1993) were box-office hits and critically acclaimed.

After a string of films that did not do well with audiences (besides Kingpin, in which he played a supporting role), he received much critical acclaim for Wes Anderson's Rushmore for which he won a slew of awards. Murray then experienced a resurgence in his career as a dramatic actor. After dramatic roles in Wild Things, Cradle Will Rock, and Hamlet (as Polonius), and a comedic role in Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums, he garnered considerable acclaim for the 2003 film Lost in Translation. He received a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA award, as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. In an interview included on the Lost in Translation DVD, Murray states that this is his favorite movie in which he has appeared.

File:MurrayTable.jpg
Bill Murray as Don Johnston in Broken Flowers.

During this time, Murray still appeared in comedic roles such as Charlie's Angels and Osmosis Jones. In 2004, he provided the voice of Garfield in Garfield: The Movie and marked his third collaboration with Wes Anderson in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Murray also garnered acclaim for his dramatic role in Jim Jarmusch's Broken Flowers.

In 2005, he announced that he would take a break from acting, as he had not had the time since his new breakthrough in the late-1990s. His last film role to date is Garfield's voice in the sequel Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties.

Personal life

Murray wed Margaret Kelly in 1980. They had two sons, Homer (born 1982) and Luke (born 1985) before divorcing in 1994. In 1997, he married Jennifer Butler. They have 4 children together: Jackson (born 1993), Cal (born 1995), Cooper (born 1996), and Lincoln (born 2001).

He is a partner with his brothers in Murray Bros. Caddy Shack, a restaurant chain with locations near Jacksonville and in Myrtle Beach and St. Augustine. Murray is an avid golfer who often plays in celebrity tournaments. His 1999 book Cinderella Story: My Life in Golf, part autobiography and part essay, expounds on his love of golf. In 2002, he and his brothers starred in the Comedy Central series, The Sweet Spot, which chronicled their adventures playing golf.

He is a part-owner of the St. Paul Saints independent minor-league baseball team and occasionally travels to Saint Paul, Minnesota to watch the team's games.

Very detached from the Hollywood scene, Murray does not have an agent or manager, and reportedly [2] only fields offers for scripts and roles using a personal telephone number with a voice mailbox which he checks infrequently. This practice has the downside of sometimes preventing him from taking parts that he had auditioned for, and was interested in, such as that of Sulley in Monsters, Inc and Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Murray has homes in Los Angeles, Charleston, SC, and upstate New York.

During the 2000 presidential campaign, Murray stumped for Green Party candidate Ralph Nader.

Murray is a huge fan of Chicago pro sports teams, especially the Chicago Cubs. He also is a huge Michael Jordan fan, and has made cameo appearances in Space Jam and Jordan documentaries. He also appeared cheering courtside for the Illinois Fighting Illini's game versus the University of North Carolina in the NCAA Basketball Tournament's championship game in 2005.

Trivia

  • Height: 6'1" (1.85 meters)
  • Lorenzo Music voiced Murray's character, Venkman, in The Real Ghostbusters cartoon series. Music is best-known for voicing Garfield the cat in various cartoon series. Murray would go on to be the voice of Garfield in the 2004 film and 2006 film.
  • Murray is said to have a policy of not doing a third version of anything, which is one of the reasons Ghostbusters III has been reported to be in development hell.
  • He refused the rights to use his facial likeness to collectible manufacturer NECA, which was forced to cancel plans of producing a highly anticipated Ghostbusters action figure line in 2004. A highly detailed, customized figure of Murray featuring spot-on likeness was even mailed to him in attempt to express his passionate fanbase and change his mind, but the plea was virtually ignored.
  • There's a B-Side to the single "Feel Good Inc." by the fictional band Gorillaz named "Bill Murray."
  • Murray is part owner of the Fort Myers Miracle, a minor league baseball Class - A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, as well as the Hudson Valley Renegades, a minor league Class - SSA Affiliate of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The Miracle and the Renegades have honored their part owner by celebrating him in the form of a Bill Murray bobblehead giveaway.
  • Murray is an avid golfer and frequently plays in celebrity golf tournaments, where he is known for mugging to the crowd. In 2006, Murray played in the Herbert Corey Leeds Tournament at the historic Myopia Hunt Club in South Hamilton, Massachusetts.
  • Part owner of the Charleston RiverDogs, a minor league baseball team in Charleston, South Carolina, where he now lives (near Water Front Park).
  • He was named #1 Smartass on Comedy Central's "List of the 51 Greatest Smartasses."
  • Appeared in an episode of American Choppers on the Discovery Channel when the Teutuls did a Caddyshack-themed bike.
  • His ceremonial first pitch at Wrigley Field went over the backstop.
  • Murray was played by Mather Zickel in the 2002 TV movie Gilda Radner: It's Always Something.

Filmography

 
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