William James "Bill" Murray
(born September 21, 1950) is an American comedian and actor. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live
, and went on to star in films including Caddyshack
, Ghostbusters
, Groundhog Day
, Lost in Translation
(for which he was Academy Award nominated) and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
.
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BILL MURRAY TICKETS
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Early years
Murray, the fifth of nine children, was born and raised in
Wilmette, Illinois (suburban
Chicago), the son of Lucille (
née Collins), a mail room clerk, and Edward J. Murray II, a
lumber salesman.
[1] [2] Murray, along with his siblings, grew up in an
Irish Catholic family.
[3] Three of his siblings are actors:
John Murray,
Joel Murray, and
Brian Doyle-Murray. His sister, Nancy, is an
Adrian Dominican Sister in
Michigan, traveling around the country portraying
St. Catherine of Siena.
The family lived in poverty, and Lucille Murray pressured her children to work.
[4] As a youth, Murray read children's biographies of American heroes like
Kit Carson,
Wild Bill Hickok and
Davy Crockett.
[5] He attended St. Joseph's grade school and
Loyola Academy. During his
teenage years, he worked as a
caddy to fund his education in a Jesuit High School.
[6] The 1960s were tough on Murray and his family. His father had
diabetes, one of his sisters had
polio and his mother had several miscarriages.
During his teen years he was the lead singer of a rock band called the Dutch Masters and took part in high school and community theater.
After graduating, he attended
Regis University in
Denver, Colorado, taking
pre-med courses. However, when police arrested him for
possession of
marijuana at Chicago's
O'Hare Airport, he abandoned his studies.
In 2007, Regis University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree
[7]
Career
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. In 1974, he moved to
New York City and was recruited by
John Belushi [8] as a featured player on
The National Lampoon Radio Hour
, which aired on some 600 stations from 1973 to 1974.
Saturday Night Live
In 1975, an
Off Broadway version of a
Lampoon
show led to his first television role as a cast member of the
ABC variety show Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell
that featured animal acts and little kids with loud voices.
That same season, another variety show titled
NBC's Saturday Night
premiered. Cosell's show lasted just one season, canceled in early 1976.
After working in
Los Angeles with the "guerrilla video" commune
TVTV on a number of projects, Murray rose to prominence in 1976. He joined the cast of
NBC's
Saturday Night Live
for the show's second season, following the departure of
Chevy Chase.
[9]
During the first few seasons of SNL Murray was in a serious, romantic relationship with fellow cast member
Gilda Radner.
Films
Murray landed his first starring role with the film
Meatballs
in 1979. He followed this 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 philosophy and history at the
Sorbonne, frequent the
Cinematheque in Paris, and spend time with his family in their
Hudson River Valley home.
During that time, his second son, Luke, was born.
With the exception of a
cameo appearance in the
1986 movie
Little Shop of Horrors
, he did not make any appearances in films, though he did participate in several public readings in
Manhattan organized by playwright/director
Timothy Mayer and in a production of
Bertolt Brecht's
A Man's Man
.
Murray returned to films in 1988 with
Scrooged
and the sequel
Ghostbusters II
in 1989. In 1990, Murray made his first and only attempt at directing when he co-directed
Quick Change
with producer
Howard Franklin. His 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, he received much critical acclaim for
Wes Anderson's
Rushmore
for which he won several awards. Murray then experienced a resurgence in his career as a dramatic actor. After dramatic roles in
Wild Things
,
Cradle Will Rock
,
Hamlet
(as
Polonius), and
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 an
Academy Award nomination. In an interview included on the
Lost in Translation
DVD, Murray states that this is his favorite movie in which he has appeared. Also in 2003, he appeared in a short cameo for the movie
Coffee and Cigarettes, in which he played himself "hiding out" in a local coffee shop.
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 again in 2006 for
Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (it should be noted that this makes it a two-way link between Murray and
Lorenzo Music, the former voice of Garfield; Music was also the voice of
Peter Venkman, Murray's
Ghostbusters
.character, in the cartoon series
The Real Ghostbusters
). In 2004, he made his third collaboration with Wes Anderson in
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
. His dramatic role in
Jim Jarmusch's
Broken Flowers
was also well received.
In 2005, Murray announced that he would take a break from acting,
[10] as he had not had the time since his new breakthrough in the late 1990s. He did return to the big screen, however, for brief cameos in Wes Anderson's
The Darjeeling Limited
and in
Get Smart
as Agent 13, the agent in the tree. In 2008, he played an important role in the
post-apocalyptic film
City of Ember
.
Murray also lent his voice for the game
Ghostbusters: The Video Game
. He will also star in the movie
Fantastic Mr. Fox
.
David Letterman
Murray became the first guest on NBC's new late night talk show,
Late Night with David Letterman
on
February 1, 1982. He would later appear on the very first episode of
The Late Show with David Letterman
in August 1993, when the show moved to CBS.
Golf-related work
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. Murray played Carl Spackler in
Caddyshack
.
In 2007, he was briefly detained by
Stockholm police for suspicion of drunk driving in a golf cart.
[11]
While at a golf tournament with British golfer
Ian Poulter in
St Andrews,
Scotland, Murray was invited by a student of the university to a house party. Murray went with him and the student reported in Scottish papers that he acted just like he had in the karaoke scene of
Lost in Translation
, being incredibly fun and energetic. Upon realizing that there were no clean glasses in the house for him to have a drink from, Murray volunteered to do the dishes and was said to be very amiable and unpretentious.
[12] In
Space Jam
, Bill Murray plays himself and plays upon his love for golf. In 2009 Murray was playing with Hal Sutton, Jeff Sluman and Fred Paglia, when an errant tee shot of his struck a bystander in the head. Murray didn't finish out the round, shaken by the incident. "I wasn't sure I was in bounds or not," Murray said in an AP report, "and I saw this NBC golf cart coming at me and he said, ‘I hate to be the one to tell you this but you hit a lady. She's down on the ground.' That is, you know, sobering."
The woman, Gail DiMaggio, was taken to a hospital, but she was alert enough to welcome Murray to her house. DiMaggio's husband, apparently just seconds before impact, had said he hoped Murray hit the ball in their direction.
[13]
Outside of show business
He is a partner with his brothers in Murray Bros. Caddy Shack, a restaurant chain located near
St. Augustine.
[14]
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.
[15] He also owns part of the
Charleston RiverDogs,
Hudson Valley Renegades, and the
Brockton Rox. He invested in a number of other minor league teams in the past, including the
Utica Blue Sox, Fort Myers Miracle, and Salt Lake Trappers. He was also a part-owner of the Auburn Astros (now the
Auburn Doubledays) in Auburn, NY.
Being very detached from the
Hollywood scene, Murray does not have an agent or manager and reportedly only fields offers for scripts and roles using a personal telephone number with a voice mailbox that he checks infrequently.
[16] 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
, Bernard Berkman in
The Squid and the Whale
, Frank Ginsburg in
Little Miss Sunshine
and
Willy Wonka in
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
[17] He also regretted losing the chance to play Eddie Valiant in
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
when he heard that he was considered for the role and that he would have definitely accepted.
[18]
Personal life
During the filming of
Stripes
, Murray married Margaret Kelley on
Super Bowl Sunday in
Las Vegas on January 25, 1981.
Later, they re-married in Chicago for their families.
Margaret gave birth to two sons, Homer (born 1982) and Luke (born 1985). Luke is currently a graduate assistant with the basketball team at the
University of Arizona, which is one of the top programs in college basketball. But, following Murray's affair with
Jennifer Butler, they divorced in 1996. In 1997, he married
Jennifer Butler. Together, they have four sons: Caleb (born January 11, 1993), Jackson (born October 6, 1995), Cooper (born January 27, 1997), and Lincoln (born May 30, 2001). Butler filed for divorce on May 12, 2008, accusing Murray of
domestic violence.
[19]
Their divorce was finalized on June 13, 2008.
Murray has homes in
Los Angeles,
Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts,
[20] Charleston, South Carolina, and
Rockland County, New York, just outside of New York City.
[21]
During the
2000 presidential campaign, Murray supported
Green Party candidate
Ralph Nader.
[22]
Murray is a huge fan of Chicago pro sports teams, especially the
Chicago Cubs and the
Chicago Bears. (He was once a guest color commentator for a Cubs game during the 80s.)
[23] He also is a
Michael Jordan fan and has made cameo appearances in
Space Jam
and Jordan documentaries. Murray is an avid
Quinnipiac University basketball fan, where his son served as head of basketball operations. Murray is a regular fixture at home games. He cheered courtside for the
Illinois Fighting Illini's game versus the
University of North Carolina in the NCAA Basketball Tournament's championship game in 2005. He is a fixture at home games of those teams when in his native Chicago. After traveling to Florida during the Cubs playoff run to help "inspire" the team (Murray told Cubs slugger
Aramis Ramirez he was very ill and needed two home runs to give him the hope to live),
[24] he was invited to the champagne party in the Cubs' clubhouse when the team clinched the NL Central in late September 2007, along with fellow actors
John Cusack,
Bernie Mac,
James Belushi, and former Cubs legend
Ron Santo. Murray appeared in Santo's documentary,
This Old Cub
.
As a Chicago native, Murray appeared at the 50th annual
Chicago Air & Water Show in August 2008. He performed a
tandem jump with the
U.S. Army Parachute Team Golden Knights.
[25] He was the M.C. for
Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival on July 28, 2007, where he dressed in various guises of Clapton as he appeared through the years.
In 1984 in Detroit Mi, Murray had impregnated 23 year old
Eva Yeinfield later giving birth to a son named Robert Murray. Bill has been known to visit his son quite frequently yet does not like people knowing this fact.
[26]
Film awards and nominations
Academy Award
|
Year
| Result
| Award
| Category
|
2004
| Nominated
| Oscar
| Best Actor for Lost in Translation
|
BAFTA
|
Year
| Result
| Award
| Category
|
2004
| Won
| BAFTA
| Best Actor in a Leading Role for Lost in Translation
|
Golden Globe Awards
|
Year
| Result
| Award
| Category
|
1985
| Nominated
| Golden Globe
| Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Ghostbusters
|
1999
| Nominated
| Golden Globe
| Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture for Rushmore
|
2004
| Won
| Golden Globe
| Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Lost in Translation
|
MTV Movie Awards
|
Year
| Result
| Award
| Category
|
1992
| Nominated
| Golden Popcorn
| Best Comedic Performance for What About Bob?
|
1993
| Nominated
| Golden Popcorn
| Best Comedic Performance for Groundhog Day
|
2004
| Nominated
| Golden Popcorn
| Best Male Performance for Lost in Translation
|
Filmography
Year
| Film
| Role
| Other notes
|
1975
| Tarzoon: Shame of the Jungle
| Reporter
|
|
1976
| Next Stop, Greenwich Village
| Nick Kessler
| uncredited
|
1978
| All You Need Is Cash
| Bill Murray the K
| cameo
|
1979
| Meatballs
| Tripper Harrison
| his first leading role
|
Mr. Mike's Mondo Video
| himself
|
|
1980
| Where the Buffalo Roam
| Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
|
|
The Missing Link
| Fire-Breathing Dragon
| voice in English dub
|
Caddyshack
| Carl Spackler
|
|
Loose Shoes
| Himself
|
|
1981
| Stripes
| John Winger
|
|
1982
| Tootsie
| Jeff Slater
|
|
1984
| Ghostbusters
| Dr. Peter Venkman
|
|
Nothing Lasts Forever
| Bus Conductor
|
|
The Razor's Edge
| Larry Darrell
|
|
1986
| Little Shop of Horrors
| Arthur Denton
|
|
1988
| She's Having a Baby
| Himself
| cameo
|
Scrooged
| Francis Xavier "Frank" Cross
|
|
1989
| Ghostbusters II
| Dr. Peter Venkman
|
|
1990
| Quick Change
| Grimm
| also co-director
|
1991
| What About Bob?
| Bob Wiley
|
|
1993
| Groundhog Day
| Phil Connors
|
|
Mad Dog and Glory
| Glory's Boss - "expediter of dreams"
|
|
1994
| Ed Wood
| Bunny Breckinridge
|
|
1996
| Kingpin
| Ernie McCracken
|
|
Larger than Life
| Jack Corcoran
|
|
Space Jam
| Himself
| small role
|
1997
| The Man Who Knew Too Little
| Wallace Ritchie
|
|
1998
| Wild Things
| Kenneth Bowden
|
|
Rushmore
| Herman Blume
|
|
1999
| Cradle Will Rock
| Tommy Crickshaw
|
|
Scout's Honor
|
| short subject
|
2000
| Hamlet
| Polonius
|
|
Michael Jordan to the Max
|
| documentary
|
Charlie's Angels
| John Bosley
|
|
2001
| Speaking of Sex
|
|
|
Osmosis Jones
| Frank
|
|
The Royal Tenenbaums
| Raleigh St. Clair
|
|
2003
| Lost in Translation
| Bob Harris
|
|
Coffee and Cigarettes
| Himself/Waiter
|
|
2004
| This Old Cub
|
| documentary
|
Garfield
| Garfield
| voice only
|
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
| Steve Zissou
|
|
2005
| Broken Flowers
| Don Johnston
|
|
The Lost City
| The Comedian
|
|
2006
| Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties
| Garfield
| voice only
|
Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride: Hunter S. Thompson on Film
|
| documentary
|
2007
| The Darjeeling Limited
| A businessman
| cameo
|
2008
| Eric Clapton: Crossroads Guitars Festival 2007
| As himself
| cameo
|
Get Smart
| Agent 13
| cameo as tree guy
|
City of Ember
| Mayor Cole
|
|
2009
| The Limits of Control
| American
|
|
Ghostbusters: The Video Game
| Dr. Peter Venkman
| voice only
|
Fantastic Mr. Fox
| Mr. Badger
| voice only
|
Zombieland
| Zombie
| cameo
|
2010
| Hoodwinked 2: Hood vs. Evil
| Mr. Alligator
| post-production
|
2012
| Ghostbusters 3
| Dr. Peter Venkman
| announced
|
References
- Bill Murray Biography (1950-)
- Bill Murray Family Tree
- Brilliant Careers: Bill Murray
- Bill Murray, A Black Sheep Now in ''Stripes''
- The Rumpled Anarchy of Bill Murray
- Cinderella Story: My Life in Golf
- http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_6391555
- Bill Murray's Somber Side
-
Early Career with SNL
- IMDb bio
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6959803.stm
- Bill Murray attends student party, does dishes (CNN)
- http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/blog/devil_ball_golf/post/Bill-Murray-darn-near-brains-a-woman-with-a-g
- Murray Bros. Caddyshack Restaurant
- St. Paul Saints ownership
- How we work: Bill Murray, actor
- MSN Hotlist
- Trivia for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)"
- http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/may/29/bill_murray_sued_divorce42566/
- Under (one) Hot Tin Roof
- Bill Murray: Funny, crazy and sweet
- THE 2000 CAMPAIGN: THE GREEN PARTY; In Nader Supporters' Math, Gore Equals Bush
- Comedian Bill Murray lightens Cubs' mood — at least briefly
- Murray visits with Cubs prior to finale
- "Bill Murray to parachute at Chicago Air & Water Show"
- "Bill Murrays Long Lost Son come to life"