William James "Bill" Murray is an American actor and comedian who gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live and later went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films, including Caddyshack (1980), Ghostbusters (1984), and Groundhog Day (1993).
Murray gained additional critical acclaim later in his career, starring in Lost in Translation (2003), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award, and a series of films directed by Wes Anderson, including Rushmore (1998), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) and Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009).
Born and raised in Wilmette, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago, the son of Lucille (née Collins), a mail room clerk, and Edward Joseph Murray II, a lumber salesman.
Murray's father died in 1967 from complications from diabetes when Bill was just seventeen years old and Murray, along with his eight siblings, grew up in an Irish Catholic family. 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 did not have much money, and Lucille Murray pressed her children to work.
As a youth, Murray read children's biographies of American heroes like Kit Carson, Wild Bill Hickok and Davy Crockett. He attended St. Joseph grade school and Loyola Academy, and during his teen years worked as a caddy to fund his education at the Jesuit High School. 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 theatre. Murray also conducted the George Mason University pep band, Green Machine, during the Charleston Classic.
After graduating, Murray attended Regis University in Denver, Colorado, taking premedical courses. However, he quickly dropped out and returned to Illinois. In 2007 though, Regis University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree.
With an invitation from his older brother, Brian, Murray got his start at Second City Chicago, an improvisational comedy troupe, studying under Del Close. In 1974, he moved to New York City and was recruited by John Belushi as a featured player on The National Lampoon Radio Hour, which aired on some 600 stations from 1973 to 1974.
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.
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.
As the cult film had originated from a Rutland Weekend Television sketch that Eric Idle had brought for his appearance on SNL, Murray as part of the cast of SNL also appeared next to Idle, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Michael Palin, and Neil Innes in the 1978 mockumentary All You Need Is Cash as "Bill Murray the K", a send-up of New York radio host Murray the K, in a segment of the film that is an obvious parody of the Maysles Brothers's documentary The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit.
Murray landed his first starring role with the film Meatballs in 1979 and 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 became the first guest on NBC's Late Night with David Letterman on February 1, 1982 and would later appear on the first episode of The Late Show with David Letterman in August 1993, when the show moved to CBS.
In Ghostbusters, a role originally written for John Belushi, was a deal Murray made with Columbia Pictures in order to gain financing for his own films. Ironically Ghostbusters became the highest-grossing film of 1984 and his movue, The Razor's Edge, which was filmed before Ghostbusters 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, frequented the Cinematheque in Paris, and spend time with his family in their Hudson River Valley home.
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 (one of the exceptions being his role in the 1996 comedy Kingpin), he received much critical acclaim for Wes Anderson's Rushmore for which he won Best Supporting Actor awards from the New York Film Critics Circle, National Society of Film Critics, and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (tying with Billy Bob Thornton).
Murray decided to take a turn towards more dramatic roles. Murray then experienced a resurgence in his career as a dramatic actor, taking on roles in Wild Things, Cradle Will Rock, Hamlet (as Polonius), and The Royal Tenenbaums.
In 2003, he garnered considerable acclaim for Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation, and went on to earn a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, and an Independent Spirit Award, as well as Best Actor awards from a number of film critic organizations.
In 2005, Murray announced that he would take a break from acting, as he had not had the time to relax 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, and in 2009, played himself in a cameo role in the zombie comedy Zombieland.
Murray has homes in Los Angeles, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, Charleston, South Carolina, and Rockland County, New York, just outside of New York City.
Murray is a fan of Chicago pro sports teams, especially the Chicago Cubs, Chicago Bears, and the Chicago Bulls.
Murray is a keen golfer and plays in the Irish Opbe Pro_am at Royal Portrish 0b Wedensdya Juen 27th.
