Biography: Bill Murray

For the British actor, see Billy Murray (actor).

William James "Bill" Murray (born September 21, 1950) is an American comedian and actor.

He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live, following that with roles in films such as Stripes, Caddyshack, The Razor's Edge, Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, Space Jam, Rushmore and What About Bob?. He has gained acclaim for recent dramatic roles, in films such as Lost in Translation, The Lost City, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Broken Flowers and The Royal Tenenbaums.

Personal life

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. ^{Murray, along with his siblings, grew up in an Irish Catholic family. Three of those siblings are also actors: John Murray, Joel Murray, and Brian Doyle-Murray. A sister, Nancy, is an Adrian Dominican Sister in Michigan who travels around the country portraying St. Catherine of Siena.}

Growing up, Murray's family had little money and his mother pressured her children to get jobs. ^{As a child, Murray read biographies for children of American heroes like Kit Carson, Wild Bill Hickok and Davy Crockett. He attended St. Joseph's grade school, located just minutes away from his home. He attended Loyola Academy. As a teenager, he worked alongside his brothers as a caddy to pay for his tuition in a Roman Catholic High School. 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 graduation, he attended Regis University in Denver, Colorado where he took pre-med courses. He later dropped out after being arrested for possession of marijuana at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. ^{He worked numerous jobs including a stint at a Little Caesar's alongside future chef Kerry Simon.}

Marriage and children

During the filming of Stripes, Murray wed Margaret "Mickey" Kelly on Super Bowl Sunday in Las Vegas on January 24, 1981. ^{They married again in Chicago in a church for their families. They had two sons, Homer (born 1982) and Luke (born 1985). They filed for divorce in 1994 because of his affair with Jennifer Butler. Margaret and Bill Murray's divorce became final in 1996. In 1997, he married Jennifer Butler. They have four sons together:Caleb James (born January 11, 1993), Jackson William (born October 6, 1995), Cooper Jones (born January 27, 1997), and Lincoln Darius (born May 30, 2001). Butler filed for divorce on May 12, 2008, citing spousal abuse along with drug and alcohol addiction. Butler's petition for divorce was finalized on June 13, 2008.}

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 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.

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.^{[citation needed]} 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-helmed 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. He was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, in what was considered^[who?] to be a two-horse race between him and Sean Penn for Mystic River, who eventually prevailed. In an interview included on the Lost in Translation DVD, Murray states that this is his favorite movie in which he has appeared.

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, again for Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties in 2006 (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). 2004 also marked 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 ^{, as he had not had the time since his new breakthrough in the late 1990s. He did return to the big screen, however, for a brief cameos in Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited and in Get Smart as Agent 13, the agent in the tree.}

Murray will also lend his voice for the upcoming game Ghostbusters: The Video Game, due out Summer 09.

David Letterman

Murray became the first guest on NBC's new late night talk show, Late Night with David Letterman on February 1st 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.

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. ^{In Space Jam Bill Murray plays himself and plays upon his love for golf.}

Outside of show business

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.

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. ^{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. ^{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.}

Murray has homes in Los Angeles, Martha's Vineyard, MA ^{, Charleston, SC, and Rockland County, New York, just outside of New York City.}

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 was once a guest color commentator for a cubs game during the 80s) and the Chicago Bears. ^{He also is a big Michael Jordan fan and has made cameo appearances in Space Jam and Jordan documentaries. Murray is also an avid Quinnipiac University basketball fan, where his son serves as head of basketball operations. Murray is a regular fixture at home games. He also 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), 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 also 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.

Film awards and nominations

Main article: List of Bill Murray awards and nominations

Filmography

Upcoming

References

1. "Bill Murray Biography (1950-)", Film Reference. Retrieved on 12 November 2007. 
2. "Bill Murray Family Tree", Ancestry.com. Retrieved on 12 November 2007. 
3. Elder, Sean. "Brilliant Careers: Bill Murray", Salon.com. Retrieved on 12 November 2007. 
4. ^ Chase, Chris (July 3, 1981). "Bill Murray, A Black Sheep Now in Stripes", New York Times. 
5. ^ White, Timothy (November 20, 1988). "The Rumpled Anarchy of Bill Murray", New York Times. 
6. ^ Murray, Bill; George Peper (1999). Cinderella Story: My Life in Golf, Doubleday. ISBN 0385495714. 
7. ^ Carr, Jay (November 20, 1988). "Bill Murray's Somber Side", Boston Globe. 
8. Early Career with SNL
9. "IMDb bio". IMDb. Retrieved on 2008-01-11.
10. Bill Murray attends student party, does dishes (CNN)
11. Murray Bros. Caddyshack Restaurant
12. St. Paul Saints ownership
13. "How we work: Bill Murray, actor". rodcorp. Retrieved on 2008-01-11.
14. "MSN Hotlist". Microsoft. Retrieved on 2008-01-11.
15. "Under (one) Hot Tin Roof". Martha's Vineyard Magazine. Retrieved on 2008-01-11.
16. "Bill Murray: Funny, crazy and sweet". MondoStars. Retrieved on 2008-01-11.
17. "THE 2000 CAMPAIGN: THE GREEN PARTY; In Nader Supporters' Math, Gore Equals Bush". The New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-01-11.
18. Wine, Steven (September 27, 2007). "Comedian Bill Murray lightens Cubs' mood — at least briefly", Yahoo! Sports. Retrieved on 28 September 2007. 
19. Keller, Tom (September 27, 2007). "Murray visits with Cubs prior to finale", MLB.com. Retrieved on 12 November 2007. 
20. ""Bill Murray to parachute at Chicago Air & Water Show"". Chicago Tribune (2008-07-21). Retrieved on 2008-07-21.