Bill Murray

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Bill Murray

American comedian and actor

Also known as: William James Murray

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Oct 31, 2024 • Article History

Quick Facts

In full:: William James Murray

Born:: September 21, 1950, Wilmette, Illinois, U.S. (age 74)

Also Known As:: William James Murray

Awards And Honors:: Golden Globe Award; Emmy Award; Emmy Award (2015): Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Movie; Emmy Award (1977): Outstanding Writing in a Comedy-Variety or Music Series; Golden Globe Award (2004): Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy

Married To:: Jennifer Butler (1997–2008); Mickey Kelley (1981–1994)

Movies/Tv Shows (Acted In):: "On the Rocks" (2020); "Zombieland: Double Tap" (2019); "The Dead Don't Die" (2019); "Isle of Dogs" (2018); "Saturday Night Live" (1977–2018); "Vice Principals" (2016); "Ghostbusters" (2016); "The Jungle Book" (2016); "Angie Tribeca" (2016); "Rock the Kasbah" (2015); "Aloha" (2015); "Dumb and Dumber To" (2014); "Alpha House" (2013–2014); "St. Vincent" (2014); "Olive Kitteridge" (2014); "The Grand Budapest Hotel" (2014); "The Monuments Men" (2014); "A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III" (2012); "Hyde Park on Hudson" (2012); "Moonrise Kingdom" (2012); "Passion Play" (2010); "Fantastic Mr. Fox" (2009); "Zombieland" (2009); "Get Low" (2009); "The Limits of Control" (2009); "City of Ember" (2008); "Get Smart" (2008); "The Darjeeling Limited" (2007); "Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties" (2006); "The Lost City" (2005); "Broken Flowers" (2005); "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" (2004); "Garfield" (2004); "Coffee and Cigarettes" (2003); "Lost in Translation" (2003); "Speaking of Sex" (2001); "The Royal Tenenbaums" (2001); "Osmosis Jones" (2001); "Charlie's Angels" (2000); "Hamlet" (2000); "Cradle Will Rock" (1999); "Stories from My Childhood" (1998); "Rushmore" (1998); "With Friends Like These..." (1998); "Wild Things" (1998); "The Man Who Knew Too Little" (1997); "Space Jam" (1996); "Larger Than Life" (1996); "Kingpin" (1996); "Ed Wood" (1994); "Mad Dog and Glory" (1993); "Groundhog Day" (1993); "What About Bob?" (1991); "Quick Change" (1990); "Ghostbusters II" (1989); "Scrooged" (1988); "Little Shop of Horrors" (1986); "The Razor's Edge" (1984); "Nothing Lasts Forever" (1984); "Ghostbusters" (1984); "Square Pegs" (1983); "Tootsie" (1982); "SCTV Network 90" (1982); "Stripes" (1981); "Caddyshack" (1980); "Le chaînon manquant" (1980); "Where the Buffalo Roam" (1980); "Mr. Mike's Mondo Video" (1979); "Meatballs" (1979); "Loose Shoes" (1978); "Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell" (1975); "Tarzoon, la honte de la jungle" (1975)

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Bill Murray says painting at Chicago's Art Institute saved his life • Oct. 30, 2024, 4:20 AM ET (CBS)

Bill Murray (born September 21, 1950, Wilmette, Illinois, U.S.) is an American comedian and actor best known for his trademark deadpan humor on television’s Saturday Night Live and for his film roles.

*Ghostbusters*Actors (left to right) Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, and Ernie Hudson in the film *Ghostbusters* (1984).

Murray, one of eight children, began his acting career on the National Lampoon Radio Hour (1975) alongside fellow comedians John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. From 1977 to 1980 Murray performed on NBC’s Saturday Night Live sketch comedy show, on which he popularized a seedy, shifty comedic persona. He launched his film career with a string of commercial hits, including Meatballs (1979), Caddyshack (1980), and Stripes (1981). In 1984 Murray starred with Aykroyd and Harold Ramis in Ghostbusters, which became one of the highest-grossing films of the decade.

A run of unsuccessful films led Murray into a self-imposed hiatus until he directed and starred in Quick Change (1990). After playing a burned-out weatherman in the existential comedy Groundhog Day (1993), Murray began tackling more thoughtful and challenging parts, including supporting roles in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood (1994) and Wes Anderson’s Rushmore (1998).

USA 2006 - 78th Annual Academy Awards. Closeup of giant Oscar statue at the entrance of the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Hompepage blog 2009, arts and entertainment, film movie hollywood

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In addition to earning an Academy Award nomination, Murray won a Golden Globe Award and a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for his role as a washed-up American actor visiting Japan in the acclaimed film Lost in Translation (2003), which was written and directed by Sofia Coppola. The depth and sensitivity of his performance surprised critics and solidified his place as an accomplished dramatic actor. Murray also earned critical acclaim for his performance as a longtime bachelor who reexamines his romantic choices in Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers (2005).

After Rushmore, Murray appeared in numerous other films by Anderson, including The Royal Tenenbaums (2001); The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), in which he starred as a world-weary oceanographer; The Darjeeling Limited (2007); Moonrise Kingdom (2012); The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014); and The French Dispatch (2021). He provided the voice of the sardonic cat Garfield in two commercially successful films (2004 and 2006) based on the eponymous comic strip, as well as the voice of a badger in Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), an animated film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s book. Murray lent his voice to another Anderson animated feature, Isle of Dogs (2018), playing one of a band of canines exiled to the aptly named Trash Island.

Murray also took supporting roles as a funeral director in the whimsical Depression-era comedy Get Low (2009) and as a mobster in the thriller Passion Play (2010). In 2012 he starred as U.S. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt in Hyde Park on Hudson, which focused on the president’s private life during a weekend in 1939 when he entertained British royalty. Murray later played a member of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFAA) unit, which recovered works of art stolen by the Nazis during World War II, in The Monuments Men (2014). His turn as a bibulous profanity-spewing ne’er-do-well in the ensemble comedy St. Vincent (2014) was singled out by critics as particularly praiseworthy, as was his evocation of a depressed widower opposite star Frances McDormand in the HBO television miniseries Olive Kitteridge (2014). His performance in the latter production earned Murray an Emmy Award.

Murray then portrayed a music manager who guides a young Afghan singer to stardom on her country’s version of the musical competition program American Idol in Rock the Kasbah (2015). Murray lent his distinctive voice to a computer-animated version of the bear Baloo in a 2016 live-action adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. He was later cast in Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die (2019), a wry take on the zombie movie genre. In 2020 Murray reteamed with Coppola—this time, on the dramedy On the Rocks, about a young mother who, fearing her husband is having an affair, seeks help from her playboy father.

Murray had witty cameos in the several reboots (2016, 2021, and 2024) of Ghostbusters. In 2021 he appeared in the TV miniseries The Now, and the following year he had a small role as a Boston bartender the Vietnam War drama The Greatest Beer Run Ever. In 2023 he played Lord Krylar in the Marvel superheroes film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

An avid golfer, Murray is the author (with George Peper) of Cinderella Story: My Life in Golf (1999), a humorous book about his love for the sport. In 2016 Murray received the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.