Bill Murray Bio
William James Murray (born September 21, 1950) is an American actor and comedian, known for his deadpan delivery in roles ranging from studio comedies to independent dramas. He has received several accolades, including a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and two Primetime Emmy Awards, as well as a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Murray was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2016 by the Kennedy Center.
Bill Murray Early Life and Background
Bill Murray was born on September 21, 1950, in Evanston, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. His mother, Lucille Murray, was a mail room clerk, and his father, Edward Murray II, was a lumber salesman. Murray attended Loyola Academy, an all-boys Jesuit private school in Wilmette, Illinois, where he worked as a golf caddy to help fund his education.
Murray grew up in an Irish Catholic family as one of nine siblings. His paternal grandfather was from County Cork, Ireland, while his maternal ancestors were from County Galway. Three of his brothers, Brian Doyle-Murray, Joel Murray, and John Murray, also became actors. Their father died in 1967 from complications of diabetes, when Murray was 17 years old.
During his teen years, Murray read children’s biographies of American heroes such as Kit Carson, Wild Bill Hickok, and Davy Crockett. He was the lead singer of a rock band called the Dutch Masters and took part in high school and community theater. After graduating from Loyola Academy, he briefly attended Regis University in Denver, Colorado, taking pre-medical courses before dropping out and returning to Illinois. In 2007, Regis University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree.
Path to Celebrity
On September 21, 1970, his 20th birthday, Murray was arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport for trying to smuggle 10 pounds of cannabis, which he had allegedly intended to sell. The discovery came after Murray joked to the passenger beside him that he had packed a bomb in his luggage. He was convicted and sentenced to probation.
Murray got his start at Chicago’s The Second City, an improvisational comedy troupe, where he studied under Del Close. With an invitation from his older brother Brian Doyle-Murray, he joined the troupe and quickly developed his craft. In 1974, he moved to New York City and was recruited by John Belushi as a featured player on The National Lampoon Radio Hour, beginning his transition to the broader entertainment industry.
Bill Murray Career
Early Career (1973-1980)
In 1975, the Off-Broadway National Lampoon Show led to Bill Murray’s first television role as a cast member of the ABC variety show Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell. That same season, NBC’s Saturday Night Live premiered. After Cosell’s show was canceled in early 1976, Murray officially joined the cast of NBC’s Saturday Night Live for its second season, following the departure of Chevy Chase. He rose to national prominence during his three seasons with the show from 1977 to 1980, and received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series.
During his early Saturday Night Live years, Murray landed his first starring role with Meatballs in 1979. He also appeared in the mockumentary All You Need Is Cash in 1978, in a segment developed from a sketch Monty Python’s Eric Idle brought for his appearance on the show. Murray was in a romantic relationship with fellow cast member Gilda Radner during this period.
Breakthrough (1980-1993)
In the early 1980s, Bill Murray collaborated with writer-director Harold Ramis and starred in a string of box-office hits, including Caddyshack in 1980 and Stripes in 1981, and had a role in Tootsie in 1982. He also portrayed Hunter S. Thompson in Where the Buffalo Roam in 1980. He was the first guest on NBC’s Late Night with David Letterman on February 1, 1982, and appeared on the first episode of the Late Show with David Letterman in 1993.
Murray then co-wrote and starred in the film adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s novel The Razor’s Edge, his first starring role in a drama. He agreed to star in Ghostbusters, in a role originally written for John Belushi, to secure financing for The Razor’s Edge. Ghostbusters became the highest-grossing film of 1984 and, at the time, the highest-grossing comedy ever released.
Disappointed by the failure of The Razor’s Edge, Murray took a four-year hiatus from acting to study philosophy and history at Sorbonne University in Paris, frequent the Cinémathèque, and spend time with his family. With the exception of a cameo in Little Shop of Horrors in 1986, he made no film appearances during this period. He returned with Scrooged in 1988 and Ghostbusters II in 1989. Murray made his first and only attempt at directing when he co-directed Quick Change in 1990 with producer Howard Franklin. He then starred in Harold Ramis’s fantasy comedy Groundhog Day in 1993, which the Washington Post praised as easily his best movie.
Notable Works and Milestones
Bill Murray’s signature work, Groundhog Day in 1993, cemented his reputation as both a gifted comedic performer and a serious dramatic actor. He had established his stardom by acting in a string of successful comedy films, including Meatballs in 1979, Caddyshack in 1980, Stripes in 1981, Scrooged in 1988, What About Bob? in 1991, and Groundhog Day in 1993. His collaboration with director Wes Anderson began with Rushmore in 1998 and continued with The Royal Tenenbaums in 2001, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou in 2004, and Moonrise Kingdom in 2012.
Bill Murray Award Nominations
Bill Murray has received numerous award nominations across his decades-long career in film and television. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Sofia Coppola’s romantic drama Lost in Translation in 2003, although Sean Penn ultimately won the award that year for Mystic River. Murray received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Hyde Park on Hudson in 2012, and another Golden Globe nomination for St. Vincent in 2014. He was also nominated for Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice awards for Best Supporting Actor for On the Rocks in 2020.
Additional nominations include a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Television Movie for A Very Murray Christmas in 2015. He was nominated for Favorite Animated Movie Voice at the People’s Choice Awards for The Jungle Book in 2016 but lost to Ellen DeGeneres for Finding Dory.
Bill Murray Awards Won
Bill Murray has received several major accolades throughout his career in entertainment. He earned the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead, all for Lost in Translation in 2003. He also received two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Independent Spirit Awards.
Murray was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor by the Kennedy Center in 2016. For Rushmore in 1998, he received the Best Supporting Actor awards from the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Society of Film Critics, and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. The cast of The Grand Budapest Hotel in 2014, including Murray, won the Actor Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
Bill Murray Family
Bill Murray grew up in a large Irish Catholic family as one of nine siblings in Evanston, Illinois. Three of his brothers, Brian Doyle-Murray, Joel Murray, and John Murray, are also actors. A sister, Nancy, is an Adrian Dominican nun in Michigan who has traveled the United States portraying Catherine of Siena and Dorothy Stang in one-woman programs. His brother Ed Murray died in 2020.
Personal Life
Bill Murray is known for being very detached from the Hollywood scene. He does not have an agent or manager and reportedly fields offers for scripts and roles using a personal telephone number with a voice mailbox that he checks infrequently. He owns homes in Los Angeles, Rancho Santa Fe in California, Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, Charleston in South Carolina, and Palisades in New York.
Murray was married to Margaret Kelly on January 25, 1981, during the filming of Stripes. They had two sons, including Luke Murray, before divorcing in 1996 following Murray’s affair with Jennifer Butler. He married Butler in 1997, and together they had four sons. Butler filed for divorce on May 12, 2008, accusing Murray of domestic violence, infidelity, and addictions. Their divorce was finalized on June 13, 2008, and Butler died on January 19, 2021.