50 Fun Facts About Bill Murray

In which Chicago suburb was Bill Murray born in 1950?

Evanston: he was born at Evanston Hospital, but the family home was next door in Wilmette, which is why some biographies give Wilmette as his birthplace.

Bill Murray's older sister Nancy became what?

A nun: Sister Nancy Murray joined the Adrian Dominican Sisters, yet she shares the family trade, touring the world in a one-woman show as St. Catherine of Siena.

What job did the teenage Murray do to pay for his Jesuit high school education?

Golf caddy: several Murray brothers caddied as teenagers, and one of them later turned those summers into the screenplay for Caddyshack.

Why was Murray arrested at O'Hare Airport on his 20th birthday in 1970?

Carrying marijuana in his luggage: he joked to another passenger that he had a bomb in his bag, and the search that followed turned up the drugs instead. He was given probation.

Before comedy, Murray enrolled at Regis University in Denver intending to become what?

A doctor: he took pre-med courses at the Jesuit school but soon dropped out. In 2007 Regis surprised its famous dropout with an honorary doctorate anyway.

At which Chicago improv troupe did Murray get his start, studying under Del Close?

The Second City: he joined looking for direction after dropping out of college, and the troupe soon launched him to New York and national television.

In 1975 Murray joined the cast of a short-lived ABC variety show hosted by which sportscaster?

Howard Cosell's ABC show had already taken the name Saturday Night Live, so the NBC sketch series that outlived it had to launch as NBC's Saturday Night.

Whose departure from Saturday Night Live opened the spot Murray filled in the show's second season?

Chevy Chase quit during season two and moved to Los Angeles. When he came back to host in 1978, he and Murray had a backstage punch-up before the show.

Which SNL castmate was Murray romantically involved with during his early seasons?

Gilda Radner and Murray dated during his first SNL seasons. By a friend's account, she later found Ghostbusters hard to watch because so many ex-boyfriends were in it.

What was Murray's first starring film role, in 1979?

Meatballs: director Ivan Reitman wasn't sure his star would turn up until shooting began. Murray played head counsellor Tripper in the low-budget summer-camp hit.

Which real-life writer did Murray portray in the 1980 film Where the Buffalo Roam?

Hunter S. Thompson: Murray shared a house with the writer during the shoot and found the persona 'tough to shake'. SNL colleagues said he came back that autumn still talking like him.

Murray was the very first guest on which talk show, on February 1, 1982?

Late Night with David Letterman: Murray came out picking a mock fight with the new host. 33 years later Letterman chose him as the last guest of his CBS show as well.

Murray agreed to star in Ghostbusters partly to get Columbia to finance which passion project?

The Razor's Edge: Murray co-wrote the Somerset Maugham adaptation and insisted it stay a period piece. It flopped, and he later admitted of the studio, 'I was wrong and they were right.'

For whom was Murray's Ghostbusters role of Peter Venkman originally written?

John Belushi: Dan Aykroyd was writing one of his friend's lines when the call came that Belushi had died. The green ghost Slimer stayed in the film as a private tribute to him.

After Ghostbusters made him rich, Murray stepped away from films and moved his young family to which city?

Paris: Murray reportedly sat in on Sorbonne philosophy classes there and watched old films at the Cinémathèque.

Which 1990 film did Murray co-direct with its screenwriter, Howard Franklin?

Quick Change: Murray casually suggested they both direct, and the pair had to plead their case before a Directors Guild committee. He had not directed another film by 2025.

Which director fell out with Murray on the set of their 1993 time-loop comedy?

Harold Ramis: screenwriter Danny Rubin said they were 'like two brothers who weren't getting along'. They barely spoke for two decades until, by Ramis's daughter's account, Murray turned up at his door with doughnuts.

Who played the psychiatrist Murray torments in Frank Oz's 1991 comedy What About Bob?

Richard Dreyfuss: the friction was real. 'I drove him nuts, and he encouraged me to drive him nuts,' Murray said later, and Frank Oz admitted he was pleased his two leads didn't get along.

In which 1996 film does Murray turn up as Bill Murray to help the heroes win a big game?

Space Jam: the cameo was in the script from the start, but Murray ignored every go-between and only signed on once Michael Jordan asked him in person.

Which 1998 film began Murray's long collaboration with director Wes Anderson?

Rushmore: Murray liked the script so much he worked for union scale, about $9,000 by Anderson's estimate, and handed the director a blank check when Disney balked at a $75,000 helicopter shot.

Which Wes Anderson film did Murray miss after catching COVID-19?

Asteroid City: Murray caught the virus in Ireland four days before he was due on set, so Steve Carell stepped in as the motel manager. It ended his run of nine straight Anderson features.

Murray played Polonius in a 2000 film that moved which Shakespeare play to Manhattan?

Hamlet: Michael Almereyda's version turns Denmark into a Manhattan corporation, and Ethan Hawke's prince delivers 'To be or not to be' while wandering the Action aisle of a Blockbuster video store.

In The Royal Tenenbaums, Murray's Raleigh St. Clair is married to which member of the family?

Margot Tenenbaum: Gwyneth Paltrow played the secretive playwright. Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson modelled her meek husband on the neurologist and author Oliver Sacks.

What product is Murray's character Bob Harris in Tokyo to advertise in Lost in Translation?

Suntory whiskey: Sofia Coppola took the idea from her childhood, when her father Francis Ford Coppola appeared in a real Suntory commercial in Japan with the director Akira Kurosawa.

Which character did Murray play in the 2000 film version of Charlie's Angels?

Bosley: Murray took over the Angels' go-between from the TV series' David Doyle. He did not return for the 2003 sequel, where Bernie Mac played the character's brother instead.

Murray says he agreed to voice Garfield only after mistaking the screenwriter for one of which filmmaking duo?

The Coen brothers: the script was by Joel Cohen, with an h. Murray told GQ he only found out while recording his lines, though co-writer Alec Sokolow insists he knew all along.

Murray's oceanographer Steve Zissou in The Life Aquatic was based on which real explorer?

Jacques Cousteau: he was Wes Anderson's childhood hero. Like the French diver, Zissou films his voyages from a research ship with its own mini-sub, and his crew wear red knit caps.

Which director made Broken Flowers (2005), Coffee and Cigarettes and The Dead Don't Die with Murray?

Jim Jarmusch: he wrote Broken Flowers with Murray in mind, and Murray's one condition was that every location be within an hour of his house. 'He gave us limitations that helped us,' the director said.

Which US president did Murray play in Hyde Park on Hudson (2012)?

Franklin D. Roosevelt: the film is set around the June 1939 weekend when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth stayed at his Hyde Park estate and were served hot dogs at a picnic.

Which animal did Murray voice in Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox?

Mr. Badger: he is Fox's lawyer, who warns him against moving in next to three farmers. Anderson skipped the sound studio and recorded his cast out on a farm, in fields, barns and an attic.

In Zombieland (2009), whom does Murray play?

Himself: the cameo was written for Patrick Swayze, who was too ill to film it. With two days to go, Woody Harrelson rang Murray, and the script was sent to a FedEx Kinko's in New York for him to collect.

Which character did Murray play in the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot?

A cynical ghost debunker: Martin Heiss was a new character with no link to Peter Venkman. Murray had dodged a third film for years, once joking he'd do it only if they killed him off in the first reel.

Which Trump-era political figure did Murray play when he returned to SNL in 2018?

Steve Bannon: the show had always played him as a silent Grim Reaper, so the January 2018 cold open pulled off the hood to reveal Murray, opposite Fred Armisen as the author Michael Wolff.

Which Sofia Coppola-directed streaming holiday special starred Murray alongside George Clooney and Miley Cyrus?

A Very Murray Christmas: a snowstorm strands him at New York's Carlyle hotel on Christmas Eve with the guests for his live TV special cancelling, until famous friends drift in to sing with him.

Murray reprised which of his films for a 2020 Super Bowl commercial?

Groundhog Day: the 2020 Super Bowl fell on 2 February, Groundhog Day itself, so Jeep had him relive it with a stolen groundhog. Murray called it his first commercial, and his last.

Which Marvel film did Murray join the cast of in 2021?

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: he played Lord Krylar, and it was Murray who let the casting slip, in a German newspaper interview. He said he signed on because he admired director Peyton Reed's Bring It On.

With no agent or manager, how did Murray take script offers?

A personal phone number with a voicemail box: a toll-free line he checked only now and then. The makers of Who Framed Roger Rabbit never reached him, and Pixar's Pete Docter took his silence on Monsters, Inc. as a no.

Which minor-league baseball team did Murray help found in 1993 and part-own for the next 30 years?

St. Paul Saints: the club's staff page listed Murray as 'Team Psychologist'. He would turn up unannounced to check tickets at the gate or coach first base, and sold his share with the other founders in 2023.

What did Murray do in his first at-bat for the Grays Harbor Loggers in 1978?

Hit a single: the Victoria pitcher later admitted he 'pretty much grooved one' for the SNL star, who called it a 'junior-high fastball'. In his only other at-bat Murray struck out on three pitches.

Which character did Murray voice in Disney's 2016 remake of The Jungle Book?

Baloo: Jon Favreau wanted Murray for the lazy bear from the start and had him sing The Bare Necessities with young Neel Sethi. The animators even gave the bear Murray's raised eyebrow.

What does Murray do on his 2017 classical album New Worlds?

Sings and reads literature: Hemingway sits beside Gershwin and Bernstein. He met the cellist Jan Vogler at airport security, where he asked whether 'that thing' would fit in the overhead compartment.

What nickname did Dan Aykroyd give Murray because of his mood swings?

The Murricane: a New York bar borrowed the nickname for a cocktail in his honour, shaking bourbon with watermelon, basil and elderflower liqueur.

Which comedy honour did Murray receive at the Kennedy Center in 2016?

The Mark Twain Prize: two days earlier he gatecrashed the White House briefing room to chat with reporters. The ceremony risked clashing with a Cubs Game 7, but the team clinched the pennant the night before.

Which Southern US city did Murray make his main home, far from Hollywood?

Charleston: a 2017 profile gave the South Carolina city as his primary residence, and the local paper noted his regular appearances as co-owner of its minor-league RiverDogs. The family home was on nearby Sullivan's Island.

Which third-party candidate did Murray endorse at a Madison Square Garden rally in 2000?

Ralph Nader: Murray spoke at 'Nader Rocks the Garden', a sold-out Madison Square Garden rally of about 15,000, alongside Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins and Patti Smith. By one account he called it his first political speech.

Which older brother did Murray follow into Chicago improv comedy in the early 1970s?

Brian: he performs as Brian Doyle-Murray, adding a grandmother's maiden name, reportedly because there was already an actor called Brian Murray. Bill followed him on to the Chicago stage and later on to Saturday Night Live.

Which film earned Murray an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor?

Lost in Translation: Murray never signed a contract, so Sofia Coppola spent $1 million of her small budget not knowing whether he would turn up in Tokyo. He lost the Oscar to Sean Penn; as of 2025 it was his only nomination.

Murray won his first Emmy in 1977 for which part of his work on Saturday Night Live?

Writing: he shared the 1977 comedy-variety writing Emmy with the SNL staff in his first season on the show. When his first acting Emmy came 38 years later, for Olive Kitteridge, he skipped the ceremony for a family wedding.

In 1974 Murray moved to New York to join the cast of which comedy programme?

The National Lampoon Radio Hour: the weekly satire lasted just 13 months, and when it was cut to half an hour the cast pretended stations had pulled the plug mid-show. Many of its alumni moved on to Saturday Night Live.

In 2007 Swedish police pulled Murray over on suspicion of drunkenly driving what?

A golf cart: he was in Stockholm for a golf tournament and, Dagens Nyheter reported, set off for his hotel in the cart at about 3.30am after a night out around Stureplan. Police stopped him on the way.