Bill Murray Biography Quotes 14 Report mistakes

Early Life and Family
William James Murray was born on September 21, 1950, in Evanston, Illinois, and raised in the nearby suburb of Wilmette in a large Catholic family. His father, Edward J. Murray II, worked as a lumber salesman and died when Bill was a teenager, an event that forced the family to pull together under the guidance of his mother, Lucille. Murray grew up alongside eight siblings, including brothers Brian Doyle-Murray, John Murray, and Joel Murray, all of whom would later work in entertainment. He attended Loyola Academy, where he showed a knack for mischief and performance, and spent summers as a golf caddy, an experience that would echo throughout his career and family lore.

After high school, Murray briefly attended Regis University in Denver before returning to the Chicago area. In 1970, on his 20th birthday, he was detained at Chicago O Hare following a quip about carrying a bomb, and authorities found marijuana in his luggage. He received probation, a turning point that nudged him toward a more serious pursuit of comedy and acting.

Beginnings in Comedy
Murray cut his teeth with Chicago s Second City, one of the country s premier improvisational troupes, absorbing the discipline of ensemble work and timing. He joined the National Lampoon Radio Hour, collaborating with John Belushi, Gilda Radner, and Dan Aykroyd. A short stint on ABC s Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell in 1975 brought him national exposure, and he joined NBC s Saturday Night Live in 1977, during the show s second season under producer Lorne Michaels. There he became a breakout performer, known for characters like Nick the Lounge Singer and for his work with Gilda Radner and Jane Curtin. He shared in an Emmy for writing, cementing his status as a central figure in the show s early era.

Breakthrough on the Big Screen
Murray s film career began in earnest with the sleeper hit Meatballs (1979), directed by Ivan Reitman. He followed with Caddyshack (1980), drawing on his caddying past; the film was co-written by Brian Doyle-Murray and Harold Ramis and became a cult classic. Stripes (1981), again with Reitman and with Harold Ramis on screen, showcased his screwball charisma. A scene-stealing turn in Tootsie (1982) broadened his appeal.

Ghostbusters (1984) was the cultural earthquake. Starring alongside Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, and Rick Moranis, Murray helped shape a blockbuster phenomenon directed by Ivan Reitman. The film s success anchored him as a bankable star. That same year he took a dramatic swing with The Razor s Edge, a long-gestating passion project that underperformed, prompting him to step back from Hollywood and recalibrate.

Refinement and Range
Returning with Scrooged (1988) and Ghostbusters II (1989), Murray showed he could toggle between sardonic humor and sentiment. He co-directed (with Howard Franklin) and starred in Quick Change (1990), revealing a filmmaker s eye for tone. What About Bob? (1991), opposite Richard Dreyfuss and directed by Frank Oz, became a beloved comedy. Groundhog Day (1993), written and directed by Harold Ramis with Andie MacDowell co-starring, deepened Murray s screen persona, blending absurdity and existential reflection. Though the collaboration led to a personal rift between Murray and Ramis, the two reconciled before Ramis s death in 2014.

Throughout the 1990s, Murray mixed mainstream projects with idiosyncratic choices: a memorable appearance in Tim Burton s Ed Wood (1994), the Farrelly brothers Kingpin (1996), and especially a career-redefining collaboration with Wes Anderson on Rushmore (1998). The role earned him major critics prizes and marked the start of a long-running creative partnership with Anderson, who cast him in The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Isle of Dogs (2018), and The French Dispatch (2021). These collaborations, often alongside actors like Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, and Tilda Swinton, revealed a subtler palette of melancholy, whimsy, and restraint.

Acclaim and Late-Career Versatility
Murray achieved one of his most acclaimed performances in Sofia Coppola s Lost in Translation (2003), opposite Scarlett Johansson. He won the Golden Globe and BAFTA for Best Actor and received an Academy Award nomination, which he famously took with stoic grace. He continued exploring understated, contemplative roles in Jim Jarmusch s Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) and Broken Flowers (2005), solidifying a reputation as an actor equally at home in deadpan comedy and introspective drama.

Never abandoning broad comedy entirely, Murray appeared as Bosley in Charlie s Angels (2000), lampooned himself in Zombieland (2009) and later in Zombieland: Double Tap (2019), and returned to ghostbusting nostalgia in cameos for new installments. He took on historical figures in Hyde Park on Hudson (2012), voiced Baloo in Jon Favreau s The Jungle Book (2016), joined George Clooney s ensemble in The Monuments Men (2014), and reunited with Sofia Coppola for On the Rocks (2020). In 2021 he donned the editor s mantle in Wes Anderson s The French Dispatch and reprised his Ghostbusters legacy in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. He entered the Marvel universe with a role in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023). Along the way he navigated modern production challenges, including the suspension of filming on Being Mortal in 2022 after a complaint about his on-set behavior, a matter he addressed publicly as he worked toward resolution with those involved.

Personal Life and Public Persona
Murray married Margaret Kelly in 1981; they had two sons, Homer and Luke, before divorcing in the mid-1990s. He married costume designer Jennifer Butler in 1997, and they had four sons, Caleb, Jackson, Cooper, and Lincoln, before divorcing in 2008. Family ties remained central to his identity, with frequent collaborations with his brothers and the opening of the Murray Bros. Caddyshack restaurant, a nod to shared history and humor.

Outside film sets, he cultivated an unconventional public image. Eschewing a traditional agent, he famously relied on a phone line for scripts and decided by instinct which projects to pursue. Stories of spontaneous encounters at ordinary places became part of his legend. He has also been an enthusiastic supporter of baseball, with involvement in minor league teams such as the St. Paul Saints and the Charleston RiverDogs, where his enthusiasm for the game and community engagement dovetailed.

Awards and Recognition
Beyond his Emmy recognition for Saturday Night Live and the awards for Lost in Translation, Murray has been honored by critics and peers for his contributions to film and comedy. In 2016 he received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, a capstone acknowledgment of a career that has spanned sketch comedy, mainstream blockbusters, and art-house cinema. He has been a frequent nominee and occasional winner at the Golden Globes, BAFTAs, and various critics groups, reflecting wide respect for his range.

Legacy
Bill Murray s legacy is defined by evolution and unlikely combinations: a deadpan trickster who found depth in silence, a crowd-pleasing comedian who embraced bittersweet roles, and a Hollywood star who resisted Hollywood s machinery. The people around him shaped that trajectory. Lorne Michaels and the early Saturday Night Live ensemble gave him a stage; Harold Ramis, Ivan Reitman, and Dan Aykroyd built vehicles suited to his offbeat charm; Sofia Coppola, Wes Anderson, and Jim Jarmusch revealed hues of vulnerability and grace. With collaborators like Sigourney Weaver, Andie MacDowell, Scarlett Johansson, Jason Schwartzman, and Owen Wilson, he has crafted characters that linger in the cultural memory.

Through comic bravado and quiet introspection, Murray helped define several eras of American entertainment. He remains a singular figure, equally capable of upending a scene with a raised eyebrow or anchoring a film with a weary whisper, an actor whose work with friends, families, and filmmakers continues to deepen a career that began in a Chicago improv theater and grew into a body of films watched across generations.

Our collection contains 14 quotes who is written by Bill, under the main topics: Witty One-Liners - Writing - Mother - Parenting - Book.

Other people realated to Bill: Rodney Dangerfield (Comedian), Al Franken (Comedian), Dustin Hoffman (Actor), Chevy Chase (Comedian), David Letterman (Comedian), Edward Norton (Actor), Jim Jarmusch (Director), Richard Belzer (Comedian), Zac Efron (Actor), Sydney Pollack (Director)