Scream Awards
It's 2010. The Scream Awards has just announced that Zombieland has won the award for Best Horror Movie. Who comes on stage to collect the gong? Why, Murray of course.
This being Murray, though, he does it with serious style, taking the stage in his old Ghostbusters outfit, proton pack and all, to the kind of uproarious applause that causes severe ear bleeding.
The K
"It's a big, BIG day here!" screams Murray, wearing tin cans as 'The K', a radio presenter in The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash .
Never heard of it? Well, it's a seventies TV movie/mockumentary about fake Brit rockers The Rutles. Murray provides a brief cameo as the aforementioned radio presenter, and he's so good it makes us think he should've been in Good Morning, Vietnam instead of Robin Williams…
Awesome
While out promoting Monuments Men in January 2014, Murray decided to do a Q&A on Reddit, which led to the usual questions about Garfield and Fantastic Mr Fox.
One clever person, though, wanted to know what it was like being so awesome. Murray's Sahara-dry response:
"Well, nothing prepared me for being this awesome. It's kind of a shock. It's kind of a shock to wake up every morning and be bathed in this purple light."
Mutants
"We're mutants! Something is very, very wro-o-ong with us!" yells Winger (Bill Murray) in this stand-out moment from war flick Stripes (1981).
He's attempting to rally the troupes, citing things like Old Yeller ("Who cried when Old Yeller got shot at the end?") and their likeness to mutants in order to inspire the soldiers around him. Well, we're inspired…
Agent 13
"Who wants to talk to a guy in a tree?" opines Agent 13 (Murray), the spy responsible for raising the walkway that leads to the HQ of intelligence agency CONTROL (in Get Smart (2008)).
Oh, and he just so happens to be based inside a tree, this being a secret entrance, of course. It's a teen tiny cameo, but Murray is, as ever, ridiculously likeable and sympathetic. The movie might have been better if he'd been in more of it...
Motivation
"That's just the attitude we don't need," says head counsellor Tripper Harrison (Murray) in Meatballs (1983), taking the room in order to deliver a ridiculously motivational speech to the campers.
"It doesn't matter," he assures them all as they blanch at the thought of taking on unbeaten basketball team the Mohawks. "It just doesn't matter! I TELL YOU IT JUST DOESN'T MATTER!"
If politicians could deliver their speeches with even half the energy Murray delivers here, we'd all be signing up to their rallies…
Anti-Communication
Murray combated hassling movie execs during shooting on Groundhog Day - at a time when he was going through a divorce - by hiring an assistant who was deaf and could only use sign language to communicate.
Which caused quite a few problems - particularly for Murray, who couldn't understand sign language.
“Bill said, ‘Don’t worry, I'm going to learn sign language,'" director Harold Ramis recalled to Entertainment Weekly . "And I think it was so inconvenient that in a couple weeks, he gave that up. That’s anti-communication, you know? Let’s not talk.”
Zuul
"Are you the key master?" breathes a sultry and possessed Sigourney Weaver when Venkman (Murray) knocks on her door in Ghostbusters . "Not that I know of," he replies, to which she disappointedly shuts the door.
Undeterred, he tries again. "Are you the key master?" Weaver breathes again. "Yes," Venkman enthusiastically replies, gaining access to her apartment. And her bedroom…
Spectator Sport
Carl Spackler's (Murray) mission to destroy the pesky gopher in Caddyshack comes to an explosive climax - literally.
Having set up explosive devices all over the gold course, Carl proceeds to detonate them all just as a golf tournament is reaching its nail-biting close. BAM BAM BAM! And the gopher wanders off unharmed…
Tootsie
"I don't like it when people come up to me after my plays and say, 'I really dug your message man,'" complains Jeff Slater (Bill Murray) in just one of his many fantastic scenes in Tootsie (1982).
When your co-star's Dustin Hoffman doing drag (surprisingly convincingly), it takes quite a lot to steal the show, but Murray manages it with aplomb, not least in this improv-heavy moment…
A Ring-A-Ding-Ding
In Lost In Translation , washed-up actor Bob (Bill Murray) is doing a photoshoot for a whiskey advert in Japan.
"This is not whiskey, this is ice tea," he complains as he attempts to be "mysterious" for the photographer, whose demands are mostly, well, sort of strange. Then they start talking about the Rat Pack…
World Of The Psychic
Murray's cynical looks to the camera are to die for in this scene from Ghostbusters 2 . Picking up years after the first film, Venkman (Murray) now has his own show about the psychic world - but even he seems to need convincing it's not all a load of hooey.
"So your alien had a room at the Holiday Inn?" he asks with a twinkle in his eye. Ace…
Getting To Know You
"What do you like? What do you think about? What kind of men are you interested in?" Phil (Murray) starts to actually resemble a human being in Groundhog Day as he tries to get to know news producer Rita (Andie MacDowell).
They end up going for coffee and having a deep and meaningful conversation. It's a turning point for the film and for Phil, beautifully played by Murray, who shelves the dry wit for actual humility…
If Only
Murray was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in Lost In Translation , but he lost out to Sean Penn in Mystic River.
Which is a shame - not only because the film's a high point in Murray's career, but because we'd kill to see Murray give an acceptance speech at the Oscars.
Luckily, when he was interviewed in February 2014, Murray hinted at just what that kind of speech might have contained...
Badger
Though George Clooney took the lead in Wes Anderson's adaptation of Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox , that didn't stop Murray reuniting with his favourite director to play Badger, the suit-wearing beast who fancies himself as something of a debonair entertainer.
Though it's not a huge role, the stand-out scene is when Badger and Mr Fox (Clooney) have a fight, which mostly involves lots of swiping of paws and hissing as they circle one another like, well, wild animals.
Golf Cart
In a scene that wouldn't seem out of place in Caddyshack, Murray was in Stockholm in 2007 for a golf tournament when he was caught driving a golf cart through the city's streets less than a mile away from his hotel.
According to Murray, it was all very innocent. "I was driven to a party celebrating the event in a golf cart, and after the party the people that drove me in the golf cart did not wish to drive, so I said ‘I can drive’ and I drove," he said. "I ended up stopping and dropping people off on the way like a bus."
If anybody can get away with trundling a golf cart through the streets of Stockholm, it's Mr Murray.
Dinner #2
"These are OR scrubs," says Dr Flynn (Luke Wilson). "Oh, are they?" replies Max (Jason Schwartzman) snidely, causing Herman Blume (Murray) to almost snort his drink in this dinner scene from Rushmore .
Though the scene's really about Max belittling and bullying Dr Flynn, Murray's integral to it - not only is his character responsible for getting Max drunk, he's also as deadpan as ever on the sidelines, adding subtle layers to an already brilliant scene.
The Legs Have It
Murray took part in a Q&A after the New York premiere of Hyde Park On Hudson , in which he played US president Franklin D Roosevelt.
When one audience member got up to ask how, in a swimming scene, they managed to make Murray's legs look so hideous, the giggling on-stage made it quite clear that there were no special effects involved - those actually were Murray's legs.
After a thoughtful pause, Murray told the audience member: "That is acting."
Rainy Day
Murray co-owns a number of minor-league baseball teams, having been a keen sports fan for his entire life.
He's even 'Director Of Fun' at the Charleston RiverDogs, and it's not hard to see why. In 2012, a RiverDogs game was rained off, which certainly didn't dampen Murray's mood - he was spotted skidding around on the pitch-protecting tarpaulin during the downpour.
Baptism
If Murray knows how to do anything (other than deliver a droll one-liner like he's got a gun to his head), it's physical comedy. Case in point: the baptism scene in Ed Wood (1994) .
As Bunny Breckinridge, he utters the immortal line "Let's hear you call Boris Karloff a cocksucker" before getting dunked in a giant baptism pool - where he quickly flounders and looks like a bit of a tit in front of everybody.
Tribeca
Writer Alex Mann encountered Bill Murray during a night out at the Tribeca Film Festival. "What followed was the weirdest, most memorable night of my life," Mann says of his experience, which he chronicles here .
In a nutshell, Murray buys Mann a drink, they talk about The Godfather (Murray's never seen it), Murray renames Alex 'Karl' and they go on a night-time odyssey of odd.
Blank Cheque
Hard to imagine a time when the name 'Wes Anderson' wasn't as well-known to cinema-goers as it is nowadays, but back when he was making Rushmore , Anderson was something of a wet-behind-the-ears unknown entity.
That didn't faze Murray, who proved pivotal in getting the movie made. When Disney refused to fork out the cash for an expensive helicopter scene, Murray handed Anderson a blank cheque and told him he'd foot the bill…
Dinner #1
In Frank Oz's comedy What About Bob? , Murray plays phobia-suffering nice guy Bob Wiley, who invites himself on holiday with the family of his therapist, Dr Leo Marvin (Richard Drewfuss), much to Marvin's increasing annoyance.
That premise is perfectly encapsulated in this dinner scene, in which Bob's niceties ("Fay, this is so scrumptious. Is this hand-shucked?") continually wind Marvin up until he's fit to explode with incandescent rage.
Hip-Hop & Coffee
"Aren't you Bill Murray, man?" ask Wu-Tang Clan members GZA and RZA in Coffee & Cigarettes (2003) when the funnyman comes over to offer them some coffee.
He's, randomly, the waiter at a coffee shop, and appalled when the hip-hoppers inform him that caffeine causes delirium. His response? He samples the coffee right out of the jug then sits down for a chat.
Thing is, not only do the Wu-Tangers recognise Murray, he also recognises them, proving he knows a thing or two about the world of hip-hop. It's weird. It's brilliant.
They're Baaaack
It's montage time! Having rescued a courtroom from a ghost, the Ghostbusters are, in Venkman's (Murray) own words, "BACK!" (in Ghostbusters 2 )
The ensuing montage includes Venkman and his co-busters wearing Santa hats (aww) and Venkman taking down a ghost jogger in Central Park by merely kicking his equipment to zap the pesky spook. Now that's cool.
Scrooged
"This is terrific!" rejoices Ed (Murray), the cold-hearted network exec in Scrooged (1988). "You can't buy publicity like this!"
He's just discovered that his terrifying TV ad caused the death of a terrified old woman, and he couldn't be happier.
If anybody else was playing this role, we'd hate him to the core. With Murray in the role, Ed's a loveable rogue who we just can't help adoring…
Poetry
"They get worse," admits Murray as he reads out some poetry to the construction works who are building the new Poets House on 10 River Terrace.
Because, really, if you're going to have anybody spouting poetry, it might as well be Bill Murray, right?
Phone Pest
"Hi, Kelly’s having sex with Patrick Swayze right now."
That's reportedly what Murray calls producer and friend Mitch Glazer to say whenever he's watching Road House and the scene in which Swayze and Kelly Lynch having sex comes on.
Kelly, in case you're wondering, is Glazer's wife. "It was funny the first dozen or so times," the producer sighs.
Autographs
Autographs suck, right? Most celebrities hate being asked to scrawl their name on a tattered old receipt for a moony-eyed fan.
Murray hates it, too, but apparently only because he thinks autographs are so damn impersonal. His solution? Well, while he was on the set of one movie, he decided to shoot a slow-mo walk with the film's crew for a guy who had asked for an autograph for a friend.
The fittingly brilliant results can be enjoyed below…
Tight Spot
While watching himself on telly (dubbed into Japanese, naturally) Bob Harris (Murray) is interrupted (in Lost In Translation ) when he's sent a 'Premium Fantasy' girl as (strictly adult) entertainment.
Even this isn't as pleasurable as it should be, as his entertainer demands that he "lip" her tights ("lip them?!") and the whole thing snowballs into a collision of curl-yourself-into-a-ball-and-rock-yourself-to-sleep awkwardness.
"Mr Bob Harris, don't touch me! Just lip my stockings! Help!"
Dalai Lama
"The flowing robes, the grace. Bald… Striking." Carl Spackler (Murray) takes a time out in Caddyshack (1980) to recount the tale of how he ended up inadvertently meeting the Dalai Lama.
The best thing about this scene, aside from the understated hilarity, is the fact that Murray ad-libbed the entire thing. Considering the attention to detail, that's nothing short of impressive.
Bar-Tending
Shangri-La bar. SXSW Festival, 2010. Murray made himself well and truly the centre of attention when he took over the bartending of the Shangri-La bar for the night, refusing to serve anybody anything other than Tequila. (See the video below.)
Murray didn't stop there, though, putting in appearances at other SXSW shindigs - including the house party of a Reddit frequenter (above) where he downed a few cans of drink and took up the tambourine to back up the band playing there.
Hog Thief
Sick of living the same day over and over, Phil (Murray) takes fate by the scruff of the neck by hopping into a truck and stealing the infamous groundhog (yes, in Groundhog Day ).
As the cops give chase, he swerves round corners in the pick-up with the groundhog clinging to the steering wheel in front of him. "Don't drive angry," cautions Phil before they end up ploughing headfirst into a quarry. BOOM!
Murray does 'frazzled' like nobody else and imbues this scene with the kind of understated 'comedy desperation' that is his calling card.
Bowling
It's the climax of the bowling tournament in Kingpin (1996), and despite his comb-over having come insanely unstuck, hotshot Ernie McCracken (Murray) thinks he has this in the bag.
He bowls…. He sweats… The ball rolls… And it's a strike! A jubilant Ernie hits the floor and spins around like a lunatic. "I'm the greatest!" rejoices Ernie. "Finally, Big Ern is above the law!"
Slime
While investigating an alleged haunting at the Sedgewick Hotel (in, obviously, Ghostbusters ), Venkman (Murray) stumbles upon the most iconic ghost that the film (and subsequent animated series) came up with.
Yep, it's Slimer, who's been busy guzzling up food left on a trolley in a corridor. (Or at least trying to.)
"It's right here, Ray. It's looking at me," Venkman says into the walkie talkie, right before Slimer (you got it) slimes him to smithereens.
Jaguar Shark
Nobody believes that Steve Zissou (Murray) actually saw a jaguar shark (in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou ), so it's an emotional moment when he and his crew finally track one down near the close of Anderson's film.
The emotion's only heightened by Murray's performance as he looks on the shark that ate his best friend, and his crew members all put their hands on his shoulders in a sign of companionship. It's understated and beautiful.
Poolside
'Nothin' In The World Can Stop Me Worryin' 'Bout That Girl' by The Kinks imbues this scene from Rushmore (1998) with surprising poignancy, as Herman Blume (Bill Murray) throws a birthday party for his son.
After sinking a few drinks, he's so bored that he decides the only thing he can do to shake things up is by performing a cannonball into the pool…
Zombieland
Where would you go to hide during a zombie apocalypse? Why, the home of Bill Murray of course, envisioned in Ruben Fleischer's horror-comedy as a Hollywood palace that Queen Elizabeth herself would consider homely.
When zombie-dodgers Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) head to Murray's mansion, they find him giving the performance of his life as he pretends to be a zombie to fit in with the undead crowd.
Naturally, they decide to re-enact Ghostbusters …
Scottish Partying
After a hard day of golfing in St Andrews, Murray was disheartened to discover that the bars were closing even though he wanted to stay up a little longer. Luckily, he bumped into a fellow golfer (and student) called Lykke Stavnef, who invited him to a party.
Naturally, Murray accepted the invitation and accompanied the 22-year-old Nordic beauty to the college fest.
And because Murray's a stand-up guy, he started washing plates when Lykke mentioned there were no clean ones left. Then, when he was done scrub-a-dub-dubbing, Murray supped vodka from a coffee mug. Legend.
Average
One of the best behind-the-scenes stories revealed in the book Live From New York: An Uncensored History Of SNL involved Murray replacing Chevy Chase on Saturday Night Live.
When the widely-disliked Chase returned to guest host, he and Murray came to verbal blows as the latter endured an entire week of snubs and put-downs. Chase reportedly referred to Murray's acne-scarred face as like the surface of the moon, while Murray accused Chase of being unable to keep his wife happy between the sheets.
The two were dragged apart by their co-stars and Murray got the last laugh when he branded Chase "Medium talent".
That Line
You all know the one. That whispered, inaudible line at the end of Lost In Translation , where Murray speaks in Scarlett Johansson's ear and we can't hear what he's saying.
It's a fantastic, enigmatic moment in a beautiful film. What did Murray actually say to his co-star? He's never divulged that fact, having been given free reign by director Sofia Coppola to ad-lib it at will.
Murray has continued to tease fans, though. One time, a man yelled from a ferry, "Bill, what did you say to her?" And as the ferry's foghorn sounded, deafening everybody, Murray began gesticulating, according to him, "like I was saying something really sincere."
Little Shop Of Horrors
One of Murray's darkest/weirdest roles comes via a cameo in this eighties musical remake.
Murray plays Arthur Denton, a patient of sadistic dentist Orin Scrivello (Steve Martin). It's a match made in heaven - Arthur loves the pain and Orin loves doling it out. See? Messed up…
Venkman
The first time we meet Venkman (Bill Murray) in Ghostbusters , we basically find out everything we need to know about what makes him tick.
While carrying out a psychic test on two young college students - one a guy, one a girl - he punishes the guy when he guesses wrong and not-so-subtly attempts to seduce the girl (even though she also guesses wrong).
Garfield
This is a story that's both so insane it's almost impossible to believe, but also totally makes sense in retrospect. Basically, Murray only agreed to star in the live-action movie version of Garfield because he got director Joel Cohen ( Daddy Day Care, Evan Almighty ) confused with Joel Coen ( No Country For Old Men, The Big Lebowski ).
"I looked at the script, and it said, 'So-and-so and Joel Coen.' And I thought: 'Christ, well, I love those Coens! They're funny,'" Murray told Esquire. "So I sorta read a few pages of it and thought, 'Yeah, I'd like to do that.'"
It all became clear when Murray sat down to watch the finished film. "I kept saying, 'Who the hell cut this thing? Who did this? What the fuck was Coen thinking?' And then they explained it to me: It wasn't written by that Joel Coen."
Karaoke
New York City's Karaoke One 7 bar was the setting for one of Murray's most bizarre appearances. Though the actor's known for turning up at parties without an invite (like anybody's going to stop him at the door), this one takes the biscuit.
A group of friends played host to Murray when he and a Dutch friend arrived at the bar. Murray's friend reportedly bought everybody a round of drinks, while Murray channelled The King by singing an Elvis classic.
Why doesn't this ever happen to us?
Star Wars
One of Murray's most memorable and hilarious skits on Saturday Night Live involved him getting up on stage in character as 'Nick the Lounge Singer'.
Nick's raison d'être was putting naff made-up lyrics to famous theme tunes like M*A*S*H. In the below vid, he bellows out John Williams' iconic Star Wars theme - which mostly consists of him going " Star Wars , oh, Star Wars !" Which is still ridiculously chuckle-worthy…
Oscars 2014
Though he was on stage to announce the nominees for the Best Cinematography award at the 2014 Academy Awards in February, Bill Murray took the opportunity to honour his long-time friend and collaborator Harold Ramis, who had just passed away.
“We forgot one,” Murray said after the nominations reel had played. “Harold Ramis, for Caddyshack , Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day .”
Naturally, the cheers were immense.
Suntory Time
Bob Harris (Murray) is out of his depth (in Lost In Translation) as he shoots an advert for a Scotch with a Japanese director who doesn't speak a word of English.
Sitting in a leather armchair wearing a dickey-bow and perpetually-lost expression, it's excruciating and hysterical at the same time, especially as Harris becomes more and more bemused with every passing second.
Walter Peck
"Yes it's true, this man has no dick," deadpans Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) in Ghostbusters . He's referring to the increasingly irate Walter Peck (William Atherton), who's attempting to brand the Ghostbusters as frauds.
Not only is Murray's delivery typically bang on, it's also perfectly aimed, with Peck so wound up he attempts to punch his lights out.
Not to be deterred, Venkman adds: "Well, that's what I heard…"
Dressing Gown Danger
In The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004), Zissou (Murray) finally unleashes his inner action hero as - dressed in a fetching blue dressing gown - he grabs a handgun and takes down invading Filipino pirates.
Bill Murray: action star? He'll be in Die Hard 6 next, just you mark our words.
"Bill was always there with the other actors, always part of the company," his director, Wes Anderson, said of the shoot. "He was never off doing his own thing or sitting in his trailer watching pay-per-view." And that's why we love him.
