Unbelievable Facts About Bill Murray

April 16, 2018 | Josh Mendelssohn

Unbelievable Facts About Bill Murray


“No one will ever believe you.” —Bill Murray

Bill Murray is a true treasure and a beloved icon who has continually reinvented himself while somehow staying grounded and true to himself. Here are some of the wackiest and most interesting facts about the man, the myth, and the legend that is Bill Murray.


Bill Murray Facts

40. Favorite Film

Murray is on record saying that his favorite film of his own is Lost in Translation.

Bill Murray FactsLost in Translation, Focus Features

39. No Selfies

When three people tried to snatch selfies of Murray while at a rooftop party in 2016, the legend didn’t appreciate it. He took his frustration out by hurling all three of their cell phones off of the roof.

Christmas Movies FactsGetty Images

38. Not Forrest Gump

It's almost impossible to imagine anyone besides Tom Hanks playing Forrest Gump, but it almost ended up being Bill Murray. He wasn’t a fan of the role, however, and turned it down.

Interview With The Vampire FactsFlickr

 

37. Bill Can Bowl

The climactic scene of Kingpin when Ernie McCracken bowls a turkey—three consecutive strikes—to win the showdown wasn’t a trick of editing. Murray actually bowled three straight strikes, which led to the crowd responding with a genuinely wild reaction.

Bill Murray FactsKingpin (1996), Motion Picture Corporation of America

Advertisement

36. Rushmore Messiah

Wes Anderson’s Rushmore did a lot for the careers of many stars: it launched the career of Jason Schwartzman, solidified Anderson as a cinematic force, and steered Murray in the direction of taking dramatic roles. The movie hit a crisis in production after Disney refused to fund its famous helicopter scene. Murray stepped in and gifted Anderson a $25,000 cheque in order to properly shoot the scene, but Anderson never cashed the cheque.

Bill Murray FactsGetty Images

35. Not About the Benjamins

Though Murray made quite the charitable gesture with his attempted $25,000 contribution to Wes Anderson, the actor was only paid $9,000 for his role in Rushmore. Regardless, he went on to collaborate with Anderson on many other films.

Bill Murray FactsRushmore, Touchstone Pictures

34. Trouble With Groups

Murray doesn't just cause trouble on the set of films—he also caused trouble at both Boy Scouts and in Little League when he was a kid, which led to him being kicked out of both youth groups.

Famous People FactsGetty Images

33. The Groundhog Bites

There's a rumor that Murray got bitten by the groundhog while filming Groundhog Day, and even had to get a rabies shot. While this isn't true, Groundhog Day producer Trevor Albert laughs that, "[It's not that] it didn't try and bite him. I think it wanted to bite him. Lots of people wanted to bite him."

Bill Murray FactsWikimedia Commons

32. Caddyshacking

While in high school, Murray actually worked as a caddy at the local golf club.

Bill Murray FactsFlickr

Factinate

Sign up to our newsletter.

History’s most fascinating stories and darkest secrets, delivered to your inbox daily. Making distraction rewarding since 2017.

Thank you!
Error, please try again.

31. The Murray Actors

Murray isn’t the only talent in his family, as three of his brothers are also actors. All three of these brothers, Brian Doyle-Murray, Joel Murray, and John Murray appeared alongside Bill in the Christmas classic Scrooged.

Christmas Movies FactsGetty Images

Advertisement

30. Performing Nun

The entertainment talent in the family isn’t limited to just the men either, as his sister Nancy is a Dominican nun who put on a one-woman show in which she traveled around the United States performing the story of St. Catherine of Siena.

Joanna Of Castile factsShutterstock

29. Diving With Steve Zissou

Murray knows that you’ve got to take advantage of your roles when you’re an actor. During the filming of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, he put in over 40 hours of diving and even gained his diving certification.

Bill Murray FactsThe Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Touchstone Pictures

28. Rock Band

As a teenager, Murray had a band with some friends called Dutch Masters. Naturally, Bill was the lead singer.

Bill Murray FactsGetty Images

27. Chemistry Act

The chemistry between the characters that Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson play in Lost in Translation is the stuff of movie legends. However, it was all acting as, apparently, the two didn’t really get along well. During the crucial scene in the movie when the two characters lay in bed together, director Sofia Coppola had such a hard time provoking chemistry between them that she eventually gave up, called it a wrap, and had to try again the following day.

Bill Murray FactsGetty Images

26. Dodging Punches

Murray doesn’t mince words. On the set of Charlie’s Angels, he wasn’t the biggest fan of Lucy Liu, and reportedly once prompted her to throw punches at him by telling her that she wasn’t a good actor.

Lucy Liu FactsGetty Images

25. Famous Friends

After leaving the improv troupe The Second City, Murray went to New York and joined the infamous National Lampoon Radio Hour at the encouragement of John Belushi. After the comedy radio show folded, many of its comedians went on to be featured on Saturday Night Live, or create some of the most famous comedies of the 70s and 80s, including Chevy Chase, Christopher Guest, Gilda Radner, and Harold Ramis.

Bill Murray FactsGetty Images

Advertisement

24. The Other Saturday Night Show

Before joining Saturday Night Live, Murray was a featured player on the one and only season of Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell. The show is known as one of television's biggest disasters, as Howard Cosell, a famous sportscaster, had no experience in actual comedy.

Bill Murray FactsWikimedia Commons

 

23. Batter up

Murray officially has a career batting average of .500 as a Minor League Baseball player. This is because, in 1978, he played a game for the Grays Harbor Loggers and got a hit in one of his two at-bats for the team.

Bill Murray FactsGetty Images

22. Late Night With Bill Murray

Murray was the first-ever guest that David Letterman had on his Late Night show in 1982. He would also end up being the last guest to appear on the Late Show with David Letterman in 2015.

Bill Murray FactsGetty Images

21. On One Condition

While Ghostbusters is one of Murray’s iconic movies, he only took the part in the film in order to secure funding from Columbia Pictures for his own picture, The Razor’s Edge. It would be filmed before Ghostbusters, however, it wasn’t released until after Ghostbusters became a massive box office success. Sadly, The Razor’s Edge ended up flopping hard.

The Ghostbusters Films factsGhostbusters (1984), Columbia Pictures

20. Filling in for Belushi

The role of Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters was not actually written for Bill Murray, but instead for the late John Belushi.

Robert De Niro factsGetty Images

 

19. Man of Philosophy

The failure of The Razor’s Edge really got to Murray, and he became so upset that he decided to take a break from the world of comedy. A four-year break, to be exact. But he didn’t just sit around and do nothing, nope—instead, he moved to Paris, enrolled in the Sorbonne, and studied philosophy and history. It was probably excellennt inspiration for his academic character in The Royal Tenenbaums.

Bill Murray FactsFlickr

Advertisement

18. A Garfield Accident

Voicing Garfield may not be one of the shining moments of Murray’s career, but at least he’s got an excuse: when he first came across the script, he saw the name "Joel Cohen" attached as the writer, and mistook him for Joel Coen of the Coen brothers, subsequently signing up without any hesitation.

1970s FactsFlickr

17. Team Owner

A baseball lover, Murray owns not just one, nor two, nor even three, but four Minor League Baseball teams. Besides co-owning these four teams, he has also invested in five other minor league baseball teams, and in 2012 was inducted into the South Atlantic League Hall of Fame for his work in the league with various teams.

Bill Murray FactsFlickr

16. Partying With Bill

Famous for showing up to random parties, Murray has been captured washing the dishes after a rager as well as sharing karaoke booths with strangers.

Bill Murray FactsGetty Images

15. Don’t Drink and Drive

Drinking and driving is bad, we all know that, and so does Bill. During a trip to Sweden, Murray was pulled over for driving under the influence—though he wasn’t in a car, but rather a golf cart. The cops let him go, though, and as it turns out, he was actually sober. He just thought taking the golf cart at that moment in time was particularly convenient.

Don't drink and drive.Getty Images

14. Improvised Genius

For his role in Caddyshack, not only did Murray improvise every line, but he needed only six days to turn in his comedic acting genius.

Bill Murray FactsCaddyshack, Warner Bros.

13. The Murricane

Famous for his temper and mood swings, fellow comedian and friend Dan Aykroyd gave Bill the nickname “The Murricane.”

The Ghostbusters Films factsGhostbusters (1984), Columbia Pictures

12. Fight Chevy

When Chevy Chase left Saturday Night Live, the cast of the show wasn’t happy and felt he had abandoned them. When Chase came back to guest-host an episode, Murray confronted him. The argument went from zero to 60 quickly, as they traded insults before exchanging blows in a fight on set. Chase may have gotten the better verbal jab in, though, as he insulted Murray’s looks by saying his face looked “like something Neil Armstrong landed on.” Ouch.

Saturday Night Live FactsFlickr

 

11. Striped Disagreement

Stripes is a classic. That doesn’t mean Murray enjoyed working on the film, though. He disliked acting alongside Sean Young so much that he refused to ever act with her in the future. Needless to say, they never worked together again, though Murray’s career is still thriving.

Bill Murray FactsStripes, Columbia Pictures

10. What About Bill?

This may not be difficult to believe, but Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss disliked each other's presence during the filming of What About Bob? just about as much as their characters did in the movie.

Bill Murray FactsWhat About Bob?, Touchstone Pictures

9. Spoiled Fits

The Murricane struck during the filming of What About Bob? when he threw the producer Laura Ziskin into a lake during a dispute. The two didn’t get along during production, and he also once threatened to throw her across a parking lot, but instead took her sunglasses, broke them, and threw them across the lot.

Bill Murray FactsGetty Images

8. Brotherly Falling Out

Harold Ramis and Bill Murray were like brothers, but sometimes the love between brothers borders on hate. The two stars had a huge falling out during the filming of the legendary Groundhog Day and didn’t talk for 20 years, only reconciling shortly before Ramis’ death in 2014.

Bill Murray FactsShutterstock

7. Bad Joke

On his 20th birthday, Murray tried to smuggle four and a half kilograms—10 pounds!—of marijuana in through the O’Hare Airport in Chicago. He almost got away with it, too, if it wasn’t for one of his worst jokes ever. For some reason, while smuggling the weed, Murray thought it would be a good idea to make a joke to the person sitting next to him on the plane. Yeah—they didn’t get the joke and ratted him out. Murray ended up being convicted but didn’t have to do any hard time—just some probation. Also, is it really a joke if it's true?

Bad idea signShutterstock

6. Second Chance

Thankfully, for not just Murray but the whole world, after his run-in with the law, Murray had to change things up a bit and accepted an invitation from his brother Brian to study improvisational comedy under the father of modern improv, Del Close, at The Second City theater in Chicago.

Debbie Harry FactsMax Pixel

5. No Agent

Perhaps you’ve heard the rumor that Murray doesn’t have an agent and that he is only able to be reached through a 1-800 number that he set up. Well, not only is it true, but he checks it so infrequently that he has missed a good bunch of opportunities over the years, including roles in the films Little Miss Sunshine, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, and Monsters Inc.

Bill Murray FactsFlickr, Gage Skidmore

4. Family Saga

Growing up wasn’t the easiest for the Murray family, and at 17 years old, Bill lost his father—who was only 46 at the time—to diabetes. His mother also went through several miscarriages, and one of his sisters suffered from polio.

Bill Murray FactsFlickr

3. Art Saving Life

Many great minds go through mental struggles, and Murray is no different. Although he had found success and fame, he was depressed, and in a moment of desperation decided to jump into Lake Michigan and commit suicide. He would change his mind, thankfully, after seeing a painting from artist Jules Breton, which put his life in a different perspective.

Bill Murray FactsWikimedia Commons

 

2. Bill and Hunter Houdini

Bill Murray almost didn't make it out of portraying Hunter S. Thompson alive. During the filming of Where the Buffalo Roam, Murray and Thompson continually tried to see who was more ballsy and ended up having a Houdini competition. At some point, Thompson tied Murray up to a chair and threw him into a pool. Murray is no Houdini though, and Thompson had to jump in and save our cherished star from drowning.

Bill Murray FactsWhere the Buffalo Roam, Universal Pictures

1. Tequila Clan

One night, while Murray was hanging out with the RZA and GZA from Wu-Tang Clan in Austin, Texas, the three stars weren’t content with simply walking into a bar and drinking, but insisted on going behind the bar and working. You can’t make this stuff up. Even better is that whenever anyone ordered a drink, they ignored the order and served them shots of tequila instead.

Bill Murray FactsFlickr

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11


More from Factinate

Featured Article

My mom never told me how her best friend died. Years later, I was using her phone when I made an utterly chilling discovery.

Dark Family Secrets

Dark Family Secrets Exposed

Nothing stays hidden forever—and these dark family secrets are proof that when the truth comes out, it can range from devastating to utterly chilling.
April 8, 2020 Samantha Henman

Featured Article

Madame de Pompadour was the alluring chief mistress of King Louis XV, but few people know her dark history—or the chilling secret shared by her and Louis.

Madame de Pompadour Facts

Entrancing Facts About Madame de Pompadour, France's Most Powerful Mistress

Madame de Pompadour was the alluring chief mistress of King Louis XV, but few people know her dark history—or the chilling secret shared by her and Louis.
December 7, 2018 Kyle Climans

More from Factinate

Featured Article

I tried to get my ex-wife served with divorce papers. I knew that she was going to take it badly, but I had no idea about the insane lengths she would go to just to get revenge and mess with my life.

These People Got Genius Revenges

When someone really pushes our buttons, we'd like to think that we'd hold our head high and turn the other cheek, but revenge is so, so sweet.
April 22, 2020 Scott Mazza

Featured Article

Catherine of Aragon is now infamous as King Henry VIII’s rejected queen—but few people know her even darker history.

Catherine of Aragon Facts

Tragic Facts About Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s First Wife

Catherine of Aragon is now infamous as King Henry VIII’s rejected queen—but very few people know her even darker history.
June 7, 2018 Christine Tran



Dear reader,


Want to tell us to write facts on a topic? We’re always looking for your input! Please reach out to us to let us know what you’re interested in reading. Your suggestions can be as general or specific as you like, from “Life” to “Compact Cars and Trucks” to “A Subspecies of Capybara Called Hydrochoerus Isthmius.” We’ll get our writers on it because we want to create articles on the topics you’re interested in. Please submit feedback to contribute@factinate.com. Thanks for your time!


Do you question the accuracy of a fact you just read? At Factinate, we’re dedicated to getting things right. Our credibility is the turbo-charged engine of our success. We want our readers to trust us. Our editors are instructed to fact check thoroughly, including finding at least three references for each fact. However, despite our best efforts, we sometimes miss the mark. When we do, we depend on our loyal, helpful readers to point out how we can do better. Please let us know if a fact we’ve published is inaccurate (or even if you just suspect it’s inaccurate) by reaching out to us at contribute@factinate.com. Thanks for your help!


Warmest regards,



The Factinate team




Want to learn something new every day?

Join thousands of others and start your morning with our Fact Of The Day newsletter.

Thank you!

Error, please try again.