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Murray and Frank Oz on the set of What About Bob?
Bill Murray (b. 1950) is an actor who first gained prominent exposure as a cast member of Saturday Night Live in its second season.
He is largely celebrated for his comedic roles where he's known for delivering deadpan performances, and enjoyed further acclaim for a shift to more dramatic roles beginning in Sofia Coppola's 2003 film Lost in Translation.
He has worked for director Frank Oz twice: in Little Shop of Horrors, he plays the masochistic patient Arthur Denton, opposite Steve Martin's sadistic dentist character, and in the 1991 film What About Bob? as a man riddled with several phobias who finds romance with a woman played by Sesame Street Muppeteer Fran Brill. In 2007, he appeared in The Darjeeling Limited, which featured an animatronic tiger built by Jim Henson's Creature Shop.
His other credits include Caddyshack (with Chevy Chase), Stripes (with John Candy), Tootsie (with Dustin Hoffman), Ghostbusters, the Christmas Carol-inspired Scrooged (with Carol Kane), Groundhog Day (with Andie MacDowell), Quick Change (with Geena Davis, which he also co-directed), and nine films with director Wes Anderson. He has also voiced Garfield in two movies, and Baloo in the 2016 live-action remake of The Jungle Book (which featured some preliminary work from the Henson Creature Shop), and has appeared as himself in the Looney Tunes movie Space Jam, and Zombieland (with Emma Stone).
One of his eight siblings is Brian Doyle-Murray, who appeared in a 1970s Sesame Street segment.
References[]
- The Spring 1985 issue of Muppet Magazine featured a comic called "Grossbusters" with the Muppets spoofing Ghostbusters. Murray is directly referenced as one of the starring roles, Bill Furry (Fozzie Bear).
- At a January 2012 press conference for the theatrical release of The Muppets in the United Kingdom, the panel (consisting of Kermit, Piggy, and director James Bobin) is asked who they would love to work with. Kermit combines Bobin and Piggy's answers and proposes that they make a "Brad Pitt/Bill Murray movie, James can direct, and if you can just get Reese Witherspoon, I'd be quite happy." (YouTube)
- In The Muppets episode "A Tail of Two Piggies", Rizzo and Pepe attempt to cheer Gonzo up on Groundhog Day because it's the day that Camilla left him. Pepe notes that they keep repeating "Happy Groundhog Day" because they're like Bill Murray (referring to the film Groundhog Day).