24 September 2010 (Movie Profile)

Words: Mark 'Lenny' Linehan

LISTENING to TodayFM this week you would have been mistaken for thinking that the only birthday celebrated was Ray Foley's.

As the self-styled "King of the Afternoon," hit his thirty milestone, across the Atlantic and probably on the golf course wielding a one wood, the world's greatest comic curmudgeon Bill Murray celebrated turning sixty this week. Considering the world is being invited to celebrate the inventor of a certain black and white drink, I would rather raise a pint of plain to an idiosyncratic genius, who displays as much weirdness off the screen as he has on it. 

His dry as a bone humour first got recognized by SNL, where he became a regular in the late seventies. He then went on to own the eighties with Tootsie, Caddyshack, Stripes, Ghostbusters I & II, Scrooged and carried this success into the nineties with Groundhog Day, Ed Wood, and my personal favourite, Ernie McCracken in Kingpin.   
 

He then had a creative rebirth and was welcomed to a new generation of movie fans thanks to his partnership with Wes Anderson resulting in gems like Rushmore, The Royal Tennenbaums, and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. He was Oscar nominated for an effortless performance in Lost In Translation and critically acclaimed for Broken Flowers.

Never one to be pigeon-holed, he has also had some of the strangest character choices, going from Hunter S. Thompson in Where The Buffallo Roam, to Polonius in Hamlet, to the voice of Garfield in two movies! His reason for appearing in both movies? He believed that Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, was a Coen brothers movie. It was written by a 'Joel Cohen,' previously responsible for Daddy Day Care, and Cheaper by the Dozen, and no relation.

Although he has managed to make his fans smile throughout his career, the most important thing for Bill Murray to do, is keep Bill Murray amused. We're just going along for the ride, and we are all the better for it.

Here are seventeen things (why not?) you may not know about Bill Murray:

1. As a teen Bill Murray was the singer in a band called the Dutch Masters.
2. Murray has no Agent, Publicist or Manager. The only way to contact him is his direct phone.
3. He never answers his phone. This reliance on Voicemail has meant him missing out on roles in Monsters Inc., and Charlie And The Chocolate     Factory.
4. He owns a Minor League Baseball Team.
5. He did a skydive for War Vets and air-guitared his way down.
6. Constant mood swings led to him being nicknamed the "Murricane" by Dan Aykroyd.
7. In 2006, he crashed a party held by Norwegian students at St. Andrews University in Scotland. He told some jokes, washed up, and left.
8. He was pulled over by Swedish police for driving a golf cart under the influence.
9. Murray was considered for the roles of Batman and Han Solo.
10. His sister is a Nun.
11. Himself and his brothers own a Florida Restaurant called Murray Bros. Caddy Shack. Slogan: "Eat, Drink, & Be Murray."
12. He created a game called 'Shotgun Golf' with Hunter S. Thompson.
13. In 2007 he grew a moustache.
14. He landed his role as Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters, only when first choice John Belushi died.
15. Bares a striking resemblance to former Ukraine President, Viktor Yushchenko.
16. He appeared on The Late Late Show, only to be questioned by a bespectacled Jason Byrne about possessed farm animals (see clip below).
17. He decked Chevy Chase backstage on SNL. Egged on by a high John Belushi, Murray was deflating the ego of his former colleague who came back on the show acting like a Hollywood star.
 

 

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