So, he's got that going for him

Friday 9/21/2007
9:39 a.m.

As my faithful readers know, I often times pay tribute to those actors, musicians, and those famous for no reason who are celebrating a birthday. Well, today I am ecstatic to devote a post to (and I actually mean this for once) one of the greatest comedic actors, and my second favorite actor of all time(I think you know who my favorite is), the phenomenally talented, irrepressibly hilarious, enchanting, William James Murray.


source


Billy boy celebrates turning a very sexy 57 years old today. And what a 57 years it has been. Bill Murray, this is your life:

As a teenager, Bill worked alongside his brothers as a caddy to pay for school ("Oh Mrs. Crane, you're a little monkey woman. Yeah, you're lean, mean, and I bet you're not too far in between are ya. How'd you like to wrap your spikes around my..."). After graduation, he attended Regis University in Denver, Colorado where he took pre-med courses. He later dropped out after being arrested for possession of marijuana at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. It was medicinal though. He was taking pre-med classes.

In 1975 Bill landed his first tv role on some little show called Saturday Night Live. He landed his first starring role with the film Meatballs in 1979. Following that he starred in one of my favorite movies, Where the Buffalo Roam, portraying famed Louisville author, Hunter S. Thompson. Following the roaming buffalo, he had a string of box office hits with Caddyshack, Stripes and Tootsie.



Murray then began work on a film adaptation of the novel The Razor's Edge. The film, which Murray also co-wrote, was his first starring role in a dramatic film. He later agreed to star in Ghostbusters in a role originally written for John Belushi. This was a deal Murray made with Columbia Pictures in order to gain financing for his film. Ghostbusters became the highest-grossing film of 1984. But The Razor's Edge, which was filmed before Ghostbusters but not released until after, was a box-office flop. Upset over the failure, Murray took four years off from acting to study French at the Sorbonne and spend time with his family in their Hudson River Valley home. With the exception of a memorable cameo in the 1986 movie Little Shop of Horrors, he did not make any appearances in films.

Murray returned to acting in 1988 and starred in several hits: Scrooged, Ghostbusters II, Quick Change, What About Bob? and Groundhog Day.

After a string of films that didn't quite please the haters out there, he received much critical acclaim for Wes Anderson's Rushmore for which he won several awards. Murray then experienced a resurgence in his career as a dramatic actor. After dramatic roles in Wild Things, Cradle Will Rock, Hamlet (as Polonius), and The Royal Tenenbaums (one of the greatest movies ever), and he garnered considerable acclaim for the 2003 film Lost in Translation. He received a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA award. He was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. In an interview included on the Lost in Translation DVD, Murray states that this is his favorite movie in which he has appeared.


During this time, Murray still appeared in comedic roles such as Charlie's Angels and Osmosis Jones. In 2004, he provided the voice of Garfield in Garfield: The Movie, which also starred the best actress of all time (this time I'm not serious), Jennifer Love Hugetits. He also collaborated with Wes Anderson for the third time in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Murray also garnered acclaim for his dramatic role in Jim Jarmusch's Broken Flowers (This is an incredible film. If you haven't seen it, you're a loser.)


In 2005, he announced that he would take a break from acting, as he had not had the time since his new breakthrough in the late-1990s. Following this announcement, I locked myself in the basement for three weeks and only ate snowballs and vegemite sandwiches.



Here are a few facts about this stud:
- Has been adopted as an unofficial mascot by the Online Forum Football365.
- He was named #1 Smart ass on Comedy Central's "List of the 51 Greatest Smart asses. I was named #2.
- Murray was once asked by Harry Carey during a Cubs game (and shortly after Murray's mother had died) "How's your mother doing?" Murray responded, "Well, she's dead, Harry...and don't ask about my father because he's dead too."

Filmography

* Tarzoon: Shame of the Jungle (1975) (voice in 1979 English dub)
* Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976)
* All You Need is Cash (1978) (aka, "The Rutles"cameo)
* Meatballs (1979)
* Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (1979)
* Where the Buffalo Roam (1980)
* The Missing Link (1980) (voice in English dub)
* Caddyshack (1980)
* Loose Shoes (1980)
* Stripes (1981)
* Tootsie (1982)
* Ghostbusters (1984)
* Nothing Lasts Forever (1984)
* The Razor's Edge (1984)
* Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
* She's Having a Baby (1988) (Cameo)
* Scrooged (1988)
* Ghostbusters II (1989)
* Quick Change (1990)
* What About Bob? (1991)
* Groundhog Day (1993)
* Mad Dog and Glory (1993)
* Ed Wood (1994)
* Kingpin (1996)
* Larger than Life (1996)
* Space Jam (1996) (Cameo)
* The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997)
* Wild Things (1998)
* Rushmore (1998)
* Cradle Will Rock (1999)
* Scout's Honor (1999) (short subject)
* Hamlet (2000)
* Michael Jordan to the Max (2000) (documentary)
* Charlie's Angels (2000)
* Speaking of Sex (2001)
* Osmosis Jones (2001)
* The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
* Lost in Translation (2003)
* Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)
* This Old Cub (2004) (documentary)
* Garfield (2004) (voice)
* The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
* Broken Flowers (2005)
* The Lost City (2005)
* Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006) (voice)
* Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride: Hunter S. Thompson on Film (2006) (documentary)
* FCU with Bill Murray (2007) (Youtube Feature)

Upcoming

* 1906 (2007)
* The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
* Ghostbusters III TBA (voice)
* Get Smart (film)
* City of Ember



Quotes:

"Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm a schizophrenic and so am I." - What About Bob?

"I always want to say to people who want to be rich and famous: 'try being rich first'. "See if that doesn't cover most of it. There's not much downside to being rich, other than paying taxes and having your relatives ask you for money. But when you become famous, you end up with a 24-hour job."

"This is a hybrid. This is a cross, ah, of Bluegrass, Kentucky Bluegrass, Featherbed Bent, and Northern California Sensemilia. The amazing stuff about this is, that you can play 36 holes on it in the afternoon, take it home and just get stoned to the bejeezus-belt that night on this stuff." - Caddyshack

"I think that the online world has actually brought books back. People are reading because they're reading the damn screen. That's more reading than people used to do."

"Now that I'm mature ... yet still somehow childlike, I can't really let it roll like that any more, but I've certainly met different women who have attracted me and you could make a case that even if you're married to your high-school sweetheart, every day should be like falling in love again."

Source: Wikipedia