Of all the writers and performers associated with the glory days of NBC's "Saturday Night Live", Bill Murray made the most enduringly successful transition to feature films, and though his big-screen career has had its ups and downs, mega-hits like "Ghostbusters" (1984) and "Groundhog Day" (1993) have more than made up for his misses, and he also successfully established himself as a dramatic actor as well.
Murray left college to embark on an entertainment career, joining Chicago's Second City improvisational troupe, where his brother Brian Doyle-Murray was already a member, then appeared with his sibling in "The National Lampoon Radio Hour" and "The National Lampoon Show" stage revue as well. He gained national prominence during the third season of "SNL", filling the void left by a departing Chevy Chase, and earned an Emmy for his writing contributions. His gallery of often smarmy characters--including the oily lounge singer, a name-dropping critic and the infamous Todd, known for his "noogies"--helped make fans forget the popular Chase.
Murray began his feature career in earnest as the lead of "Meatballs" (1979), inaugurating long-standing collaborations with director Ivan Reitman and screenwriter Harold Ramis. He shone as the gopher-obsessed groundskeeper in Ramis' directorial debut "Caddyshack" (1980), scripted by his brother, and was back with the Reitman-Ramis team for "Stripes" (1981). Following these funny but sophomoric features, Murray surprised the critics with a small, unbilled but indelible performance as Dustin Hoffman's roommate in "Tootsie" (1982), but he returned to form for his starring role as Dr. Peter Venkman in Reitman's blockbuster comedy "Ghostbusters" (scripted by co-stars Ramis and "SNL"-er Dan Aykroyd). Blessed with the best lines of the offbeat "scare comedy", Murray put his wisecracking persona firmly on the map and earned the clout to pursue his own choice of projects.
Unfortunately, he chose badly, co-adapting and starring in a second film version of Somerset Maugham's philosophical novel "The Razor's Edge" (1984). Anachronistic and plot-heavy, it was still an interesting film, just nothing his fans cared to see, and Murray followed the high-profile flop with a hiatus (except for a cameo turn as Steve Martin's masochistic dental patient in "Little Shop of Horrors" 1986) that lasted until 1988. Returning to films in "Scrooged", he renounced the cynicism that had been the hallmark of his comedy and played the first of his heartless men who discover their heart. Director Richard Donner trusted him to devulgarize the very gauche premise of a hypothetical "A Christmas Carol" starring Buddy Hackett, the solid Gold Dancers, and a crutch-tossing, back-flipping Mary Lou Retton as Tiny Tim. His onscreen expiation saved "Scrooged" and revealed the serious actor within.
Murray's reunion with Reitman, Ramis and Aykroyd on "Ghostbusters II" (1988) fell far below the level set by the original, and his directorial (and producing) debut, "Quick Change" (1990), met with a mixed critical reception and a disappointing box-office. He rebounded with "What About Bob?" (1991), playing a neurotic who doesn't change throughout a predictable series of events, and then hit a career high with Ramis' "Groundhog Day", once again proving himself capable of transformation as the weatherman condemned to repeat the same day over and over until he gets it right. He created another full-bodied character, the mercurial, thumb-breaking loan shark you can't help but like in John McNaughton's oddly endearing "Mad Dog and Glory" (1993), but then came the bombs. "Larger Than Life" (1996), in which he starred opposite an elephant, probably deserved better, and though Murray's insolent manner sparked enough humor to keep "The Man Who Knew Too Little" (1997) kicking, the overall sense of restraint prevented the cloak-and-dagger spoof from really taking off. Clearly, it was time to reinvent himself again.
Of course he was just waiting for the right role, and it came in the form of self-made millionaire Herman Blume in the quirky comedy "Rushmore" (1998). Written with Murray in mind by director and co-writer Wes Anderson, Blume has an indifferent wife and two spoiled, cretinous sons at Rushmore, a private school, but life brightens for him when he takes on 15-year-old Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) as a protege, their bond coming from Blume's working-class background and the fact that Max is one of the few poor kids at the hoity-toity institution. When Max realizes that Blume also is attracted to the teacher who is the object of his affections, Max declares war on his former friend, and the pair engage in mean-spirited tit-for-tat ambushes with ugly repercussions. There are laughs in "Rushmore", but Murray delivers a layered complicated performance, reveling in Blume's mercilessness while still conveying the man's more serious and conflicted feelings about Max, as well as his own maladjusted family. Critics proclaimed it his best work in years, if not of his career, reinforcing his changed-context as an actor who also happens to do comedy.
Murray's brief but affective and moving turn as ventriloquist Tommy Crickshaw in director Tim Robbin's 1930s WPA story "The Cradle Will Rock" (1999) was another step in developing his more seriocomic side, while his amusing, light-as-a-feather sidekick stint as a post-modern Bosley in the hyperactive big screen version of "Charlie's Angels" seemed a complete lark, despite tales of extreme friction on the set between Murray and co-star Lucy Liu (the actor would not return for the sequel). Less well-received was "Osmosis Jones" (2001), an unorthdox hybrid of live action and animation directed by the Farrelly Brothers which featured cartoon antibodies and germs battling for supremecy inside the body of the hapless and sickly Frank (Murray). That same year, Murray successfully reunited with Anderson as part of the large comedic ensemble of the writer-director's highly praised dark comedy "The Royal Tenenbaums" (2001), in which he had a small role as the mild-mannered and romantically unlucky analyst Raleigh St. Clair.
Murray's transition to full-fledged dramatic actor came to fruition sublimely in "Lost in Translation" (2003), writer-director Sophia Coppola's wonderfully romantic film about an emotionally adrift 50-something Hollywood actor, in Tokyo to film a whiskey commercial, who meets and forms a deep, complex relationship with Charlotte, a young married tourist in her 20s (Scarlett Johansson). Coppola conceived the role and its blend of comedy and tragedy specifically for Murray, going as far as to say she wouldn't make the movie without him. Coppola spent considerable time wooing Murray, pursuing him via their mutual friend, screenwriter Mitch Glazer, for months before finally meeting the actor and winning him over. The results of her quest are well worth it: Murray is never more charming and vulnerable than as Bob Harris, who discovers a kindred spirit in Charlotte even as his lengthy marriage is floundering. Even as the actor demonstrates that his razor-sharp comedic timing has aged impeccibly, he also displays a rare, multilayered chemistry with Johansson despite their age difference. Their rapport, at first tenative, then confident and cozy and then suddenly awkward and sexual, fuels the movie and carries many scenes completely without dialogue. The tour de force performance earned Murray a sea of critical praise and numerous award nominations--including a Best Actor Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globes victory as Best Actor in a musical or comedy--both reinvigorated and redefined his career.
Ironically, Murray's very next stint on the big screen was in a very disparate project, providing the sardonic voice of the comic strip cat in the otherwise lackluster big screen adaptation of the enduring "Garfield" (2004). Next was "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" (2004), a project closer to Murray's heart which reteamed with Wes Anderson. Quirky in the extreme but with many bits of comedic brilliance and its share of genuinely moving moments, the film cast Murray as a once brilliant oceanographer/filmmaker a la Jacques Cousteau, who sagging fortunes and sense of ennui are revitalized when he adds his possible son (Owen Wilson) to his crew. Though the film was flawed, the Zissou role allowed Murray to demonstrate his dramatic and comedic gifts as strongly as any he'd played. Next was another acting triumph in writer-director Jim Jarmusch's seriocomic "Broken Flowers" (2005) playing a resolute bachelor who receives an anonymous letter from a former lover revealing that he has a 19-year-old son, prompting him to embark on a cross-country journey to visit a series of his old flames and get to the heart of the mystery.