Quick Change

Bill is the fifth of nine children born to Edward and Lucille Murray. He and most of his siblings worked as caddies, which paid his tuition to Loyola Academy, a Jesuit school. He played sports and did some acting while in that school, but in his words, mostly “screwed off.” He enrolled at Regis College in Denver to study pre-med but dropped out after being arrested for marijuana possession. He then joined the National Lampoon Radio Hour with fellow members Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, and John Belushi. However, while those three became the original members of “Saturday Night Live” (1975), he joined “Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell” (1975), which premiered that same year. After that show failed, he later got the opportunity to join “Saturday Night Live” (1975).

During the early years of his career, he frequently played loud, sarcastic, often rude and mean, anti-heroes (Stripes (1981), Caddyshack (1980), the two Ghostbusters movies, What About Bob? (1991), Groundhog Day (1993)).

During the later years of his career, he frequently plays depressed characters (Lost in Translation (2003), Broken Flowers (2005), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), Rushmore (1998) , The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)). —IMDb