In Character: Bill Murray

Since the inception of my In Character series two and a half years ago, the one actor who has dominated my readers’ requests for coverage is the incomparable Bill Murray. Choosing Murray’s finest performances is certainly no easy task, but listed below are characters that define one of the most uniquely gifted performers who has ever lived. Thanks to everyone for your encouragement for this post, and I really hope you enjoy my picks. As always, be sure to share your favorite Murray performances as well.

Five Essential Roles

Ghostbusters (1984)

Dr. Peter Venkman

Peter Venkman is one of cinema’s finest comedic characters. It’s an iconic performance by an actor who is so acutely aware of his skills. Timing, inflection, facial and body movements – it’s all delivered to perfection.

In an impressively unselfish move, the writers of Ghostbusters, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, gave Peter Venkman the film’s best material. In doing this, they more or less put the fate of the film in the sensibilities of the actor playing Venkman. In lesser hands, Peter Venkman’s ceaseless deadpan humor could’ve fallen noticeably flat. But Murray knew what he was doing, and he created a character that will, in no uncertain terms, outlive us all. Peter Venkman is many things, perhaps most importantly, the finest out-and-out comedic performance of Murray’s career.

What About Bob? (1991)

Bob Wiley

Never has Murray presented a more loveable, frustrating, hilariously idiotic character than Bob Wiley. There’s a notion common throughout all of Murray’s comedy work that I always go back to, and that is the idea of balance. Murray’s best comedic characters consistently toe the line of going too far. With Ghostbusters, Peter Venkman could have potentially been too sardonic, thereby alienating viewers. Similarly, Bob Wiley could’ve been too much of a buffoon to take seriously. At worst, we could spend much of What About Bob? annoyed with Bob. But because Murray is aware of the balance in his work, he keeps Bob interesting by never pushing his performance to the absurd. Basically, again, Murray knew precisely what he was doing with Bob Wiley, and the results never cease to amuse.

Groundhog Day (1993)

Phil Connors

The thing I love most about this performance is how Murray played Phil Connors as such an egotistical dick. It allowed Murray to explore a darker side of his comedic psyche, which helped establish Groundhog Day as one of the best comedies of the ‘90s (if not ever).

The beauty of this performance is in the evolution of our perception of Phil. At first, we don’t really like him, because we’re not meant to really like him. Later, as Phil has suffered through the same damn day countless times, we start to pity him. We begin to accept his plight, and long for him to escape this dreaded day. It’s a subtle transformation from contempt to empathy, all due to Murray’s balanced worked.

Rushmore (1998)

Herman Blume

Is there an actor from recent memory who so seamlessly fit better into a director’s world than Bill Murray fit into Wes Anderson’s? From Herman Blume’s overall melancholic demeanor, to his random, silly gestures (swatting at his kids in the back seat, blocking the layup of a little kid), everything about the man feels wholly authentic. Simply put: Herman Blume is one of the best career resurgences from an actor that I can think of.

And that’s not to say Bill Murray went away. He’s been a staple of television and film since the late ‘70s, but with Rushmore, we discovered a new Bill Murray. A gentler, more subtle Bill Murray. He’s still funny (he’s always funny), but Herman Blume is a different kind of funny. A sad, unobtrusive funny. Prior to Rushmore, Murray had attempted drama, but never to such startling effects. Through Herman Blume, a new facet to Bill Murray’s cinematic identity was born, and we’ve been basking in its greatness ever since.

Lost in Translation (2003)

Bob Harris

Bob Harris is the character Bill Murray was born to play. Watching Lost in Translation, it feels as though Murray’s entire career was leading up to his representation of a repressed, lonely, despondent actor named Bob Harris. And perhaps the greatest compliment I can offer Murray’s work in this film is that there is no other actor who could do what he did here. The distinctive tone he created for Bob, and, consequently, the entire movie, is unlike anything I’ve seen. Whether he’s struggling with a malfunctioning elliptical, trying to shield his shame after he’s been caught with another woman, or suffering through a painfully awkward lunch, everything about Bob Harris works. Bill Murray and Lost in Translation is a perfect marriage of content and performance; each betters the other, creating an enduring work of art that will be cherished forever.

A-ring-a-ding-ding.

Wild Card

Wild Things (1998)

Ken Bowden

I’ve never included a Wild Card section in my In Character posts, but if there is an actor to bend the rules for, then it is certainly Bill Murray. Although Wild Things is just a step above (or below…) a mid-afternoon soap opera, it knows it’s a mid-afternoon soap opera, and it plays it up wonderfully. The chief case in point is Murray’s character, Ken Bowden. Ken is the definition of an ambulance chaser – a sleazy strip mall lawyer who wears an unneeded neck brace for sympathy, and plays the part of a sore winner to perfection. Take, for instance, the scene in which Ken and his client, Sam Lombardo (Matt Dillon) successfully countersue the Van Ryan family for defamation. Ken rolls up to his shitty office in a brand new sports car, late to his own damn metting, he gives Sam a ridiculous attaboy handshake, signs the settlement papers, then smugly tells the town’s king douchebag, Tom Baxter (Robert Wagner), that they should “Do lunch.”

Ken Bowden is the perfect Bill Murray as Bill Murray performance. He’s so clearly tapping into the extremes of his on-screen persona, but the way in which he shamelessly owns it should certainly not be overlooked.

The Best of the Best

Broken Flowers (2005)

Don Johnston

Last January, Bill Murray participated in a humorous and insightful reddit “Ask Me Anything” in which he revealed many a splendid thing about his career. My favorite being that he nearly gave up acting after starring in Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers. “I didn’t think I could do any better than Broken Flowers,” he admitted. “I thought I had done all I could do to it as an actor.” (Murray later expanded on this during the mesmerizing hour he spent with Charlie Rose a month later.)

I’m using Murray’s words as a means of defending my pick of Broken Flowers as his best work. Because really, anyone could pick their favorite Bill Murray performance and construct a convincing argument as to why that performance is his best. That’s the strength of his craft. Is Murray’s work as Don Johnston “better” than his portrayal of Bob Harris? Is Peter Venkman a more fully realized incarnation of comedy than Herman Blume? Hell if I know. I’m not a judge or jury, I’m just a guy who unequivocally adores Broken Flowers.

With Lost in Translation (or, one might argue, Rushmore), Bill Murray shared a new side of himself for the first time, and the result was utterly captivating. With Broken Flowers, he expanded on that new facet of his personality and delivered a performance of fascinating restraint. There’s something about Don that I find almost hypnotic. He’s drifting through life, aimless in a fog of monetary success and emotional indifference. When his life gains purpose and he himself has a mission, it still comes off as dry and routine (Jarmusch’s purposeful narrative helps create a distinctly circular mood). It isn’t until the film’s poignant conclusion that we truly get to know who Don Johnston is. Standing at a crossroads, waiting, thinking. That’s the Bill Murray I know and love.

Other Notable Roles

In Stripes

Meatballs (1979)

Caddyshack (1980)

Stripes (1981)

Tootsie (1982)

The Razor’s Edge (1984)

Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

Scrooged (1988)

Ghostbusters II (1989)

Quick Change (1990)

Mad Dog and Glory (1993)

Ed Wood (1994)

Kingpin (1996)

Space Jam (1996)

Cradle Will Rock (1999)

Hamlet (2000)

Charlie’s Angels (2000)

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

The Darjeeling Limited (2007)

Get Low (2009)

The Limits of Control (2009)

Zombieland (2009)

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III (2012)

The Monuments Men (2014)

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)