If you’ve ever seen Ghostbusters , Lost In Translation , Caddyshack , Groundhog Day , Stripes , Rushmore , or Osmosis Jones , then there is no possible way that you’re not a huge Bill Murray fan. He is so iconic.
For being as famous as he is, he has still managed to keep a very low profile in Hollywood all this time.
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Here are a few facts about him that fans probably didn’t know!
1. He’s a big fan of Selena Gomez.
“I really like [her]. She’s unusually bright. She’s kind and she’s natural,” he told Vanity Fair . “I’m always pleased to find some kind of pop icon who I really like.”
Selena actually returned the sentiment by joking that she and Bill are “getting married.”
2. He used to have a reputation in Hollywood for being difficult to work with.
“I remember a friend said to me a while back: ‘You have a reputation.’ And I said: ‘What?’ And he said: ‘Yeah, you have a reputation of being difficult to work with,'” he told The Guardian .
“But I only got that reputation from people I didn’t like working with,” he went on. “Or people who didn’t know how to work, or what work is. Jim [Jarmusch, with whom he has made two films], Wes and Sophia, they know what it is to work, and they understand how you’re supposed to treat people.”
“People think because they employed you they’re allowed to treat you like a dictator, or whatever the worse word for dictator is. And that’s always been a problem for me. Opening the door for someone behind you is as important as designing a building .”
3. He plays golf.
In an interview with Rolling Stone , he revealed that growing up, between the ages 10 and 15, he spent a lot of time at the Indian Hill Golf Club in Illinois, and that hobby has stuck with him his entire life.
4. He loves to read.
“I read everything in the St. Joe’s library when I was a kid. That’s where I went to grade school. Until I was thirteen or fourteen, I read everything,” he said in an interview with Rolling Stone .
“I didn’t care what it was. There weren’t a lot of science books in those days, although that’s what I like now. Like *The Way Things Work*.”
“Just the words alone are so powerful. I remember reading a poem by Walt Whitman. It spoke of different professions, the words involved in each profession, and I really got it, I understood the power of the word. “
5. He regrets being in the film, *Kingpin*.
When asked by Rolling Stone if he has ever been in a film that he now considers to be a “mistake,” he revealed that Kingpin is definitely that for him, calling it “raunchy.”
6. He thinks Midwestern people, like himself, are the funniest.
“People from the Midwest are funny,” he told Rolling Stone .
“Like [Chris] Farley, he was funny. They make you feel comfortable. That’s how I look at people when watching a movie. I say, ‘OK, he makes me comfortable. He knows what he’s doing. Nothing to shock or touch, but he knows what he’s doing.’ I don’t worry about going, ‘Oh, Christ, what sappy crap is this guy going to come up with, because he does it every time.'”
7. He has admitted to feeling “terror” about having children.
“People only talk about what a joyous experience it is, but there is terror: Your life, as you know it, is over. It’s over the day that child is born. It’s over, and something completely new starts,” he told Rolling Stone .
8. He isn’t afraid of getting older.
In an interview with Rolling Stone , he explained that after reading a book called I’m Turning 80 , he has had a much easier time accepting that age is inevitable and doesn’t necessarily need to mean something negative.
9. He still enjoys going on a drinking bender like the one he had in *Lost In Translation*, every once in a while.
“It becomes harder to do because a) you’ve got other responsibilities, and b) there’s tethers on you. It still happens, but it doesn’t happen like it used to. It used to happen every week,” he told Rolling Stone .
10. He has a 1-800 phone number used specifically to find acting opportunities.
Obviously, when you’re as famous of an actor like Bill Murray, filmmakers are constantly trying to get ahold of you and pitch their character ideas to you.
So, in an effort to stay organized, Bill got himself a 1-800 line where directors and filmmakers can reach him, instead of using his personal phone number .
“I had a house phone, and it would just ring and ring,” he told *Indiewire*.
“Finally, I’d pick up the phone and I’d say, ‘Who in the [expletive] is calling me and letting my phone ring like that?’ The agent would say, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, I’m calling for so-and-so.’ I’d say, ‘Look, you can’t do this. This is my house. If I don’t answer the phone, don’t do that because you’re making me not like you.’ I just unplugged the phone and then I got this 800 number, which is very handy.”
11. He often reinforces people’s manners.
In an interview with Rolling Stone , he acknowledged that Midwestern folk have a reputation for being very polite and that he has found it difficult not to correct other people’s manners when he thinks they’re acting “like a jerk.”
12. Bob Newhart and Jack Benny were two of his idols growing up.
When asked by Rolling Stone who he looked up to in the comedy world, Bill said:
“Bob Newhart was a guy I liked a lot. He hosted Saturday Night Live. He’s the squarest, cleanest-cut guy in the world. But he is really, really funny. I think Jack Benny had a groove.”
