What he has goin’ for him.

What better actor to have a shelf on the Wall O’ Cool than Bill Murray?!?

He has always been on my top ten list for actors even when I was a kid. I loved watching old SNL episodes with him, adored all his funny movies, and when I was older, appreciated that he was a good dramatic actor as well. Plus I always thought he and my dad looked alike, so he has that goin’ for him.

Here are some of his best:

Meatballs (1979) – One of the best camp movies ever. Murray plays activities director, Tripper, at Camp North Star. It is the camp movie that I am sure inspired every other camp movie made. Pot smoking counselors, crazy sex starved teens, clueless camp director, and of course the inevitable competition with the rich camp across the lake. Laughs all the way through.

Caddyshack (1980) -Bill Murray is Carl Spackler, greenskeeper at the exclusive Bushwood Country Club. He goes head to head with a super intelligent gopher, makes inappropriate comments about the older female golfers, and brags how he once was a caddy for the Dalai Lama.  “So, I’m on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one – big hitter, the Lama – long, into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga… gunga, gunga-lagunga. So we finish the eighteenth and he’s gonna stiff me. And I say, ‘Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know.’ And he says, ‘Oh, uh, there won’t be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.’ So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice.” Classic.

Ghostbusters/Ghostbusters 2 (1984/1989) – One of my top films as a kid. We have the two pack with as much ghost busting action as you can handle. Murray plays Dr. Peter Venkman, head of a crew of crazy scientists who decide to open a lucrative paranormal investigation and elimination business in New York. And it is only lucrative because New York is evidently the doorway to Hell. Dan Akroyd, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, and Sigourney Weaver co-star in the super quotable action/comedy. Plus the best monster ever. The Stay Puff Marshmallow Man.

What About Bob? (1991) – Murray plays Bob Wiley. A manipulative, obsessive-compulsive psych patient who tracks down his therapist, Dr. Leo Marvin (Richard Dreyfuss), while he is on a family vacation. Bob wedges himself into the home and hearts of Dr. Leo’s family and goes about driving his therapist completely insane.

Groundhog Day (1993) – Murray plays Phil, an obnoxious weatherman sent on assignment to cover the groundhog day ceremony in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. When he wakes the next morning, he discovers it is still the same day. Phil must continue to live out the same day over and over again until he gets it right….or he goes insane. Co-starring Andi MacDowell and Chris Elliot.

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) – Murray’s second film in a long and happy relationship with writer/ director Wes Anderson (the first being Rushmore). He plays Raleigh St. Clair, husband of Margot Tenenbaum (Gwyneth Paltrow). Margot is one of three adult siblings who belong to a super dysfunctional family (a Wes Anderson standard). Even though Murray is only a supporting character in this film, he still shines as always.

Lost in Translation (2003) – Murray’s first majorly lauded dramatic role as Bob Harris, an American actor who has past his prime. Bob is in Tokyo doing commercials when he meets Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), a the wife of a visiting photographer. Bob and Charlotte, bored and weary, find themselves as unusual companions in a city where the cultural and language differences make for hilarious scenarios.

Broken Flowers (2005) – Murray plays the devoutly single Don Johnston who, after getting dumped by his latest girlfriend, receives an anonymous pink letter informing him that he has a son who may be looking for him. The situation causes Don to examine his relationships with women instead of moving on to the next one, and he embarks on a cross-country search for his old flames who might possess clues to the mystery at hand. Co-starring Jessica Lange, Sharon Stone, and Tilda Swinton as some of the women in his past.