The 26 Best Bill Murray Performances

Deadpan slackers, lonely men in hotel bars and one gopher-obsessed greenskeeper: decades of comic chaos and quiet melancholy from a single actor.

1. 1
   Phil Connors (Groundhog Day)

   A cynical TV weatherman stuck reliving the same February day in Harold Ramis's 1993 comedy.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Bob Harris (Lost in Translation)

   A fading American movie star adrift in Tokyo in Sofia Coppola's 2003 film, earning Murray an Oscar nomination.
   930pts
3. 3
   Mr. Badger (Fantastic Mr. Fox)

   The sharp-tongued badger lawyer voiced by Murray in Wes Anderson's 2009 stop-motion film.
   778pts
4. 4
   Bunny Breckinridge (Ed Wood)

   The flamboyant would-be transgender pioneer in Tim Burton's 1994 biopic of the cult director.
   778pts
5. 5
   Raleigh St. Clair (The Royal Tenenbaums)

   A mild neurologist married to a secretive playwright in Wes Anderson's 2001 family saga.
   708pts
6. 6
   Frank Cross (Scrooged)

   A ruthless TV executive visited by three ghosts in the 1988 modern spin on A Christmas Carol.
   708pts
7. 7
   Grimm (Quick Change)

   A bank robber in clown makeup whose escape from New York keeps going wrong, in the 1990 comedy he co-directed.
   708pts
8. 8
   Felix Keane (On the Rocks)

   A charming playboy father who drags his daughter into a spy game in Sofia Coppola's 2020 film.
   658pts
9. 9
   Vincent MacKenna (St. Vincent)

   A boozy, gambling Vietnam veteran who becomes an unlikely babysitter in the 2014 comedy-drama.
   602pts
10. 10
    Peter Venkman (Ghostbusters)

    The wisecracking parapsychologist at the heart of the 1984 supernatural comedy smash.
    602pts
11. 11
    Frank Milo (Mad Dog and Glory)

    A soft-spoken mobster and aspiring stand-up who loans a woman to a cop in the 1993 drama.
    538pts
12. 12
    Himself (Zombieland)

    A celebrated cameo as a zombie-disguised version of himself in the 2009 horror comedy.
    466pts
13. 13
    Carl Spackler (Caddyshack)

    The mumbling, gopher-hunting greenskeeper of the 1980 golf comedy, largely improvised by Murray.
    466pts
14. 14
    Ernie McCracken (Kingpin)

    A sleazy, comb-over bowling champion stealing every scene in the Farrelly brothers' 1996 comedy.
    466pts
15. 15
    Larry Darrell (The Razor's Edge)

    A war veteran seeking spiritual meaning in Murray's first dramatic lead, the 1984 adaptation of Somerset Maugham.
    384pts
16. 16
    Steve Zissou (The Life Aquatic)

    A washed-up oceanographer hunting the shark that ate his partner in Wes Anderson's 2004 film.
    384pts
17. 17
    Baloo (The Jungle Book)

    The laid-back bear voiced by Murray in Jon Favreau's 2016 live-action remake.
    384pts
18. 18
    Franklin D. Roosevelt (Hyde Park on Hudson)

    Murray's Golden Globe-nominated turn as FDR hosting the British royals in 1939.
    384pts
19. 19
    Bob Wiley (What About Bob?)

    A clingy, phobia-ridden patient who follows his psychiatrist on vacation in the 1991 comedy.
    290pts
20. 20
    Don Johnston (Broken Flowers)

    An aging bachelor visiting old girlfriends to find a son he never knew in Jim Jarmusch's 2005 film.
    290pts
21. 21
    Walt Bishop (Moonrise Kingdom)

    A melancholy lawyer father whose daughter runs away with a Khaki Scout in Wes Anderson's 2012 film.
    290pts
22. 22
    Jeff Slater (Tootsie)

    The deadpan playwright roommate who steals scenes in the 1982 comedy classic.
    290pts
23. 23
    Herman Blume (Rushmore)

    A depressed steel tycoon who befriends and then battles a teenage prep-school schemer in Wes Anderson's 1998 film.
    290pts
24. 24
    John Winger (Stripes)

    A slacker cab driver who joins the US Army on a whim in Ivan Reitman's 1981 comedy, Murray's first big lead.
    290pts
25. 25
    Hunter S. Thompson (Where the Buffalo Roam)

    Murray's early portrayal of the gonzo journalist in the 1980 cult comedy.
    179pts
26. 26
    Tripper Harrison (Meatballs)

    An anarchic summer-camp counselor in the 1979 comedy that made Murray a film star.
    0pts

Comments