Bill Murray reads poetry to construction workers

Bill Murray has always been one of my favorite actors, ever since I saw "Stripes" as a kid. However, he's become one my favorite famous people since I heard a recording of him introducing U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins before a reading to a college audience.

In the spring of 2009, Murray read poetry to construction workers on break from building the new Poets House.



Bill Murray 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."

Bill Murray enrolled at Regis College in Denver to study pre-med but dropped out after being arrested for marijuana possession.

Murray 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).

Murray first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live, and went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films including Caddyshack (1980), Ghostbusters (1984), and Groundhog Day (1993).

Murray gained additional critical acclaim later in his career, starring in Lost in Translation (2003), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award, and a series of films directed by Wes Anderson, including Rushmore (1998), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) and Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009).