Bill Murray

Bill Murray in Hamlet

Bill Murray (1950 - )

Film Deaths

• Loose Shoes (Coming Attractions; Quackers) (1980) [Lefty Schwartz]: Executed (off-screen) in the electric chair in a black & white parody of 1930s prison movies; we see Bill being asked to hold a pot roast by the warden (Lewis Arquette), followed by a shot of the cooked roast. (Played for comic effect, obviously).

• Scrooged (1988) [Frank Cross]: Dies (off-screen) shortly before the start of the future scene, when the Ghost of Christmas Future brings him to witness his own funeral and cremation. This vision of the future is later prevented when Bill changes his ways.

• Groundhog Day (1993) [Phil Connors]: Dies a number of times while caught in a time-loop, including a car crash, a jump from a building, and a scene where he electrocutes himself by dropping a toaster in his bathtub. (Each "death" is immediately followed by him waking up again that same morning.)

• Hamlet (2000) [Polonius]: Accidentally shot in the face through a closet door by Ethan Hawke, who had mistaken him for Kyle MacLachlan.

• Osmosis Jones (2001) [Frank]: Is briefly clinically dead when he goes into cardiac arrest and flatlines; he is revived when Osmosis Jones (voiced by Chris Rock) returns Bill's missing hypothalamus chromosome.

• City of Ember (2008) [Mayor Cole]: Eaten (off-screen) by a giant mole when Bill tries to hide in his bunker and discovers that the mole has gotten in; the scene ends with Bill screaming as the mole attacks him.

• The Limits of Control (2009) [American]: Garotted with a guitar string by Isaach de Bankole.

• Zombieland (2009) [Bill Murray]: Shot in the chest by Jesse Eisenberg when Bill pretends to be a zombie and "attacks" Jesse and Abigail Breslin as a practical joke. (Played for comic effect).

• Ghostbusters (2016) [Martin Heiss]: Presumably killed when a ghost dragon emerges from a trap that Kristen Wiig opens (to prove that it is in fact real) and throws him out of a window. (In the tie-in book, Ghosts of Our Past: Both Figuratively and Literally, the character survives to write an apolgetic foreword, but since the film itself leaves his fate ambiguous, we'll leave this here.)
• The Dead Don't Die (2019) [Cliff Robertson]: Devoured/mauled to death, along with Adam Driver, by zombies, while Tom Waits looks on from a far distance.

TV Deaths

• Saturday Night Live (April 23 1977) [Tony]: Killed in an aerial battle (along with Eric Idle) (off screen); Eric and Bill are only seen in flashback and their deaths are indicated in Dan Aykroyd's letter to Gilda Radner.

• Saturday Night Live (Mar. 11, 1978) [Bill Murray]: In a sketch set in the future, he dies (off-screen) under unspecified circumstances some time before the sketch begins; his death is mentioned when John Belushi reminisces about his dead cast-mates while visiting the cemetery.

• Saturday Night Live (Mar. 21, 1987) [Dad]: In the "Mikey can't shoot" sketch, he is shot in the gut by Dana Carvey after he tries to push Victoria Jackson around. Before dying, Bill tells Dana how proud he is of him for shooting him. (Played for comic effect.)

• Parks and Recreation: Two Funerals (2015) [Mayor Walter Gunderson]: Dies (off screen) of unspecified causes. His body is shown lying in an open casket as Adam Scott presides over his wake in the city council chambers. (Played for comic effect).

Gallery

Bill Murray in Parks and Recreation: Two Funerals

Bill Murray dead with Woody Harrelson in Zombieland

Noteworthy Connections

• Brother of Brian Doyle-Murray, Joel Murray and John Murray.