Brian Doyle-Murray

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Brian Doyle-Murray
Born Brian Murray
(1945-10-31) October 31, 1945 (age 67)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Other names Brian Doyle Murphy, Brian Doyle Murray
Occupation Actor, voice actor, comedian, screenwriter
Years active 1972–present
Spouse(s) Christina Stauffer
(m. 2000–present)

Brian Doyle-Murray (born Brian Murray; October 31, 1945) is an American comedian, screenwriter, actor and voice artist. He is the older brother of actor/comedian Bill Murray and has acted together with him in several films, including Caddyshack, Scrooged, Ghostbusters II, The Razor's Edge and Groundhog Day. He currently appears with a recurring role as Don Ehlert on the ABC sitcom The Middle.

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Early life [edit]

Murray, one of nine children, was born in Chicago, the son of Lucille (née Collins), a mail room clerk, and Edward J. Murray II, a lumber salesman.[1][2] His parents were Irish American and Catholic.[3] He is the older brother of actors Bill Murray, Joel Murray and John Murray. A sister, Nancy, who is an Adrian Dominican Sister in Michigan, travels around the country portraying St. Catherine of Siena. Doyle-Murray uses his hyphenated name (Doyle is his grandmother's maiden name) because there is another actor with the same name. Brian attended Saint Mary's College of California in Moraga, California in the late 1960s.

Career [edit]

Murray was a performer for The Second City comedic stage troupe in the early 1970s. He has appeared in numerous films and television shows since the 1970s, including as a featured player on NBC's Saturday Night Live from 1979 to 1980 and from 1981 to 1982. He also was a writer for Jean Doumanian's sixth season from 1980 to 1981, making him one of the few cast members to work for all three producers of SNL (Lorne Michaels, Jean Doumanian, and Dick Ebersol). He was a regular performer on The National Lampoon Radio Hour, a comedy program syndicated nationally to some 600 stations from 1973 to 1975. Co-workers on the Radio Hour included Richard Belzer, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Harold Ramis and his younger brother Bill. He appears in most films that star his brother, Bill Murray. However, he has also landed a series of roles in other films. He memorably appeared as Chevy Chase's uptight boss, Frank Shirley, in 1989's National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and co-starred as an arcade business owner named Noah Vanderhoff in the 1992 film version of Wayne's World. He also landed a small but important role as assassin Jack Ruby in 1991's JFK. He was also seen in the 2002 movie, Snow Dogs. His most recent role was in 2009's 17 Again.

He was Mel Sanger, the bubble boy's dad, on Seinfeld, and played Joe Hackett's high school baseball coach on a 1992 episode of Wings. He was also a co-star of the Fox TV series Get a Life and Bakersfield P.D. from 1991 to 1992 and 1993 to 1994, respectively, and he had a recurring role as sports editor Stuart Franklin on the Fox/UPN TV series Between Brothers from 1997 to 1999. He played studio head and Greg Warner's (Anthony Clark) boss Mr. George Savitsky on Yes Dear. He played Shawn Spencer's grandfather on the episode "The Old and the Restless" on the USA Network TV Show Psych, as well as an uncredited cameo in the sixth season of the show. He is named as the only man James Lipton has ever called a coward in an episode of Arrested Development. He also starred in a recurring role as Mr. Ehlert, owner of the car dealership where Frankie and Bob work on the ABC-TV series The Middle. Currently, he has become part of a new sitcom on TBS called Sullivan & Son playing as Hank Murphy.

Voice work [edit]

Known for his gruff voice, Murray has voiced the Flying Dutchman on Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants, a small role as the Grandfather on Lloyd in Space, Coach Gills on Cartoon Network's My Gym Partner's a Monkey, Captain K'nuckles on The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, and as Maggie's dad on Disney Channel's The Buzz on Maggie. He has also appeared as "Salty" in the Family Guy episode "A Fish out of Water", the voice of Jack the barber on King of the Hill, the voice of the mayor in the Ghostbusters video game, the voice of "Qui the Promoter" in the 2005 video game Jade Empire, a minor appearance on the Disney show Recess during a YoYo competition, and also voiced Prince Huge on Adventure Time in the episode "The Hard Easy". As of 2010, he is also the voice of the grandfather in Comedy Central's The Goode Family and currently voices Jacob on Motorcity.

Celebrity impersonations on Saturday Night Live [edit]

Credits [edit]

As writer [edit]

As actor [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ "Bill Murray Biography (1950-)". Filmreference.com. Retrieved 2011-02-25. 
  2. ^ "Famous Family Tree: Bill Murray". Landing.ancestry.com. Retrieved 2011-02-25. 
  3. ^ "Salon.com People | Bill Murray". Archive.salon.com. 2001-02-06. Retrieved 2011-02-25. 

External links [edit]

Media offices
Preceded by
Charles Rocket		 Weekend Update Anchor
with Mary Gross 1981
with Christine Ebersole 1982
1981 – 1982		 Succeeded by
Brad Hall
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