Brian Doyle-Murray

Early life

Murray was born on October 31, 1945, at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, Illinois. He is one of nine children born to Irish Catholic parents Lucille (née Collins; 19211988), a mailroom clerk, and Edward Joseph Murray II (19211967), a lumber salesman. He attended Saint Mary's College of California in Moraga, California, in the late 1960s.

Career

Murray worked at The Second City comedic stage troupe in the early 1970s. He was also a regular on The National Lampoon Radio Hour, a comedy program syndicated nationally to 600 stations from 1973 to 1975. Co-workers on the Radio Hour included Richard Belzer, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Harold Ramis, and younger brother Bill. He was also a featured performer in The National Lampoon Show stage show (with Belushi, Radner, Ramis, and his brother Bill) in 1974–1975.

He then appeared as a cast member on the ABC variety show Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell, alongside his brother Bill and fellow Lampoon alum Christopher Guest. By January 1976, the series was canceled, and Bill became a cast member on NBC's Saturday Night Live during its second season in 1977. By the second-half of the show's third season in 1978, Doyle-Murray was hired as a writer. Amid some cast changes, Doyle-Murray was made a featured cast member, within the second-half of the show's fifth season in 1980. He remained the only writer to return to the show in season 6, and though not a featured player any more, he wrote for Jean Doumanian for 1980 to 1981, after executive producer Lorne Michaels, the entire cast, and most of the writing staff had left. After Dick Ebersol took over as producer near the end of the season, Doyle-Murray was retained as a writer (despite not writing for the April 11 finale), and returned as a featured player for the show's seventh season from 1981 to 1982, in which he also anchored Weekend Update (which was renamed SNL Newsbreak during his sole season anchoring the segment). Additionally, he and fellow writers Barry Blaustein, David Sheffield, and Pam Norris were the only writers from Doumanian's tenure to return for season 7. He departed after the end of season 7 after 4½ years writing for the show, and two non-consecutive seasons, as a featured player.

He is one of the few people to have worked as a writer for all three producers of the show (Lorne Michaels, Jean Doumanian, and Dick Ebersol). For his work on the show, he was nominated for three Emmy Awards in 1978, 1979, and 1980 in the category Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program.

Murray has appeared in many films with his brother, Bill Murray, including Caddyshack (1980, his film debut), The Razor's Edge (1984), Scrooged (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), and Groundhog Day (1993). He has also landed roles in other films. Early on, he appeared in Modern Problems (1981) alongside Chevy Chase. He also appeared with Chase in a small role as a camp clerk in National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), and later memorably appeared as Clark's uptight boss, Frank Shirley, in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989). He landed a small role as Jack Ruby in JFK (1991). He co-starred as arcade tycoon Noah Vanderhoff in the film version of Wayne's World (1992). He was also seen in the movies Sixteen Candles (1984), Club Paradise (1986), Legal Eagles (1986), How I Got Into College (1989), Jury Duty (1995), Multiplicity (1996), The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story (1997), As Good as It Gets (1997), Dr. Dolittle (1998), Stuart Little (1999), Kill the Man (1999), Bedazzled (2000), Snow Dogs (2002), Nearing Grace (2005), Daddy Day Camp (2007), and 17 Again (2009).

He portrayed 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 co-starred on the Fox TV series Get a Life and Bakersfield P.D. from 1991 to 1992 and 1993 to 1994, respectively, with 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 George Savitsky on Yes Dear. He played Shawn Spencer's grandfather on the episode "The Old and the Restless" on the USA Network TV series Psych, with an uncredited cameo in the sixth season. He had a recurring role as Mr. Ehlert, owner of the car dealership where Frankie Heck works on the ABC-TV series The Middle. He co-starred on the TBS sitcom on Sullivan & Son, where he played the foul-mouthed Hank Murphy. He recently appeared on Lodge 49 on the AMC Network (now canceled).

Murray voices the Flying Dutchman on Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants, Coach Tiffany Gills on the Cartoon Network original animated series My Gym Partner's a Monkey, and had a leading role as Captain K'nuckles in The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. He appeared in one episode of The Angry Beavers. Murray appears as Santa Claus in the CatDog episode "A Very CatDog Christmas". 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, Prince Huge on Adventure Time in the episode "The Hard Easy", Charlie in Mike Judge's The Goode Family, and Jacob on Motorcity. Murray voiced the villainous corporate executive Mr. Twitchell on the Christmas special Frosty Returns.

• Albert Einstein
• Colonel Tom Parker
• Howard Baker
• Jerry Falwell
• Jody Powell
• Ken Anderson
• Leopoldo Galtieri
• Rod Serling
• Sid Vicious --

Personal life

Murray has been married to Christina Stauffer since August 28, 2000.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Theme parks

Screenwriting credits

References

References

1. "Sweet Home Cook County".
2. Seemayer, Zach. (November 24, 2020). "Bill Murray's Brother Ed, Inspiration Behind Film ''Caddyshack'', Dies". [[Entertainment Tonight]].
3. "Murray Brothers – Caddyshack History – Neighborhood Restaurant".
4. "Brian Doyle-Murray". CBS Interactive.
5. (February 6, 2001). "Salon.com People | Bill Murray". Archive.salon.com.
6. "Famous Family Tree: Bill Murray". Landing.ancestry.com.
7. Spitznagel, Eric. (July 6, 2017). "SUMMER OF '78: Meatballs: An Oral History".
8. (January 21, 1978). "Steve Martin/Randy Newman".
9. (April 11, 1981). "no host/Jr. Walker & the All-Stars".
10. (February 6, 2013). "Saturday Night's Children: Brian Doyle-Murray (1979-1980; 1981-1982)".
11. (February 6, 2013). "Saturday Night's Children: Brian Doyle-Murray (1979-1980; 1981-1982)".
12. (February 6, 2013). "Saturday Night's Children: Brian Doyle-Murray (1979-1980; 1981-1982)".
13. (June 10, 2016). "Brian Doyle-Murray gets his price and more for storybook home in Mar Vista".
14. [https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article171038192.html The Kansas City] (subscription required)
15. Sullivan, Peter. (2022-10-28). "A Cozy Christmas Inn". Hybrid, Mayor Entertainment.
16. "Brian Doyle Murray (visual voices guide)".
17. (February 29, 2020). "According to the THQ guy I had show...".
18. Kay Oaks, Amanda. (August 1, 2025). "SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide Announced With First Trailer".