Brian Murray (born October 31, 1945), known professionally as Brian Doyle-Murray, is an American actor, comedian and screenwriter. He appeared with his younger brother, actor and comedian Bill Murray, in several films, including Caddyshack (1980), The Razor's Edge (1984), Scrooged (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), and Groundhog Day (1993). He co-starred on the TBS sitcom Sullivan & Son, where he played the foul-mouthed Hank Murphy. He also appeared in the Nickelodeon animated series SpongeBob SquarePants as The Flying Dutchman, the Cartoon Network original animated series My Gym Partner's a Monkey as Coach Tiffany Gills, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack as Captain K'nuckles, a recurring role as Don Ehlert on the ABC sitcom The Middle, and Bob Kruger in the AMC dramedy Lodge 49.
Doyle-Murray was nominated for three Emmy Awards in 1978, 1979, and 1980 for his work on Saturday Night Live in the category Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program. Two other younger brothers, Joel and John, are actors, as well. His oldest brother Ed was a businessman prior to his death in 2020 and brother Andy is a chef and runs the Murray Brothers "CaddyShack" restaurant located in the World Golf Village resort near St. Augustine, Florida. Doyle is his grandmother's maiden name, and he chose to hyphenate it to avoid confusion with another actor.
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Early life
Brian 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; 1921–1988), a mailroom clerk, and Edward Joseph Murray II (1921–1967), 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).
Personal life
Murray has been married to Christina Stauffer since August 28, 2000.
