My Lifelong Dislike of Bill Murray is Now Vindicated

Bill Murray’s wife has filed for divorce after some 11-years of marriage. Thusly, he is the latest in a long list of comedians who don’t seem to be so funny in real life, to the point that their long suffering wives leave them.

Murray’s wife, Jennifer Butler Murray, attributes the demise of their marriage to Bill’s “adultery, addiction to marijuana and alcohol, abusive behavior, physical abuse, sexual addictions and frequent abandonment”. Quite a laundry list of accusations that, yes, I have to take with a grain of salt because they are just that: accusations.

What I’ve heard about Murray’s real life persona and interactions with people on the sets of his movies make me inclined to believe Jennifer Murray, who has also sought out a restraining order on her soon-to-be former husband. According to an article from the UK Telegraph, (with strangely appropriate Bear PSA in the middle of the piece):

The [divorce] papers claim: “Defendant [Murray] has physically abused the Plaintiff on more than one occasion during the marriage. The latest altercation occurred in November 2007… when the Defendant hit her in the face and then told her she was ‘lucky he didn’t kill her’.

This all begs the question — Can we still like Bill Murray’s work if we don’t like Bill Murray? And, indeed, can we still like any actor whose real life persona doesn’t quite fit with his professional persona? More to the point, should we like Bill Murray and support him by going to see his movies if he is an abusive, philandering douchebag? If, of course, being the operative word–innocent until being proved guilty and all.

Personally, I love the guy in Ghostbusters and not much else (not to say that I don’t love many of the movies he’s in, I just don’t like him in them.) But the guy seems to have a serious and devoted following. I’d be interested to see how this affects his public and critical reception, if at all.

If you want to read the divorce papers, they are, of course, on the smoking gun.