Brian Doyle-Murray

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; 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.

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

Filmography Film Year Title Role Notes 1972 Fuzz Detective 1975 Tarzoon: Shame of the Jungle Charles of the Pits #1 English version, voice 1980 Caddyshack Lou Loomis also a writer 1981 Modern Problems Brian Stills 1983 National Lampoon's Vacation Kamp Komfort Clerk 1984 Sixteen Candles Reverend The Razor's Edge Piedmont 1985 Head Office Colonel Tolliver 1986 Legal Eagles Shaw Club Paradise Voit Zerbe also a writer 1988 Scrooged Earl Cross Superman 50th Anniversary Brian Connelly 1989 The Experts Mr. Jones How I Got into College Coach Evans Ghostbusters II Psychiatric Doctor National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation Frank Shirley 1990 Small White House Johnny's Father 1991 Nothing but Trouble FBI Agent Brian Babe Ruth Marshall Hunt JFK Jack Ruby 1992 Wayne's World Noah Vanderhoff 1993 Groundhog Day Buster Green 1994 Cabin Boy Skunk 1995 My Brother's Keeper Curtis Jury Duty Harry 1996 Multiplicity Walt Waiting for Guffman Red Savage 1997 Casper: A Spirited Beginning Foreman Dave As Good as It Gets Handyman The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue Wittgenstein Voice

Video games Year Title Role Notes 2001 SpongeBob SquarePants: SuperSponge The Flying Dutchman 2002 SpongeBob SquarePants: Employee of the Month Voice only SpongeBob: Patty Pursuit 2023 SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake

Theme parks Year Title Role Notes 2013 SpongeBob SquarePants 4D: The Great Jelly Rescue The Flying Dutchman (voice) Short film

Screenwriting credits Year Title Notes 1973–1974 The National Lampoon Radio Hour Radio series 1975 Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell Also cast member 1976 The TVTV Show Television series 1976–1979 SCTV 1978–1982 Saturday Night Live Also cast memberTelevision seriesNominated—Outstanding Writing in a Comedy – Variety or Music Series Nominated—Outstanding Writing in a Comedy, Variety, or Music Series Nominated—Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program 1980 Caddyshack Writer with Harold Ramis and Doug KenneyFilm 1982 The Rodney Dangerfield Show: It's Not Easy Bein' Me Television series 1986 Club Paradise Writer with Harold RamisFilmAlso cast member 1993 The Chevy Chase Show Television series 2002 The Sweet Spot