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Bill Murray gave a pithy answer when asked if fame has brought him happiness.
The 76-year-old Ghostbusters star is asked the question in the fourth episode of his golf-based travel series A Course Called Ireland.
He replies: “In a word, no.”
The new show, which is based on author Tom Coyne’s bestselling book of the same name, follows Murray and Coyne as they travel through Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland playing every golf course and meeting locals.
In between the games, the pair reflect on life. The series also stars Irish stars including The IT Crowd’s Chris O’Dowd and comedian and recent Traitors competitor Joanne McNally.
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Bill Murray, pictured in New York in October 2026, has reflected on whether worldwide fame has brought him personal happiness (Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for Rivian)
In another scene in the series, O’Dowd asks Murray how he deals with constant requests for photographs, and the former Saturday Night Live star responds: “I come from the era where, like, I thought autographs were the worst thing that ever happened, and I’d give anything to have it back.”
He adds: “But, you know, I’ve done all kinds of things and tried to control it and do it according to my terms, and I find that it’s an enormous waste of energy to ever try to direct it. Now, I just jump in and go.… I take the camera. I take the picture.”
In 2022, Murray spoke to The Independent about his experiences with fame, and about being looked to for humor and comedy even while experiencing his own depressive episodes.
He recounted finding solace in the work of the late country musician John Prine, saying: “I remember my friend Hunter Thompson, who was another guy people perceived as sort of a dark force but who really had a wonderful sense of humour, talking about John Prine.”
He continued: “I remember at one of the moodiest… What did he used to call it? Broodingest! …at one of the broodingest moments of our long weekend, he said: ‘Well, we’ll have to rely on John Prine for the sense of humour.’ And he put on some, and it was dark out there in the mountains, and we did listen to John Prine for a while.”
Murray added: “There was a moment where I was the most miserable of my whole life, so I thought, I’ll go see if John Prine will help me here. His song ‘Linda Goes to Mars’ comes on and I just remember going: ‘Heh’. That was it. That was all there was, but it was a change of direction. I thought: ‘Goddammit, it worked!’ I hadn’t even ‘Heh’d’ in such a while.”