Then again, perhaps he's just toying with us all. There's an urban legend that's gone round until no one is sure who it happened to, or if it happened at all. It was late one night, a few years ago, when a young man was walking through Union Square Park. He suddenly felt someone behind him, their hands over his eyes. When he turned in surprise, there was Bill Murray, his creased face leaning in close. Bill whispered, "No one is ever going to believe you," and then just walked away
.
I experienced a whole range of emotions while reading this paragraph.
I read the same story on another board (could've swore it was here), except in that version he headlocked a guy as they were crossing the street from opposite sides.
I heard about an encounter in Vegas. What happened was that in a hotel/casino some guy stepped into an elevator, and there were a bunch of very large African American men that looked like bodyguards, and some dogs. He couldn't see who they were trying to protect. One of the bodyguards yelled out "Sit down, boy," so the guy sat down on the elevator floor. They all started laughing and the guy stood up, realizing they were talking to the dog.
So the guy goes to his room, washes up a little, and then goes back down the the casino floor and gambles a little. When he goes back up to his room, there's this enormous fruit basket. Like 6 feet tall, full of every kind of fruit imaginable. Inside, is $100,000 worth of casino chips. There's a note attached: "Thanks for giving me the best laugh I've had in a long time. - Bill Murray."
I'm not sure where I heard that story.
One night I was walking along the beach with Bill Murray, and across the sky flashed scenes from my life. For each scene I noticed two sets of footprints, one belonged to me and the other to Bill Murray. When the last scene of my life flashed before me, I looked back at the footprints in the sand. I noticed that several times along the path of my life, there was only one set of footprints. I also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest time in my life, when this...this thing happened around late 1996 that I don't want to get into here, but, ugh, believe you me, not a good time.
This really bothered me and I questioned Bill Murray about it. "Bill, you said that once I became a fan of yours, you would walk with me all the way, but I have noticed that during the most troublesome time in my life there was only one set of footprints. I don't understand why in the time when I needed you most, you left me."
Bill Murray replied, "Oh, that was when I was over in London, filming
The Man Who Knew Too Little. Did you ever see that one? It's got Pete Gallagher and...Val Kilmer's ex-wife, I forget her name. I know it's not my best work or anything, but it's a good, light little comedy spoof that gets slept on. Definitely better than the one with the elephant. You should check it out next time it's on cable."
And I went home and I saw a few days later that one of the Encore channels was playing
The Man Who Knew Too Little and I taped it on my DVR and watched it one afternoon when I was waiting for my clothes to finish drying. And I knew then that Bill Murray was right, that it was a pretty good little movie carried by Bill's limitless charisma and a delightful turn from Alfred Molina.