SNL turns 40 - the best of Bill Murray

Saturday Night Live’s most famous alumni on acting, free time and Cinnabons.

Saturday Night Live, the starting point for many of America's favourite comedians, has celebrated its 40th anniversary with a celebrity-packed episode.

However there was one moment which stood out above the rest as actor extraordinaire Bill Murray reprised his lounge singer alter ego Nick Ocean, to belt out the "Love theme from Jaws".

The raucous reprise had the SNL audience in stitches as the actor and comedian performed in front of an iconic clip on loop from Steven Spielberg's epic.

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Murray who took over from Chevy Chase as a regular on the show in 1977, is widely credited with the upturn in fortunes that meant Saturday Night Live became a regular fixture on American televisions.

Murray has since gone on to be one of America’s treasures of the silver screen. Here are six of his most memorable quotes:

Bill Murray lying down

"I love independent films but it’s fun to do studio movies, too. You should do both. You don’t want to be like, “Oh he’s an independent film guy.” It sounds like he makes his own dresses or something you know? It just doesn’t sound right."

Bill Murray with George Clooney

"I've never made any horrible, horrible movies. If you don't ruin your reputation, you can always get work"

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"theweek_content_narrow","fid":"82404","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"307","width":"460"}}]] "You gotta be able to play straight to play funny. If you can play straight to play funny, playing straight is not a big thing at all"

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"theweek_content_narrow","fid":"82405","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"307","width":"460"}}]]

"I do absolutely nothing. I go home and stay there. I wash and scrub up each day, and that’s it. One month I actually grew a moustache, just so I could say that I’d done something"

Bill Murray with camera

"You gotta be able to play straight to play funny. If you can play straight to play funny, playing straight is not a big thing at all"
(Image credit: Getty)

"I kinda like this Jay-Z thing, where he's retired, but he keeps doing shows. I think I beat him to that. If you say you're retired, people don't bother you so much, and then if you want to do something, you can do it."

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"theweek_content_narrow","fid":"82407","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"307","width":"460"}}]]

"Everyone loves Cinnabons"

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