Short answer: No. Bill Murray was born into an Irish Catholic family in Evanston, Illinois, with Irish ancestry documented on both his father's and his mother's sides. He was educated at a Jesuit school, and no Jewish parentage or ancestry is documented for him in any reputable source.
What the record actually shows
- Born September 21, 1950, in Evanston, Illinois. William James Murray was one of nine children. As Wikipedia's biography puts it, "Murray and his eight siblings grew up in an Irish Catholic family." His mother, Lucille Murray, was a mail room clerk, and his father, Edward Murray II, was a lumber salesman.
- Irish ancestry on both sides. His paternal grandfather emigrated from County Cork and his maternal ancestors came from County Galway, as IrishCentral reported in November 2009. There is no Jewish maternal line and no documented Jewish ancestry of any kind.
- Catholic schooling. Murray attended Loyola Academy, an all-boys Jesuit school in Wilmette, Illinois, and caddied to help pay the tuition, as Timothy White reported in a 1988 New York Times Magazine profile.
- A sister who is a Catholic nun. His sister Nancy Murray is an Adrian Dominican nun in Michigan, and she has toured the United States in one-woman programs portraying Catherine of Siena and Dorothy Stang.
- On his own faith. Murray said in a 1984 interview, "I'm definitely a religious person, but it doesn't have much to do with Catholicism anymore." He is also described as a student of the teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff.
- September 2014, on the Latin Mass. Speaking in Toronto during the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, in remarks The Guardian published that November and reproduced by Aleteia, he said, "I tend to disagree with what they call the new mass. I think we lost something by losing the Latin," adding, "Sacred music has an affect on your brain." Of Pope John XXIII he said, "I'll buy that one, he's my guy," calling him "an extraordinary joyous Florentine who changed the order." (John XXIII was in fact from Bergamo, not Florence. Murray's wording is quoted as spoken.) Aleteia returned to those remarks in 2019.
- Still working in 2026. Murray, 75, appears as a bartender named Jimbo in Diamond, the crime drama written, produced and directed by Andy Garcia, which "had its world premiere out of competition of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival on May 19," per the film's record. Deadline reported the casting in October 2025. Nothing in the record indicates any change to his religious identity.
Why people ask
The question is really about the movies. Murray's defining films were made with Jewish collaborators: Ivan Reitman, whose JTA obituary in February 2022 described him as the son of an Auschwitz survivor, directed Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981) and Ghostbusters (1984), and Harold Ramis co-wrote Stripes, Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day while directing Groundhog Day and Caddyshack. Ramis was raised Jewish in Chicago and later drawn to Buddhism through his wife, joking that he was "Buddh-ish." That lineage explains the association. It proves nothing about Murray himself.
Meatballs deepened the confusion. The film that made Murray a star was shot at Camp White Pine in Haliburton, Ontario, a camp founded by Jews serving mostly Jewish campers, with a largely Jewish Toronto supporting cast including Harvey Atkin as camp director "Morty Melnick" and Jack Blum as "Spaz," yet the finished film contains essentially no explicit Jewish content. Tablet Magazine has written about how Wet Hot American Summer (2001) was made in part to put that missing Jewishness back into the camp-movie genre. Readers say the confusion out loud: a 2019 review at TC Jewfolk put it as "So much so that I grew up thinking he was Jewish!"
One more item circulates and should be retired. A recording titled "If It Wasn't for the Irish and the Jews" appears online credited to "Bill Murray." It is not the actor. It is a 1912 recording by Billy Murray, the Tin Pan Alley singer, cut on February 12, 1912 in Camden, New Jersey and issued on Victor 17054, and digitized in the Library of Congress collections. Jewcy's own write-up makes the disclaimer plain: "Oh wait, you thought it was that Bill Murray?"
Bill Murray and Israel
There is no record here. No documented public statement by Bill Murray on Israel, on antisemitism, or on Jewish identity turns up in the reputable record, which is worth stating plainly rather than filling with inference. Our companion piece covers the same absence of record: Does Bill Murray Support Israel?
The bottom line
Bill Murray is not Jewish. The documented record is Irish Catholic on both sides, from County Cork and County Galway through a Jesuit high school to a sister who became a Dominican nun. Murray has said his own religious life moved away from Catholicism, but nothing in the record points toward Jewish parentage or practice.
Celebrate your own story
Questions like this one usually come from people thinking about their own roots and where they belong. If you are exploring your Jewish identity or looking for a way to wear it every day, our Star of David jewelry collection is a good place to start.
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Does Bill Murray Support Israel?
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Last updated August 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
