Our favourite comic Hollywood curmudgeon turns 60 in September. And he's every bit as idiosyncratic offscreen as he is in Caddyshack, Ghostbusters and Lost In Translation. Fact!

Funny and sad, reclusive and ubiquitous, the star of Lost In Translation and the star of Garfield: A Tail Of Two Kitties. Bill Murray has spent most of his adult life being several things at once. But soon Bill Murray will turn 60 and, to mark this important milestone, the Guardian has uncovered 60 fascinating Bill Murray facts. So hHappy birthday, Bill Murray: just don't expect another of these when you're 70 …

1 Bill Murray was born William James Murray on 21 September 1950, which isn't really that interesting. These get better, promise.

2 Bill Murray had originally planned a career as a doctor, although he left university after being arrested for possession of marijuana. Truly, medicine's loss was ruefully existential arthouse cinema's gain.

3 Bill Murray is notoriously hard to pin down. If you want him to star in your film, you have to call his infrequently checked answering machine and wait for him to get back.

4 As a consequence of this, he has missed out on roles in films like Monsters Inc, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

5 But he was in Space Jam, so that's something.

6 Bill Murray was the singer in a band called the Dutch Masters as a teenager.

7 What's more, he once played guitar onstage with Eric Clapton.

8 During a tandem skydive over Chicago in 2008, Bill Murray managed to play air guitar and perform a brief hand jive before the parachute deployed.

9 Banzai's Mr Shake Hands Man once shook Bill Murray's hand for 89.4 seconds.

10 Bill Murray was pulled over by Swedish police on suspicion of driving a golf cart under the influence of alcohol.

11 Bill Murray remains the only actor to have starred in both Hamlet and Charlie's Angels in the same year.

12 Bill Murray says that he only agreed to make Garfield because he thought the script was written by the Coen Brothers. It wasn't. It was written by Joel Cohen, the man who wrote Daddy Day Camp.

13 Although that didn't stop him from making Garfield: A Tail Of Two Kitties, did it? Numpty.

14 Oklahoma! is Bill Murray's favourite musical.

15 Bill Murray thinks Kung Fu Hustle is "the supreme achievement of the modern age in terms of comedy".

16 Bill Murray has weird taste.

17 Bill Murray's constant mood swings led Dan Aykroyd to give him the nickname "The Murricane".

18 The Murricane is also a cocktail, named in Bill Murray's honour, containing bourbon, basil, elderflower, watermelon and pepper.

19 Surely that tastes disgusting.

20 In 1997, Bill Murray was named as the 82nd best movie star ever in an Empire magazine list.

21 Bill Murray once wrote a book called Cinderella Story: My Life In Golf.

22 One Amazon review of it contains the word "garbage" repeated 20 times in a row.

23 Never confuse Bill Murray with Billy Murray from the Injury Lawyers 4 U adverts.

24 A recording of Bill Murray performing Roxy Music's More Than This is a hidden track on the Lost In Translation soundtrack album. God knows why.

25 Bill Murray's final inaudible whisper to Scarlett Johansson at the end of Lost In Translation is one of cinema's greatest-ever mysteries.

26 In 2007, a digital remaster discovered that he appeared to say, "I have to be leaving, but I won't let that come between us, OK?"

27 Other popular theories include, "Can I say something that's eating me? Go to that man and tell him the truth, OK?" And, "Keep away from Woody Allen. I'm the only creepy old man you should be hanging around with, OK?"

28 In 2006, Bill Murray crashed a party held by some Norwegian students in Scotland, told a few jokes, washed up and then left.

29 This is almost identical to the plot of Lost In Translation, except it was colder and there was slightly more focus on kitchen hygiene.

30 Bill Murray's appearance in Zombieland has been cited in reviews as one of the funniest celebrity cameos of all time.

31 That said, it's only really funny if you're not expecting it. So if you haven't already seen it, just disregard point 30.

32 There is a fake Bill Murray on Twitter.

33 Most of his tweets seem to link to websites where you can illegally stream bad movies, though, so don't bother clicking that link.

34 Bill Murray was considered for the roles of both Han Solo and Batman, which would have either been brilliant or horrible.

35 But probably horrible.

36 The world leader who Bill Murray most accurately resembles is poisoned former Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko.

37 Earlier this year Bill Murray cut his head while diving into a water-filled skip for a TV show.

38 Bill Murray landed his Ghostbusters role when John Belushi – the first choice to play Peter Venkman – died.

39 In fact, the parts of the four Ghostbusters were originally written for Belushi, Eddie Murphy, John Candy and Christopher Walken. The involvement of these actors would have made Ghostbusters much worse.

40 Apart from Christopher Walken, obviously.

41 A third Ghostbusters film is set to be made soon, although Bill Murray has variously called it "my nightmare" and "a bunch of crock" and will only take part if Peter Venkman dies early on.

42 Lorenzo Music voiced the Bill Murray character in the Ghostbusters cartoon. And Bill Murray voiced the Lorenzo Music character in the Garfield film.

43 It's said that Bill Murray likes to sneak up behind strangers in New York, whisper, "Guess who?" And, when they turn around, tell them: "No one will ever believe you."

44 Presumably he leaves before they can tell their friends that poisoned former Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko just snuck up behind them.

45 Bill Murray's sister is a nun.

46 Bill Murray and his brothers own a Florida restaurant called Murray Bros Caddy Shack. Its slogan is Eat, Drink & Be Murray.

47 The restaurant's firecracker shrimp is said to be delicious, although some reviewers have bemoaned a lack of attention to detail when it comes to the side orders.

48 For a recent film festival in Lodz, Bill Murray learned how to say "I love you, may I borrow some money?" in flawless Polish.

49 Bill Murray once created a game called shotgun golf with Hunter S Thompson. It was basically golf, but with more shotguns. It never caught on.

50 Gorillaz once recorded a B-side entitled Bill Murray. It wasn't very good.

51 In 2007 Bill Murray grew a moustache. It also wasn't very good.

52 During the filming of 1993's Mad Dog And Glory, Bill Murray accidentally broke Robert De Niro's nose.

53 In Groundhog Day, Bill Murray repeated the same day countless times in order to win Andie MacDowell's heart. To this day, it remains the most amount of effort that any film character has expended for such a comparatively meagre reward.

54 During the filming of Groundhog Day, Bill Murray was asked to hire an assistant to act as a buffer between him and the studio. He deliberately hired a deaf mute who could only communicate in Native American sign language.

55 There is a website that tells you how to make your Nintendo Mii avatar look like Bill Murray, Peter Venkman and Steve Zissou.

56 At least three different people have Steve Zissou tattoos.

57 Bill Murray has only ever seen the final episode of Seinfeld, and he didn't think much of that.

58 Bill Murray's next film is Passion Play, starring Mickey Rourke as a sad trumpet player. It is apparently not a comedy.

59 Bill Murray doesn't have a publicist.

60 In Coffee And Cigarettes, the Wu-Tang Clan make a point of always calling Bill Murray by his full name. This is a fun game to play.