An almost unimpeachable figure of adoration in film, Murray continues to thrill. We look back at five of his best performances

As an actor, Bill Murray seems to exist on a separate plane, somewhere beyond Hollywood’s usual ego-stroking circle jerk. Notoriously hard to pin down for interviews, and partial to pulling the odd prank on fans before scurrying away, he’s built a phenomenal career since cutting his comedic teeth on Saturday Night Live in the 70s. He’s starring in St Vincent, out in UK cinemas this week, so we’re burdening ourselves with the task of picking his five best performances to date. Join in below the line with the roles you’d have chosen.

Rushmore

It would be easy to fill this list solely with Murray’s appearances in Wes Anderson films. For the sake of fairness, we’ll stick to his turn as world-weary business owner Herman Blume, who strikes up an unlikely bond with prodigal student Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman). The film marked the launch of Murray’s “second career” in indie film, earned him several American critics’ awards, and featured a healthy number of British invasion-themed music montages.

Groundhog Day

Grumpy and slightly dead-eyed Murray sometimes feels like the best Murray – and his role as eternally unimpressed meteorologist Phil Connors is testament to that. He brought a dark humour to the Harold Ramis film, straddling both fantasy and comedy. He can take some credit for the film’s 2006 addition to America’s National Film Registry, filed in the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Caddyshack

In what was meant to be a bit-part in this outrageously silly sports comedy, Murray’s role as gopher-hunting golf course groundskeeper Carl Spackler grew into a sub-plot centrepiece. Murray improvised the bulk of his lines, fresh off his Saturday Night Live job in New York, and brought an unlikely character – a gopher hand puppet – into a more significant role in the story.

Murray’s turn as listless, greying celebrity Bob Harris in Sofia Coppola’s 2003 critically acclaimed hit introduced him to a whole new audience of indie-romance fans. He served up melancholy, introspection and wonderfully executed realism alongside Scarlett Johansson – and no, we have no further intel on what Murray whispered into Johansson’s ear at the end of the film. Sorry.

Ed Wood

Murray didn’t play the lead in Tim Burton’s black-and-white 1990 biopic, but he stole the show. As Bunny Breckinridge, it only took one stoic sing-song to Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be) and a brief monologue on narrowly escaping a dodgy sex reassignment surgery in Mexico for him to make his mark.