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Tag: Caddyshack

  • Bill Murray, Brothers Inducted Into Caddie Hall of Fame

    Bill Murray not only played a golf caddie in the 1980s classic Caddyshack, he was one in real life, too. On Wednesday it was Bill Murray–and not his Caddyshack character Carl Spackler–who was inducted into the Caddie Hall of Fame.

    Murray and his five brothers actually worked as caddies at the Indian Hill Club course in their hometown of Winnetka, Illinois, during their younger years. Now they are all members of this elite group. Bill Murray’s brother Brian Doyle-Murray co-wrote Caddyshack, which is loosely based on their experiences at the course.

    In addition to Murray, the film starred Chevy Chase, Ted Knight, Michael O’Keefe, and Rodney Dangerfield.

    Bill Murray and his five brothers were inducted into the Hall of Fame after they competed in the BMW Championship pro-am at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, Illinois on Wednesday.

    The Caddie Hall of Fame was created in 1999 by Dennis and Laura Cone and the Professional Caddies Assocation, but the Western Golf Assocation took it over in 2011.

    Besides Bill Murray and his brothers, other inductees include Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, and Old Tom Morris.

  • Harold Ramis, Comedy Legend, Passes Away at 69

    Harold Ramis, who spent over 30 years as a writer, actor and director, passed away early Monday morning due to complications from a rare autoimmune disease called Inflammatory Vasculitis. He was 69 years old.

    Mr. Ramis started his career in the 1960s as a joke editor for Playboy magazine. He cut his teeth in Chicago’s Second City Improv group where he made a realization about his career. “The moment I knew I wouldn’t be any huge comedy star was when I got on stage with John Belushi for the first time. When I saw how far he was willing to go to get a laugh or to make a point on stage, the language he would use, how physical he was, throwing himself literally off the stage, taking big falls, strangling other actors, I thought: I’m never going to be this big. How could I ever get enough attention on a stage with guys like this?” He added, “I stopped being the zany. I let John be the zany. I learned that my thing was lobbing in great lines here and there, which would score big and keep me there on the stage.”

    He served as the first head writer for the sketch comedy television program SCTV for two years. And then he seemed to find comedy gold in almost every Hollywood screenplay he penned.

    Ramis is considered one of the most successful comedy writers ever. He wrote (and often co-starred and directed) hit after hit for the Hollywood big screen. Some of his biggest films include: Animal House, Stripes, Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, Back to School, Meatballs, Groundhog Day and Analyze This. In recent years, Ramis once again made a return to television, directing four episodes of the hit NBC comedy The Office.

    A Harold Ramis comedy was almost always over the top. They were often funny in a wild, inane, frat guy sort of way. He worked with many great comedic talents such as Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, and Billy Crystal to name just a few. Old pal and Ghostbusters co-star Dan Aykroyd spoke of his passing. “Deeply saddened to hear of the passing of my brilliant, gifted, funny friend, co-writer-performer and teacher Harold Ramis. May he now get the answers he was always seeking.”

    Ramis has been suffering with Vasculitis since 2010. The autoimmune disease inflames blood vessels in the body and can result in pain and swelling. Ramis suffered an infection in May 2010 that sparked the disease. He is survived by his wife, Erica Mann Ramis, and three children.

    Image via Wikimedia

  • Bill Murray Talks Big ‘Garfield’ Mistake

    Bill Murray starred as the voice of Garfield in the 2004 film, Garfield: The Movie, but recently admitted via a Reddit chat his huge mistake in taking the role. Believing the script was created by renown film writer Joel Coen–known for hits like The Big Lebowski and Fargo–he didn’t even completely read through it, assuming he was signing on for a fantastic film. After signing on the dotted line and committing to the role, he realized the writer was instead Joel Cohen–known for flops like Cheaper by the Dozen and Howard Stern’s failed TV talk show.

    It was actually during a recording session, voicing the big orange cat, when Bill Murray realized something was horribly wrong.

    “There was just this long, two-minute silence,” he said. “I probably cursed a little, and I said, ‘I can fix this, but I can’t fix this today. Or this week. Who wrote this stuff?’ ”

    Known for getting his start on SNL, Murray also starred in Caddyshack and Lost in Translation–the second of which he earned an Academy Award nomination for.

    Needless to say, when Bill Murray was approached about voicing Garfield in the next film installment, he answered with an unequivocal and resounding “No!”

    “They sort of shot themselves in the foot, the kidneys, the liver and the pancreas on the second one,” he said.

    Despite Bill Murray’s big film mistake with Garfield, the rest of his career has involved one success after another. Long remembered for his classic lines in the 1991 film What About Bob, fans still love to quote his famous line, “I’m sailing!”

    Bill Murray is 63 years old and still going strong in the world of comedy. Who would have known–back in the mid-1970s–when he performed with other comedy greats like John Belushi, Gilda Radner and Dan Aykroyd that his career would span four decades? Sadly, he and Aykroyd are all that remain of the famous four, with Belushi dying of a drug overdose and Gilda Radner dying following a hard-fought battle with ovarian cancer. Murray started out as a troubled young man who was once arrested for smuggling almost nine pounds of marijuana through O’Hare Airport in Chicago. And while no one is saying he hasn’t smoked a joint or two since then, he certainly lives a much different life these days.

    Hopefully Murray will look back at his Garfield film experience as a minor blip on the big screen. It doesn’t seem like most people these days even knew it was his voice behind the snarky orange cat–and that’s probably a good thing.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Alonzo Mourning Tees Off with President Obama

    Former Miami Heat center Alonzo Mourning played a round of golf with President Barack Obama at Grande Oaks Golf Club in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Saturday. Grande Oaks is where the 1980 Chevy Chase classic “Caddyshack” was filmed, and Mourning rounded out a foursome that included Cyrus Walker, the cousin of senior presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett, and former U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

    Mourning described the event as being “very surreal and enlightening,” adding that he’d “spent six hours in a golf cart with the most powerful man in America talking everything from basketball to life after his term – It was a dream come true.”

    Mourning, a longtime Democratic fundraiser, said the two initially planned to play this summer in Martha’s Vineyard. “But then it got late and I had to get my kids into school,” Mourning said. “So he (Obama) reached out to and asked me to choose where to play.”

    Mourning said he’d initially suggested his home course, at Turnberry Isle in Aventura, Florida, but The Secret Service asked for another venue.”They said that wouldn’t work, because there were too many high-rises,” Mourning said. The round ended up at the old Caddyshack course.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrTqenN1SqQ

    Mourning, who is presently a Heat executive, had previously played basketball with Obama, but this was the first time they golfed. “Considering everything on his plate, he’s a decent golfer,” Mourning said with a grin. Obama was also impressed with Mourning’s game – “When we left, he handed me the scorecard,” Mourning said. “It read, ‘Thanks for carrying us today.’ ”

    In 2007, Mourning along with Andre Agassi, Muhammad Ali, Jeff Gordon, Lance Armstrong, Tony Hawk, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Mario Lemieux, and Cal Ripken, Jr. founded Athletes for Hope, a collective which helps professional athletes get involved in charitable causes to inspire millions of non-athletes to embrace volunteerism.

    Mourning commented on the 18 holes played with the president, “To know I have a friendship with the most powerful man in the world is something I will never take for granted.”

    Saturday’s event was the 150th round for Obama in less than five full years in the White House.

    Image via YouTube.

  • CDC: Poop Found in a Majority of Public Pools

    The CDC this week revealed that a new study on fecal matter in public pools uncovered a disturbing statistic. Over half of pools tested in the study were found to have E. coli, a marker for fecal contamination.

    The study tested pool filters from public pools, looking for genetic material. It found that 58% of the filters tested positive for a strain of E. coli that is normally found in human intestines and in feces. The CDC stated that the study indicates people are either pooping in pools or failing to clean themselves well before entering pools.

    “Swimming is an excellent way to get the physical activity needed to stay healthy,” said Michele Hlavsa, chief of the Healthy Swimming Program at the CDC. “However, pool users should be aware of how to prevent infections while swimming. Remember, chlorine and other disinfectants don’t kill germs instantly. That’s why it’s important for swimmers to protect themselves by not swallowing the water they swim in and to protect others by keeping feces and germs out of the pool by taking a pre-swim shower and not swimming when ill with diarrhea.”

    The CDC recommends several practices to cut down on pool contamination. Some of the obvious ones include people not swimming if they have diarrhea, showering with soap before swimming, and washing hands after using the restroom or after changing diapers. The agency also recommends taking bathroom breaks every hour, and checking children’s diapers every half-hour. More advanced pool users can check chlorine levels and water PH before swimming. Possibly the best advice the CDC gives, though, is that swimmers should not swallow the water they swim in.