{"id":62461,"date":"2025-10-31T15:21:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T15:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/actor-bill-murray-reflects-on-death-of-his-father\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T15:21:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T15:21:00","slug":"actor-bill-murray-reflects-on-death-of-his-father","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/actor-bill-murray-reflects-on-death-of-his-father\/","title":{"rendered":"Actor Bill Murray Reflects on the Death of His Father"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an interview with The New York Times<\/em> the actor Bill Murray revealed how every human being has suffering and losses. The interviewer asked: “You lost your dad at 17. Do you think your dad’s passing put you on a particular path?”
\n
\nMurray replied, “I do. I think I had two events in my life. That was one, and the other one, was when I was about 4, my younger sister contracted polio. I wasn’t aware of what was happening, but all of a sudden you become not exactly an afterthought, but you’re not the primary worry anymore. I had a great birthday when I was 5. I got a Davy Crockett bicycle with a rifle sheath and a rifle that came with it loaded on the frame of the bike. It had saddle bags. I got a coonskin cap, I got a Cubs jacket and a Cubs hat, a baseball and a bat. And I never had another birthday until I was 13. That was it. Then when I was 17, my father died. There went the family income. Whatever life we were with nine kids by that point, was going to be even more crimped. So I had to figure out how to get by in life.”<\/p>","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[446],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3737,3783,3971,4101,4168,4391,4597,5186],"tax_ctp_topics":[384],"class_list":["post-62461","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-death","tax_ctp_tags-direction","tax_ctp_tags-fathers","tax_ctp_tags-grief","tax_ctp_tags-hopelessness","tax_ctp_tags-loss","tax_ctp_tags-parents","tax_ctp_tags-trauma"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"\nActor Bill Murray Reflects on the Death of His Father - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/actor-bill-murray-reflects-on-death-of-his-father\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Actor Bill Murray Reflects on the Death of His Father - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In an interview with The New York Times the actor Bill Murray revealed how every human being has suffering and losses. The interviewer asked: “You lost your dad at 17. Do you think your dad’s passing put you on a particular path?” Murray replied, “I do. I think I had two events in my life. 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