Bill Murray: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

2. Peter Venkman - Ghostbusters (1984)

Peter Venkman is arguably the most generous character creation of Murray's career: while the rest of the cast play varying degrees of straight men (Dan Aykroyd is something of both sides of the coin, but not really intentionally), he was allowed to get away with sabotaging everything and taking the lion's share of the laughs. He's pretty much the least believable scholar possible; a probably sociopath and definitely an arch manipulator, and while he suffers the most in terms of being slimed and having to see his "girlfriend" possessed, he's also afforded the best jokes and the most enjoyable dialogue. He's an anti-hero rather than a bumbling geek; a jerk rather than a dork, and it's almost impossible to imagine anyone else playing the character any other way. It's frustrating that Murray has always seemed so intent not to bring the character back, but perhaps he's aware of the laws of diminishing returns: there's only so much Venkman can get away with before he's completely irredeemable, and that was always a big part of his appeal.