--- description: In celebration of the Toronto Film Festival's Bill Murray Day, LIFE.com presents one of the most memorable covers in the magazine's history. title: Bill Murray Day: Celebrating a Singular Comedic Actor image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt880e1dd554f69960/69884c6c524fc07ac3df23ea/140905-bill-murray-life-magazine.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bill Murray: Eyes Wide Shut by [Ben Cosgrove](/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 5, 2014 9:02 PM CUT  Bill Murray, LIFE Magazine, Dec. 24, 2004. Bill Murray, LIFE Magazine, Dec. 24, 2004.LIFE Magazine (Photo: Karina Taira) by [Ben Cosgrove](/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 5, 2014 9:02 PM CUT The Toronto Film Festival recently announced that today, Sept. 5, 2014, will be celebrated as [“Bill Murray Day”](http://time.com/3271959/bill-murray-day-canada-toronto-film-festival/ "undefined") in tribute to the actor and his many (and remarkably diverse) movie roles. Here, in humble praise of the man and his singular contributions as a comedic and dramatic actor, LIFE.com offers up one of the most memorable covers LIFE magazine ever published—in its last print incarnation as a weekend newspaper supplement in the mid-2000s—featuring a marvelous portrait of Murray by [Karina Taira](http://www.karinataira.com/ "undefined"). Happy Bill Murray Day, everyone! [\[Read about another Bill Murray who graced the cover of TIME . . . in 1932\]](http://time.com/3274299/bill-murray-alfalfa-bill/ "undefined")  Bill Murray, LIFE Magazine, Dec. 24, 2004. LIFE Magazine (Photo: Karina Taira) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3880888/bill-murray-day-celebrating-a-singular-comedic-actor/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3880888/bill-murray-day-celebrating-a-singular-comedic-actor/"},"headline":"Bill Murray: Eyes Wide Shut","datePublished":"2014-09-05T21:02:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:03:37.005Z","description":"In celebration of the Toronto Film Festival's Bill Murray Day, LIFE.com offers up one of the most memorable of the covers published when LIFE magazine was in its last print incarnation in the early 2000s.","url":"https://time.com/3880888/bill-murray-day-celebrating-a-singular-comedic-actor/","keywords":["movies","Actors","Bill Murray"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt880e1dd554f69960/69884c6c524fc07ac3df23ea/140905-bill-murray-life-magazine.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Cosgrove","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt880e1dd554f69960/69884c6c524fc07ac3df23ea/140905-bill-murray-life-magazine.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Bill Murray, LIFE Magazine","caption":"1218450.jpg","creditText":"LIFE Magazine (Photo: Karina Taira)","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3880888/bill-murray-day-celebrating-a-singular-comedic-actor/","name":"Bill Murray: Eyes Wide Shut"}}]}] ```