Bill Murray Day: Toronto gets fans to dress like Murray's famous characters

The Toronto International Film Festival declared Friday as Bill Murray Day and called on fans to dress up as his beloved characters in a costume contest and see screenings of films Stripes, Groundhog Day and Ghostbusters.

If there was ever a good reason to skip school, it might just be Bill Murray Day.

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The Toronto International Film Festival declared Friday as Bill Murray Day and called on fans of the quirky comedic actor to dress up as his beloved characters in a costume contest and see screenings of films Stripes, Groundhog Day and Ghostbusters.

And although Murray is famously elusive and unpredictable, organizers announced late on Thursday that he will be at the venue for his own day, taking questions from fans after Ghostbusters and the world premiere of his film St. Vincent.

"Toronto's celebration dedicated to the man is well-deserved and we are immensely excited that he'll be there in the flesh to celebrate with us and his huge legion of fans," Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, executive producer of St. Vincent, said in a statement.

The 63-year-old actor from the Chicago suburb of Wilmette got his foothold in American comedy on Saturday Night Live and went on to star in films Meatballs, Caddyshack, Stripes, Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day in offbeat roles that earned him a following of hard-core fans.

Murray later moved toward more dramatic roles, usually inflected with his trademark humour, like the fading actor in Lost in Translation. In St. Vincent, Murray plays a cantankerous retiree with a few vices who becomes the unlikely mentor to a 12-year-old neighbour.