Bill Murray's fist fight with Chevy Chase and claims wife jibe sparked feud

Classic golfing comedy Caddyshack is widely regarded as one of the funniest sports movies of all time.

Much of the 1980 film’s brilliance is down to the on-screen chemistry between Bill Murray and Chevy Chase.

But what a lot of fans don’t realise is that the two young film stars had been involved in a violent fist fight just two years earlier, with tensions still running high by the time they started filming Caddyshack.

The now infamous fracas happened on the set of Saturday Night Live, the primetime American TV show, which drew millions of viewers every week.

Murray and Chase had been regular fixtures on the programme since the mid-70s.

But when Chase won two Emmys in 1976, he became a huge box office star and left the TV show for even more lucrative work in Hollywood, which seemingly caused some resentment among the SNL gang.

Murray had known Chase since they worked together with other rising stars including John Belushi at American comedy magazine National Lampoon and its spin-off stage and radio shows.

In February 1978, Chase returned as a guest host on Saturday Night Live, apparently with a slightly inflated ego, and immediately started rubbing some people up the wrong way.

One of those people was Murray, who decided to confront his fellow comedian.

The story goes that Murray took it upon himself to bring Chase down a peg or two, telling him that everyone hated him, igniting a shouting match with tensions simmering throughout dress rehearsal.

Murray is said to have then referenced Chase’s well-documented marital problems with his then-wife Jacqueline Carlin.

He reportedly turned to Chase and said: “Go f*** your wife, she needs it” at which point Chase replied that Murray’s pock-marked face looked like a landing spot for astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon.

Just before the show was set to air, Chase is then said to have confronted Murray in John Belushi’s dressing room and challenged him to a fight.

At the time, 6ft 2ins Murray was in his late 20s while Chase, who is 6ft 4ins, was mid 30s – so the pair were certainly capable of doing some damage.

It was reported that Murray threw the first punch and the diminutive Belushi jumped between the two men as fists were flying.

Almost immediately after they were pulled apart by Murray’s brother Brian Doyle-Murray, a seemingly unrattled Chase took the stage to deliver his monologue to the unsuspecting audience.

The ratings that week were the show’s highest to date.

National Lampoon’s Animal House director John Landis witnessed the event and explained what happened to Nick de Semlyen, author of Wild and Crazy Guys: How the Comedy Mavericks of the ’80s changed Hollywood Forever.

He said: “It was a huge altercation. They were big guys and really going at it. They were slapping at each other, screaming at each other, calling each other terrible names. The best insult, which made a huge impression on me, was by Bill. In the heat of anger, he pointed at Chevy and yelled, ‘MEDIUM TALENT!’”

Murray’s recollection of the event was different, according to the book.

“It was really a Hollywood fight; a don’t-touch-my-face kinda thing,” Murray told de Semlyen. “Chevy is a big man, I’m not a small guy, and we were separated by my brother Brian, who comes up to my chest.

“So it was king of a non-event. It was just the significance of it. It was an Oedipal thing, a rupture. Because we all felt mad he had left us, and somehow I was the anointed avenging angel, who had to speak for everyone.”

Chase, 77, and Murray, 70, buried the hatchet while shooting Caddyshac’ 18 months later and the pair remain on good terms, if not exactly close friends.

But Chase has since offered some kind words for his one-time rival.

“We got over everything,” he told Chris Nashawaty, author of Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story.

“I have nothing but admiration and affection for Bill. He still can be a surly character, to say the least. But ultimately he’s a good guy. Even though I’m the number one star in the movie under the title, I’ll always think of Caddyshack as Billy’s movie.”

Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk