Bill Murray and Hunter S. Thompson first met at the Hotel Jerome in Aspen, Colorado, in the late 1970s, and it was a fittingly unforgettable encounter for both. The two quickly took a liking to one another while joking around out by the pool, and before long, the conversation turned to Houdini.
“If you were tied to a chair underwater, do you feel like you could escape?” Thompson asked his newfound friend. Without hesitation, Murray told him, “Yeah, I think I could.”
The next thing Murray knew, he was preparing to put his money where his mouth was. All the pair had on hand were their socks, so Thompson used them to tie Murray to a lawn chair. Just prior to being lowered into the pool, Murray asked to be placed toward the shallow end—that way if he needed to pop his head up to take a breath, he wouldn’t be too far down.
However, what Murray didn’t realize at the time was that even though he was a little over six feet tall, being restrained wouldn’t allow him to get any air if he was sitting in six feet of water.
Bill Murray Thought He Was Going to Die During His First Meeting With Hunter S. Thompson
As fate would have it, Thompson tied some pretty tight knots, and Murray started to struggle with his escape act almost immediately. Murray did his best to try and signal Thompson and the other people watching that he was having trouble, but he was stuck down there long enough that drowning seemed like a very real possibility.
“What time of day am I gonna die here? I said, ‘About 11 o’clock in Colorado, I’m gonna die,’” Murray remembered thinking.
Luckily, Thompson was able to pull Murray out at the last minute, in part due to Murray’s buoyancy from being underwater. While recounting the incident to Joe Rogan in 2025, Murray looked back on his near-death experience fondly, calling it “a funny way to meet someone.” The comedian went on to explain that he didn’t find out who Thompson was until the next day, as neither of them had bothered to introduce themselves at any point.
You can listen to Murray tell the full story for yourself in the video above.
The post The Wild Story of How Bill Murray Nearly Drowned With Hunter S. Thompson appeared first on VICE.
