Bill Murray receives Mark Twain prize

Los Angeles: Comedian Bill Murray has been feted with the 19th annual Mark Twain prize.

He received the honour at the Sunday ceremony Sunday, with a mixture of gratitude and relief before a packed house at the Kennedy Center, reported Variety.

The 66-year-old star was grateful for the honour but more relieved that it did not conflict with the National League Pennant win by his beloved Chicago Cubs.

"I'm glad they won last night so I could be here this evening," said Murray after being presented with his prize, a bust of humorist Mark Twain. "I would have come anyway but honestly I do not trust the media to fairly report the story!"

Murray's jab at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's tirades against the news media was the only topical joke all night in an occasion curiously stripped of political humor from the assemblage of comics and others on hand to salute the honoree.

Murray said that he had been dreading the occasion, but was humbled by his whirlwind weekend in DC that included an impromptu appearance before the White House press secretary's microphone, quality time at the executive mansion and dinner with Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor.

"Everything's a blur," he confessed to the Kennedy Center Concert Hall audience.

Murray spoke of growing up in Illinois as a rambunctious middle child of nine children where he as known as "the little Murray".

He said it was his older brother Brian who paved his way into showbiz with a connection at Chicago's Second City, where Bill first met the likes of John Belushi, Gilda Radner and Dan Aykroyd.

"The only reason I'm here is because of my brother Brian. He had more guts than anybody, and he's waited a long time to hear that," Murray said.