Billy Crystal

[2][3] Crystal gained prominence for television roles as Jodie Dallas on the ABC sitcom Soap from 1977 to 1981 and as a cast member and frequent host of Saturday Night Live from 1984 to 1985.Crystal then became known for his roles in films such as Running Scared (1986), Throw Momma from the Train (1987), Memories of Me (1988), When Harry Met Sally... (1989), City Slickers (1991), Mr. Saturday Night (1992), Forget Paris (1995), Father's Day (1997), America's Sweethearts (2001), and Parental Guidance (2012).Crystal made his Broadway debut in his one man show 700 Sundays in 2004, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event.Crystal returned to the show again in 2014 which was filmed by HBO and received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special nomination.[4] Crystal is Jewish (his ancestors emigrated from Austria, Russia, and Lithuania),[6][7] and he grew up attending Temple Emanu-El (Long Beach, New York) where he had his bar mitzvah.[8] The three young brothers would entertain by reprising comedy routines from the likes of Bob Newhart, Rich Little and Sid Caesar records their father would bring home.[4] With the decline of Dixieland jazz and the rise of discount record stores, in 1963, Crystal's father lost his business[6] and died later that year at the age of 54[5] after having a heart attack.[6] After graduating from Long Beach High School in 1965,[9] Crystal attended Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, on a baseball scholarship.[19][20] Crystal's earliest prominent role was as Jodie Dallas on Soap, one of the first unambiguously gay characters in the cast of an American television series.The title track You Look Marvelous, written by Crystal and Paul Shaffer, had an accompanying music video that debuted on MTV.The video features Lamas cruising around in what was at the time the world's longest stretch limousine, built by custom-coach designer and builder Vini Bergeman,[28] surrounded by models in bikinis.Film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert praised the two for their on-screen chemistry writing, "But Crystal and Hines...don't need a plot because they have so much good dialogue and such a great screen relationship.Crystal starred alongside Meg Ryan, Bruno Kirby and Carrie Fisher in a script written by Nora Ephron."[35] Crystal was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy losing to Morgan Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy (1989).[36] In 1991, Crystal created and produced the HBO six-part comedy miniseries Sessions starring Michael McKean and Elliott Gould.He was originally asked to voice Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story (1995) but turned it down, a decision he later regretted due to the popularity of the series.Crystal had starred opposite Robin Williams in Father's Day (1997) and had success alongside Robert De Niro in Harold Ramis' mobster comedy Analyze This (1999).[40] Crystal directed the made-for-television movie 61* (2001) based on Roger Maris's and Mickey Mantle's race to break Babe Ruth's single-season home run record in 1961.He won the 2005 Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event for 700 Sundays, a two-act, one-man play, which Crystal conceived and wrote about his parents and his childhood growing up on Long Island.[44] Crystal's hosting gigs have regularly included an introductory video segment in which he comedically inserts himself into scenes of that year's nominees in addition to a song following his opening monologue."[50][51] Crystal soon after appeared on The View where he and Whoopi Goldberg shared stories about Williams, reminiscing about their friendship, and their collaborations together on Comic Relief.Club wrote "The odd-couple pairing of Crystal and Gad works well, with their generational divide providing many of the show's early highlights...The friendly rapport that develops between the fictionalized Billy and Josh allows them to relax a bit and get to know each other better".Tributes came from Rob Reiner, Meg Ryan, Whoopi Goldberg, Robert De Niro, Jay Leno, and Bob Costas.Lin-Manuel Miranda and Marc Shaiman did a tribute to Crystal's "Oscar Medleys" to the tunes of "Too Marvelous for Words", "It Had to Be You" (the theme from When Harry Met Sally...), and "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music.[65] Crystal has also received numerous honors including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1991, and was awarded with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2007 where he was honored by Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Robert De Niro, Martin Short, and Rob Reiner at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C.Crystal was made one of the Disney Legends in 2013 and also received the Critics' Choice Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022 and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2023.[71] Crystal received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from New York University in 2016 and spoke at the commencement at Yankee Stadium.He managed to make contact, fouling a fastball up the first base line, but was eventually struck out by Pirates pitcher Paul Maholm on six pitches and was later replaced in the batting order by Johnny Damon.