62 Facts About Billy Crystal

William Edward Crystal was born on March 14,1948 and is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker.

Billy Crystal gained prominence in the 1970s and 1980s for television roles as Jodie Dallas on the ABC sitcom Soap and as a cast member and frequent host of Saturday Night Live.

Billy Crystal then became a Hollywood film star during the late 1980s and 1990s, appearing in Running Scared, The Princess Bride, Throw Momma from the Train, Memories of Me, When Harry Met Sally.

Billy Crystal provided the voice of Mike Wazowski in the Monsters, Inc franchise.

Billy Crystal starred on the Broadway stage in 700 Sundays in 2004 and again in 2014 and in Mr Saturday Night in 2022.

Billy Crystal has received numerous accolades, including six Primetime Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, a Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1991.

Billy Crystal has hosted the Academy Awards nine times, beginning in 1990 and most recently in 2012.

Billy Crystal was born at Doctors Hospital on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and initially raised in the Bronx.

Billy Crystal's father was a jazz promoter, a producer, and an executive for an affiliated jazz record label, Commodore Records, founded by Billy Crystal's uncle, musician and songwriter Milt Gabler.

Billy Crystal is Jewish, and he grew up attending Temple Emanu-El where he had his bar mitzvah.

Billy Crystal never played baseball at Marshall because the program was suspended during his first year.

Billy Crystal did not return to Marshall as a sophomore, instead deciding to stay in New York to be close to his future wife.

Billy Crystal attended Nassau Community College with her and later transferred to New York University, where he was a film and television directing major.

Billy Crystal graduated from NYU in 1970 with a BFA from its then School of Fine Arts.

Billy Crystal later became a solo act and performed regularly at The Improv and Catch a Rising Star.

In 1976, Billy Crystal appeared on an episode of All in the Family.

Billy Crystal was on the dais for the Dean Martin celebrity roast of Muhammad Ali on February 19,1976, where he did impressions of both Ali and sportscaster Howard Cosell.

Billy Crystal was scheduled to appear on the first episode of NBC Saturday Night on October 11,1975, but his sketch was cut.

Billy Crystal made game show appearances such as The Hollywood Squares, All Star Secrets and The $20,000 Pyramid.

In 1982, Billy Crystal hosted his own variety show, The Billy Crystal Comedy Hour on NBC.

When Billy Crystal arrived to shoot the fifth episode, he learned it had been canceled after only the first two aired.

Also in the 1980s, Billy Crystal starred in an episode of Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre as the smartest of the three little pigs.

Billy Crystal was a guest on the first and the last episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, which concluded February 6,2014, after 22 seasons on the air.

In 1996, Billy Crystal was the guest star of the third episode of Muppets Tonight and hosted three Grammy Awards Telecasts: the 29th Grammys; the 30th Grammys; and the 31st Grammys.

In 2015, Billy Crystal co-starred alongside Josh Gad on the FX comedy series The Comedians, which ran for just one season before being canceled.

Billy Crystal appeared briefly in the Rob Reiner "rockumentary" This Is Spinal Tap as Morty The Mime, a waiter dressed as a mime at one of Spinal Tap's parties.

The film has since become an iconic classic for the genre and is Billy Crystal's most celebrated film.

Billy Crystal then starred in the award-winning buddy comedy City Slickers, which proved very successful both commercially and critically and for which Billy Crystal was nominated for his second Golden Globe.

Billy Crystal starred in Woody Allen's critically acclaimed comedy ensemble film Deconstructing Harry.

Billy Crystal had another success alongside Robert De Niro in Harold Ramis' mobster comedy Analyze This.

Billy Crystal directed the made-for-television movie 61* based on Roger Maris's and Mickey Mantle's race to break Babe Ruth's single-season home run record in 1961.

Billy Crystal was originally asked to voice Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story but turned it down, a decision he later regretted due to the popularity of the series.

Billy Crystal later went on to provide the voice of Mike Wazowski in the blockbuster Pixar film Monsters, Inc, Cars, during the epilogue in the end credits, and to reprise his voice role in the prequel, Monsters University.

Billy Crystal provided the voice of Calcifer in the English version of Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle.

In 2013, Billy Crystal released his autobiographical memoir Still Foolin' Em.

Billy Crystal hosted the Academy Awards broadcast a total of 9 times, from 1990 to 1993,1997,1998,2000,2004 and 2012.

Billy Crystal's hosting was critically praised, resulting in two Primetime Emmy Award wins for hosting and writing the 63rd Academy Awards and an Emmy win for writing the 64th Academy Awards.

Billy Crystal returned as the host for the 2012 Oscar ceremony, after Eddie Murphy resigned from hosting.

Billy 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.

Billy Crystal won the 2005 Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event for 700 Sundays, a two-act, one-man play, which he conceived and wrote about his parents and his childhood growing up on Long Island.

Billy Crystal toured throughout the US with the show in 2006 and then Australia in 2007.

In 2022, Billy Crystal adapted his 1992 movie Mr Saturday Night into a Broadway musical with the same name.

Billy Crystal earned the Drama League Award for Contribution to the Theater Award for "his extraordinary work on stages across the country and commitment to mentorship in the field".

Billy Crystal performed a number with the ensemble from his musical at the 75th Tony Awards.

Billy Crystal went into the crowd teaching Lin-Manuel Miranda and Samuel L Jackson as well as the rest of the audience.

In 2014, Billy Crystal paid tribute to his close friend Robin Williams at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards.

In 2016, Billy Crystal gave one of the eulogies for Muhammad Ali at his funeral.

Billy Crystal shared stories of their unlikely friendship after Crystal did a series of impersonations of him.

On June 4,1970, Billy Crystal married his high school sweetheart, Janice Goldfinger.

Billy Crystal has long credited his parents, "who always looked like they loved being together," with setting an example for his own marriage.

Billy Crystal received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from New York University in 2016 and spoke at the commencement at Yankee Stadium.

In 1986, Billy Crystal started hosting Comic Relief on HBO with Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg.

Billy Crystal has participated in the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.

On March 12,2008, Billy Crystal signed a one-day minor league contract to play with the New York Yankees, and was invited to the team's major league spring training.

Billy Crystal wore uniform number 60 in honor of his upcoming 60th birthday.

Billy Crystal 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.

Years later on The Dinah Shore Show, in one of his first television appearances, Billy Crystal met Mantle in person and had Mantle re-sign the same program.

Billy Crystal would be good friends with Mantle until Mantle's death in 1995.

Billy Crystal was well known for his impressions of Yankees Hall of Famer turned broadcaster Phil Rizzuto.

In City Slickers, Billy Crystal wore a New York Mets baseball cap.

Billy Crystal appeared in Ken Burns's 1994 documentary Baseball, telling personal stories about his life-long love of baseball, including meeting Casey Stengel as a child and Ted Williams as an adult.

Billy Crystal is a longtime Los Angeles Clippers fan and season ticket holder.