Billy Crystal

Billy Crystal

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Birth name: William Jacob Crystal
Date of birth: 14 March 1947
Place of birth: Long Beach, Long Island, New York, USA
Nickname: Face
Height: 5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
Spouse: Janice Goldfinger (4 June 1970 – present) 2 children

Famous Quote: “Women need a reason to have sex. Men just need a place. In high school, I was the class comedian as opposed to the class clown. The difference is, the class clown is the guy who drops his pants at the football game, the class comedian is the guy who talked him into it.”

Contact Address and Autograph: Addresses and fan mail information

Billy Crystal
Face Productions, Inc.
335 North Maple Drive, Suite 135
Beverly Hills, CA 90210, USA 

Biography:  William Edward “Billy” Crystal (born March 14, 1948) is a Golden Globe Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning American actor, writer, producer, comedian, and film director. He gained prominence in the 1970s for playing Jodie Dallas on the ABC sitcom Soap and became a Hollywood film star during the late 1980s and 1990s, appearing in the box office successes When Harry Met Sally… and City Slickers.

Crystal was born in the Doctor’s Hospital in Manhattan and grew up in Long Beach, New York, the son of Helen Gabler, a housewife, and Jack Crystal, a record company executive and producer of jazz records, who owned and operated the Commodore Record store. His uncle was musician and songwriter Milt Gabler, and his brother, Richard Crystal, is a television producer. Crystal grew up in a Jewish family that he has described as “large” and “loving”. 

A leading name in contemporary comedy, Crystal has achieved great success as a comedian, sitcom and film actor, sketch comic, filmmaker, and awards show host. A likable stand-up comic, Crystal made the comedy club rounds before being featured on the popular spoof, “Soap” (ABC, 1977-81), as Jodie Dallas, one of TV’s first openly gay series regulars. He went on to TV-movies, specials, a fleeting variety show of his own, and a busted pilot before becoming a crucial member of the “Saturday Night Live” ensemble–which then included Martin Short, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer–during the 1984-85 season. Crystal scored with several memorable characters including the wildly popular Latin lover, Fernando (“You look mahvelous!”), an impressive interpretation of Sammy Davis Jr., and an inadvertently masochistic moron (“I hate when that happens!”).

After graduation from Long Beach High School, Crystal attended Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, on a baseball scholarship, having learned the game from his father, who pitched for St. John’s University. Crystal though never played a game at Marshall because the program was suspended during his freshman year and he didn’t return as a sophomore, staying back in New York with his future wife. Later, he attended New York University and Nassau Community College. Crystal has been married to Janice Goldfinger, whom he met when he was 18 and she 17, since 1970. They have two daughters, actresses Jennifer and Lindsay, and are now grandparents. They reside in Pacific Palisades, California.

Crystal made his film debut during a hiatus from “Soap”, playing the world’s first pregnant man in the little-seen “Rabbit Test” (1978), directed by Joan Rivers. He later performed the small role of Morty the Mime in Rob Reiner’s “This Is Spinal Tap” (1984). Crystal’s feature career resumed with “Running Scared” (1986), a ho-hum police action comedy pairing him with Gregory Hines. Crystal emerged with positive notices and went on to a delightful bit in Reiner’s romantic fantasy “The Princess Bride” (1987). He consolidated his box-office standing as the romantic lead of Reiner’s hugely successful “When Harry Met Sally” (1989) opposite Meg Ryan and as a listless radio exec who overcomes a mid-life crisis by going on a Western-style cattle drive vacation in “City Slickers” (1991). The latter marked Crystal’s first collaboration with the crackerjack comedy writing team of Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel.

Crystal returned to New York and performed regularly at The Improv and Catch a Rising Star. He studied film and television direction under Martin Scorsese at New York University. Crystal’s earliest prominent role was as Jodie Dallas on Soap, one of the first gay characters portrayed on American television. In 1976, Crystal appeared on an episode of All in the Family. He was scheduled to appear on the first episode of Saturday Night Live (October 11, 1975), but his sketch was cut. He did do a stand-up bit later on that first season as “Bill Crystal”, on the April 17, 1976, episode. After hosting a show years later, in 1984, he joined the cast. His most famous recurring sketch was his parody of Fernando Lamas – Fernando, a smarmy talk show host whose catch phrase, “You look mahvelous!,” became a media sensation.

Crystal’s first film role was in Joan Rivers’s 1978 film Rabbit Test. Crystal also made game show appearances such as The Hollywood Squares and The $20,000 Pyramid. He holds the record for getting his contestant partner to the top of the pyramid in the bonus round in the fastest time, 26 seconds. Crystal hosted the Academy Awards broadcast in 1990–1993, 1997, 1998, 2000, and 2004; and he reportedly turned down the opportunity to host the 2006 ceremony to concentrate on his one-man show, 700 Sundays. He is second only to legendary Oscar host Bob Hope in most ceremonies hosted.

Crystal appeared briefly in Rob Reiner’s 1984 “rockumentary” This Is Spinal Tap as Morty The Mime, a waiter dressed as a mime at one of Spinal Tap’s parties. He shared the scene with a then-unknown Dana Carvey, who didn’t speak. Crystal’s memorable line in the film was “Mime is money.” Eventually, Reiner directed Crystal again in The Princess Bride and then in the romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally…, for which Crystal was nominated for a Golden Globe. Crystal also appeared in the box-office hit City Slickers (1991).

Crystal wrote, directed, and starred in Mr. Saturday Night (1992) and Forget Paris (1995), the former of which Crystal played a serious role in aging makeup, as an egotistical comedian who reflects back on his career. He 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. This earned Crystal an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special.

Crystal provided the story and served as executive producer for “City Slickers” but desired even greater control on his next project. In addition to producing, co-writing (with exec producers Ganz and Mandel) and starring, Crystal took up the directorial reins with “Mr. Saturday Night” (1992). This boldly schmaltzy and sometimes hilarious film chronicled 50 years in the life of veteran comic Buddy Young Jr., a fictional character he had played on “SNL” and other shows since originating him on a 1984 HBO special. Crystal has long evinced a love of both affectionately broad ethnic characterizations and equally broad “Vegas-style” entertainers. Associates have remarked that he eagerly looks forward to becoming an old Jewish comic. Clearly “Mr. Saturday Night” was a deeply heartfelt project but reviews were mixed and audiences stayed away. He fared better at the boxoffice after getting back in the saddle to produce, co-script, and star in the pleasant if unremarkable sequel “City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly’s Gold” (1994). But his next effort, the romantic comedy “Forget Paris” (1995) with Debra Winger failed to excite critics or audiences.

Despite all his other successes, Crystal may be best known and loved for his frequent duties as a TV host. Crystal has been an exuberant host for more than 20 special events since 1979–including the Grammy Awards in 1987 and 1988–and has won several performing and writing Emmys for his efforts. He became known as one of the best hosts of the annual Oscar telecast beginning with his first ceremony in 1990–Crystal won audiences with inventive routines that found him plugged into film clips or singing hilarious songs about the current crop of nominees. He returned again in 1991 and had a standout performance at the 1992 Oscar telecast, getting much improvised mileage from his “City Slickers” co-star Jack Palance’s impulsive decision to begin performing one-handed pushups on stage after accepting his Oscar. Along with his colleagues Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg, he has been co-hosting the popular “Comic Relief” benefit specials on HBO since 1986.

In 1997, Crystal and Williams teamed onscreen for the pallid comedy “Father’s Day”, which proved to be a box-office disappointment. After returning as host of both the 1997 and 1998 telecasts of the Academy Awards, he attempted another screen comedy as writer, producer and star of “My Giant” (1998), portraying a cynical Hollywood agent who represents a very tall, gentle Romanian (played by Washington Bullets basketball player Gheorghe Muresan). Crystal had a career resurgence in 1999 when he appeared as Ben Sobol, a nervous psychiatrist beset with a vicious Mafia boss (Robert DeNiro) as his needy patient in director Harold Ramis’ “Analyze This.” The actor reprised the role for the less-fresh sequel “Amalyze That” (2002). Proving that he could still be more than a stellar Academy Awards host (a role he reprised in 2000), Crystal took a hiatus from his famed emcee duties, but the on-screen results of his new career focus were mixed: he earned an Emmy nomination for directing the HBO telepic “61*” which focused on the hitting race between Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, and he scored kudos for his voice duties as Mike Wazowski in Disney/Pixar’s animated hit “Monsters, Inc.” (2001) but his next film as an actor and co-writer, “America’s Sweethearts” (2001), in which he co-starred with Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones and John Cusack, was a startlingly unfunny attempt to lampoon Hollywood–although to his credit Crystal provided the only genuinely amusing moments in the movie. 

Crystal has continued working in film, including the popular Analyze This (1999) and Analyze That (2002) with Robert De Niro. Crystal lent his voice to the character Mike Wazowski in Pixar’s animated feature film Monsters, Inc., and in the English version of Howl’s Moving Castle as the voice of Calcifer. Pixar originally approached him to provide the voice of Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story. He turned down that offer, but regretted it after the film became one of the most popular releases of the year.

Crystal reassumed the Oscar hosting duties for the 2004 Academy Awards, his eighth outing as master of ceremonies. Other than his Oscar and other hosting gigs, Crystal had not appeared on the live stage in over 15 years when he decided to launch his next project on the Broadway stage in 2004. His autobiographical one-man show “700 Sundays”–derived from the amount of days the comic spent with his jazz manager father before he died when Crystal was just 15–featured Crystal in a variety of roles as he revisited his formative years. The show played to capacity crowds at New York’s Broadhurst Theater throughout its run, and was extended beyond its initial booking, earning a Tony for Best Theatrical Event. That same year he released a top-selling children’s story inspired by the birth of his granddaughter titled I Already Know I Love You. 

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. He toured the U.S. with the show in 2006 and Australia in 2007.

Following the initial success of the play, Crystal wrote the book 700 Sundays for Warner Books, which was published on October 31, 2005. In conjunction with the book and the play, which also paid tribute to his uncle, Milt Gabler, Crystal produced two CD compilations: Billy Crystal Presents: The Milt Gabler Story, which featured his uncle’s most influential recordings from Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” to “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley & His Comets; Billy Remembers Billie featured Crystal’s favorite Holiday recordings.

In 1986, Crystal started hosting Comic Relief on HBO with Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg. Founded by Bob Zmuda, Comic Relief raises money for homeless men, women, and children in the United States. On September 6, 2005, on The Tonight Show, Crystal and Jay Leno were the first celebrities to sign a Harley-Davidson motorcycle to be auctioned off for Gulf Coast relief.

On March 12, 2008, Crystal signed a minor league contract to play with the New York Yankees and was invited to the team’s major league spring training. Billy wore uniform number 60 in honor of his upcoming 60th birthday. On March 13, in a spring training game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Crystal led off as the designated hitter. He managed to make contact, fouling a fastball up the first base line, but was eventually struck out by Pirates pitcher Paul Maholm on 6 pitches and was later replaced in the batting order by Johnny Damon. He was released on March 14, his 60th birthday. In addition to his Golden Globe Award-nominations, Emmy Awards, and Tony Award, Crystal is the 2007 recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

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