American actor and comedian, a gifted mimic and major league comic who evokes full-blown alter egos. For his work, he has received numerous accolades, including six Primetime Emmy Awards (out of twenty-one nominations), a Tony Award, a Mark Twain Prize and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1991. He has hosted the Academy Awards nine times, beginning in 1990 and most recently in 2012.
The youngest child of Jack and Helen Crystal, at age four and five, Crystal put on coats of visiting relatives, climbed up on the coffee table and did imitations of each coat’s owner. Billy’s father, who sold records and operated a jazz joint, encouraged Billy to watch Ernie Kovacs, Sid Caesar, Laurel and Hardy and let him stay up late to watch Jack Paar. Jack Crystal died at age 54 during Billy’s junior year in high school but was able to see Billy perform once on stage before he died. Older brothers Joel and Richard were out of the nest by then leaving Helen to find a way to send Billy to college. He attended one year at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.
Also a serious actor, his films include his debut “Rabbit Test,” 1978, “Running Scared,” 1986, “When Harry Met Sally,” “City Slickers” and “Mr. Saturday Night.” Crystal began his career with a small-time improv trio in 1969 and went solo in 1973. There were lean days before he gained his first devoted fans for the demented TV series “Soap,” 1977-1981. He moved into super stardom as a member of “Saturday Night Live” 1984-1985. He won Emmys in 1991 and ’92 for his writing of the Oscar show and Emmy-nominations for his performances as MC of the show in ’91, ’92 and ’93. On 24 March 1997 he hosted the Oscars for the fifth time. He is the author of a slim autobiography “Absolutely Mahvelous,” 1986.
Crystal married Janice Goldfinger in 1970 and has two daughters, Jennifer and Lindsay. The Crystals are considered a down-to-earth family and prefer entertaining a close circle of friends in their remodeled Cape Cod home overlooking the Pacific and Santa Monica Canyon.
Crystal took his mother’s death in 2002 very hard and experienced a depressed period in which he felt he could not be funny. In 2004, he returned to hosting the Academy Awards after a three-year hiatus and he published a book, “I Already Know I Love You,” in honor of his new granddaughter.
The entertainer won a Tony award on 5 June 2005 for his one-man autobiographical play entitled “700 Sundays.” In the show he portrays several people who were important and influential in his life.
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