Billy Crystal

Billy Crystal began his career performing with improv groups in 1969 before becoming a solo stand-up comedian at The Improv and Catch a Rising Star. He made television appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and All in the Family (both 1976), and gained his first major television role as Jodie Dallas on Soap (1977–1981). He starred in The Billy Crystal Comedy Hour (1982) and joined the cast of Saturday Night Live for the 1984–85 season after hosting the show twice. His early film credits include Rabbit Test (1978) and This Is Spinal Tap (1984).

Crystal became a leading film actor with Running Scared (1986), The Princess Bride (1987), and When Harry Met Sally... (1989), earning a Golden Globe nomination for the latter. He hosted the Academy Awards nine times (1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2004, and 2012), winning three Primetime Emmy Awards for his work as host and writer. He also created and produced the HBO miniseries Sessions (1991), starred in City Slickers (1991) and its sequel, wrote, directed, and starred in Mr. Saturday Night (1992) and Forget Paris (1995), narrated Horton Hatches the Egg (1992), and appeared in Hamlet (1996), Deconstructing Harry (1997), Father's Day (1997), Analyze This (1999), and a guest appearance on Friends (1997). He also hosted the Grammy Awards from 1987 to 1989.

In the 2000s, Crystal directed the television film 61* (2001), earning an Emmy nomination for directing. His film credits during this period include America's Sweethearts (2001), Analyze That (2002), and Parental Guidance (2012). He voiced Mike Wazowski in Monsters, Inc. (2001), Cars (2006), Monsters University (2013), and Monsters at Work (2021–2024), and voiced Calcifer in the English-language version of Howl's Moving Castle (2004).

Crystal made his Broadway debut with the autobiographical one-man show 700 Sundays (2004), winning the Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event. The show returned to Broadway in 2013 and was filmed as the HBO special Billy Crystal: 700 Sundays (2014), which received three Primetime Emmy nominations. He also published the memoir Still Foolin' Em (2013), whose audiobook earned a Grammy nomination.

More recently, Crystal starred in the FX comedy series The Comedians (2015). He returned to the role of Buddy Young Jr. in Mr. Saturday Night at Barrington Stage Company (2021) before adapting the film into the Broadway musical Mr. Saturday Night (2022), in which he reprised the starring role. In 2023, he was honored at the Kennedy Center Honors. Crystal is scheduled to return to Broadway in 860, an autobiographical one-man show directed by Scott Ellis, opening in 2026.