William Edward Crystal (born March 14, 1948) is an American actor, comedian, singer, writer, producer, director, and television host. He 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. He made his film debut in the Joan Rivers directed comedy Rabbit Test (1978), with Roddy McDowall, Joan Prather, Alex Rocco, Doris Roberts, and Michael Keaton.
He then became a Hollywood film star during the late 1980s and 1990s, appearing in the critical and box office successes such as Rob Reiner‘s The Princess Bride (1987), with Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon, Wallace Shawn, André the Giant, and Christopher Guest; Throw Momma from the Train (1987), with Danny DeVito (who also directed), Anne Ramsey, Reiner, Branford Marsalis, Kim Greist, and Kate Mulgrew; Memories of Me (1988), with Alan King and JoBeth Williams; Reiner’s When Harry Met Sally… (1989), with Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher, and Bruno Kirby; City Slickers (1991), with Daniel Stern, Kirby, Jack Palance, Patricia Wettig, Helen Slater, and Noble Willingham; Harold Ramis‘ Analyze This (1999), with Robert De Niro, Lisa Kudrow, and Chazz Palminteri; and Parental Guidance (2012), with Bette Midler, Marisa Tomei, and Tom Everett Scott.
Crystal has also directed and starred in the films Mr. Saturday Night (1992), with David Paymer, Julie Warner, Helen Hunt, Jerry Orbach, and Ron Silver; Forget Paris (1995), with Debra Winger, Joe Mantegna, Julie Kavner, Cynthia Stevenson, Richard Masur, Cathy Moriarty, and John Spencer; and Here Today (2021), with Tiffany Haddish, Louisa Krause, Penn Badgley, Laura Benanti, Alex Brightman, Anna Deavere Smith, Max Gordon Moore, and Nyambi Nyambi. He also directed the TV movie sports biopic 61* (2001), with Barry Pepper and Thomas Jane.
Crystal provided the voice of Mike Wazowski in the Monsters, Inc. films, starting in 2001. He will reprise his role in the upcoming Disney+ series Monsters at Work (2021). The franchise collectively feature the voices of John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, James Coburn, Jennifer Tilly, Bob Peterson, John Ratzenberger, Helen Mirren, Peter Sohn, Joel Murray, Sean Hayes, Dave Foley, Charlie Day, Nathan Fillion, Ben Feldman, Kelly Marie Tran, Henry Winkler, Lucas Neff, Alanna Ubach, Stephen Stanton, and Aisha Tyler.
Other notable films include Running Scared (1986), with Gregory Hines, Steven Bauer, Jimmy Smits, and Dan Hedaya; Hamlet (1996), with Kenneth Branagh (who also directed), Derek Jacobi, Julie Christie, Kate Winslett, Michael Maloney, Richard Briers, Nicholas Farrell, Robin Williams, Gérard Depardieu, Jack Lemmon, Rufus Sewell, Charlton Heston, Richard Attenborough, Judi Dench, John Gielgud, Ken Dodd, and Brian Blessed; Ivan Reitman‘s Father’s Day (1997), with Williams, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Nastassja Kinski; Deconstructing Harry (1997), with Woody Allen (who also directed), Richard Benjamin, Kirstie Alley, Judy Davis, Bob Balaban, Elisabeth Shue, and Tobey Maguire; America’s Sweethearts (2001), with Julia Roberts, John Cusack, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Hank Azaria, Stanley Tucci, Seth Green, Alan Arkin, and Christopher Walken; and Small Apartments (2012), with Matt Lucas, Peter Stormare, Dolph Lundgren, Johnny Knoxville, James Caan, Juno Temple, Rebel Wilson, Saffron Burrows and Amanda Plummer.
Each review will be linked to the title below.
(*seen originally in theaters)
(**seen rereleased in theaters)
- SST: Death Flight (1977) – directed by David Lowell Rich – TV movie – aka SST: Disaster in the Sky, Flight of the Maiden, & Death Flight
- Rabbit Test (1978) – directed by Joan Rivers
- Human Feelings (1978) – directed by Ernest Pintoff – TV movie
- Breaking Up Is Hard to Do (1979) – directed by Lou Antonio
- Animalympics (1980) – directed by Steven Lisberger
- Enola Gay: The Men, The Mission, The Atomic Bomb (1980) – directed by David Lowell Rich
- Likely Stories, Vol. 3 (1983) – directed with David Jablin, Richard Goldstone, Rick Wallach, & David Wechner – anthology – also writer
- This Is Spın̈al Tap: A Rockumentary by Martin Di Bergi (1984) – directed by Rob Reiner
- Running Scared (1986) – directed by Peter Hyams
- The Princess Bride (1987)** – directed by Rob Reiner
- Throw Momma from the Train (1987) – directed by Danny DeVito
- Memories of Me (1988) – directed by Henry Winkler – also co-writer, producer
- When Harry Met Sally… (1989) – directed by Rob Reiner
- City Slickers (1991) – directed by Ron Underwood – also executive producer
- Horton Hatches the Egg (1992) – directed by Ray Messecar – short
- Mr. Saturday Night (1992) – also director, co-writer, producer
- City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly’s Gold (1994) – directed by Paul Weiland – also co-writer, co-producer
- Forget Paris (1995) – also director, co-writer, producer
- Hamlet (1996) – directed by Kenneth Branagh
- Father’s Day (1997)* – directed by Ivan Reitman
- Deconstructing Harry (1997) – directed by Woody Allen
- My Giant (1998) – directed by Michael Lehmann – also co-story, producer
- Analyze This (1999) – directed by Harold Ramis – also executive producer
- The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000) directed by Des McAnuff – uncredited actor
- 61* (2001) – director, uncredited actor
- America’s Sweethearts (2001)* – directed by Joe Roth – also co-writer, co-producer
- Monsters, Inc. (2001)* – directed by Pete Docter
- Mikes New Car (2002) – directed by Pete Docter & Roger Gould – short
- Analyze That (2002) – directed by Harold Ramis – also executive producer
- Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)* – directed by Hayao Miyazaki – English dub
- Cars (2006) – directed by John Lasseter – voice cameo
- Tooth Fairy (2010) – directed by Michael Lembeck – uncredited
- I’m Still Here (2010) – directed by Casey Affleck – cameo as himself
- When Harry Met Sally 2 with Billy Crystal and Helen Mirren (2011) – directed by Lindsay Crystal – short
- Small Apartments (2012) – directed by Jonas Åkerlund
- Parental Guidance (2012) – directed by Andy Fickman
- Monsters University (2013)* – directed by Dan Scanlon
- Party Central (2014)* – directed by Kelsey Mann – short accompanying Muppets Most Wanted
- The Comedian (2016) – directed by Taylor Hackford – cameo as himself
- City Slickers in Westworld (2017) – directed by The Director Brothers – short
- Untogether (2018) – directed by Emma Forrest
- Standing Up, Falling Down (2019) – directed by Matt Ratner
- Here Today (2021) – also director, co-writer, co-producer
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