page_title: Billy Crystal
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Billy Crystal / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of Milt Gabler, Herbie Hill, Lou Blum, and Jack Crystal, Commodore Record Shop, New York, N.Y., ca. Aug. 1947
context_page_description: William Edward Crystal is an American actor, comedian, singer, writer, producer, director, and television host. He gained prominence in the 1970s and '80s for television roles as Jodie Dallas on the ABC sitcom Soap and as a cast member and frequent host of Saturday Night Live. He then became a Hollywood film star during the late 1980s and 1990s, appearing in the critical and box office successes The Princess Bride, Throw Momma from the Train, When Harry Met Sally..., City Slickers, Mr. Saturday Night, Analyze This, and Parental Guidance. and providing 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.
  For his work, he received numerous accolades, including six Primetime Emmy Awards, 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.
context_section_description: Crystal was born at Doctors Hospital on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and initially raised in The Bronx. As a toddler, he moved with his family to 549 East Park Avenue in Long Beach, New York, on Long Island. He and his older brothers Joel, who later became an art teacher, and Richard, nicknamed Rip, were the sons of Helen (née Gabler), a housewife, and Jack Crystal, who owned and operated the Commodore Music Store, founded by Helen's father, Julius Gabler. Jack was also a jazz promoter, a producer, and an executive for an affiliated jazz record label, Commodore Records, founded by Helen's brother, musician and songwriter Milt Gabler. Crystal is Jewish (his family emigrated from Austria and Russia), and he grew up attending Temple Emanu-El (Long Beach, New York) where he was Bar Mitzvahed. The three young brothers would entertain by reprising comedy routines from the likes of Bob Newhart, Rich Little and Sid Caesar records their father would bring home. Jazz artists such as Arvell Shaw, Pee Wee Russell, Eddie Condon, and Billie Holiday were often guests in the home. With the decline of Dixieland jazz and the rise of discount record stores, in 1963 Crystal's father lost his business and died later that year at the age of 54 after suffering a heart attack while bowling. His mother, Helen Crystal, died in 2001.
  After graduation from Long Beach High School in 1965, 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 never played baseball at Marshall because the program was suspended during his first year. He did not return to Marshall as a sophomore, instead deciding to stay in New York to be close to his future wife. He studied acting at HB Studio. He attended Nassau Community College with Janice and later transferred to New York University, where he was a film and television directing major. He graduated from NYU in 1970 with a BFA from its School of Fine Arts, not yet named for the Tisch family. One of his instructors was Martin Scorsese, while Oliver Stone and Christopher Guest were among his classmates.
caption: Jack Crystal (right) with Milt Gabler, Herbie Hill and Lou Blum at the Commodore Music Shop (1947)
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