BILLY CRYSTAL (Mike Wazowski) gives a hilarious performance as the energetic, enthusiastic and excitable Scare Assistant to James P. Sullian.
"I used to do a routine back in 1984 about a 10-year-old kid being left home alone for the first time," Crystal continues. "It was all done with sound effects through a computer and it was all about the kid's imagination. Imagination is very powerful and most of the time it's worse than what really is. Pixar and everyone who's created this film -- from the directors to the writers and animators embrace what we're afraid of and make it into entertainment. This movie is so breathtaking in it inventiveness. The end result is as exciting and well directed and well cut as any adventure movie."
Billy has created one of the most versatile and prolific careers in the entertainment industry, finding success in front of the camera, as a performer in film and television, and behind the scenes as a writer, director and producer.
His family owned and operated the legendary Commodore label and record story, so Crystal grew up in New York surrounded by music and musicians. His father, Jack, produced concerts by the era's great jazz performers, including the legendary Billie Holliday. It was his exposure to these great stars that helped Crystal develop a knack for stand-up comedy, incorporating his gifts for mimicry and satire, as well as his ability to create enduring characters who are funny, human, and touching.
After touring with such stars as Billy Joel, Barry Manilow, Neil Sedaka, and Sha Na Na, he became a regular on the popular series "Soap," play8ing the first openly gay character on a network television series. During the 1984-85 television season, Biully met with phenomenal national success on "Saturday Night Live." Along with fellow performers like Christopher Guest and martin Short, he created many memorable characters and cath lines, incluediding his classic imitation of Sammy Davis, Jr., Fernando ("You look mahvelous!") or Willie the Masochist, who would hurt himself and then claim "I hate when that happens."
In recent years, Crystal has moved between successes on television and film. He created, wrote and produced the critically-acclaimed HBO series "Sessions" and became the first comedian to perform in the then-Soviet Union with his special Midnight Train to Moscow, one of three one-man specials done for HBO. He has hosted the Grammy Awards three times, and, of of course, the Oscars seven times.
He has starred in "Running Scared," "Throw Momma from the train," "The Princess Bride," "When Harry Met Sally," "City Slickers I and II," "Mr. Saturday Night," ""Forget Paris," "Hamlet," "Deconstructing Harry," "Father's Day," "My Giant," "and "Analyze This" with Robert DeNiro.
Crystal recently received acclaimed for the film "61" for HBO Films, serving as both director and executive producer. Based on the true story of the pursuit of Babe Ruth's home run record by New York Yankees' stars Mickey Mantle and Barry Pepper as Maris. This past summer, he produced and starred in "America's Sweethearts" with Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
A dedicated human rights advocate, he has co-hosted with Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg all eight "Comic Relief" telethons on HBO which have brought the plight of the nation's homeless to the public and raised over forty million dollars for housing and medical care for these needy people. Billy has won six Emmy Awards, six American Comedy Awards, and seven Cable Ace Awards.
His professional accomplishments abound, but Billy considers his greatest achievements to be his 30-years marriage to his wife, Janice, and his two daughters, Jennifer and Lindsay.
Movie Database
In Theaters
(52 votes)
(32 votes)
(12 votes)
(13 votes)
(278 votes)
(7 votes)