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Billy Crystal: Saturday Night Live
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Guide Note: Billy Crystal is a Jewish/American actor and comedian. After a stint on Saturday Night Live, he launched a successful film career and became a regular host of the Academy Awards.
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During his tenure on Saturday Night Live, Billy Crystal dazzled with spot-on impressions, resulting in some of the most wacky characters on television. Mahvelous! showcases many of them, including Fernando "You Look Mahvelous" Llamas, Sammy Davis Jr., and Howard Cosell. Best bits: "Howard Cosell, Right There" and "Now!"
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In the early 1970s, Crystal began working in clubs and on college campuses as a stand-up comic. On April 17, 1976, Crystal made his first appearance with a stand-up skit on an episode of Saturday Night Live. In 1984, Crystal was asked to join the cast full-time Saturday Night Live. In 1986, Crystal started hosting Comic Relief on HBO alongside Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg. He ... made many game show appearances such as The Hollywood Squares and The $20,000 Pyramid.
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Thanks to Soap, Crystal became and remained a headliner and, in 1978, had his first crack at movie stardom as a pregnant man in Rabbit Test. The movie was unsuccessful, but Crystal's star had not been eclipsed by the experience; he was even entrusted with a dramatic role in the 1980 TV movie Enola Gay. His career accelerating with comedy records, choice club dates, regular appearances on Saturday Night Live, and TV guest shots, Crystal had a more successful stab at the movies in such films as This is Spinal Tap (1984), The Princess Bride (1987), Throw Momma From the Train (1987), and When Harry Met Sally (1989). Riding high after a memorable emceeing stint at the Oscar ceremony, Crystal executive produced and starred in his most successful film project to date, an uproarious middle-age-angst comedy called City Slickers (1991). In 1992, he mounted his most ambitious film endeavor, Mr. Saturday Night, the bittersweet chronicle of a self-destructive comedian. The film had great potential (as indicated by the outtakes contained in its video cassette version), but the end result died at the box office.
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A leading name in contemporary comedy, Crystal has achieved great success as a comedian, sitcom and film actor, sketch comic, filmmaker, and awards show host. A likable stand-up comic, Crystal made the comedy club rounds before being featured on the popular spoof, "Soap" (ABC, 1977-81), as Jodie Dallas, one of TV's first openly gay series regulars. He went on to TV-movies, specials, a fleeting variety show of his own, and a busted pilot before becoming a crucial member of the "Saturday Night Live" ensemble--which then included Martin Short, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer--during the 1984-85 season....
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Crystal, 59, came to prominence as Jodie Dallas on the comedy series "Soap," as the first openly gay character on network television. He starred on "Saturday Night Live" in the 1984-85 season, when he was best known for his caricature of "Latin lover" Fernando Lamas ("You look mahvelous"). He ... impersonated Howard Cosell and Sammy Davis Jr., among many others.
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