STUNTS, STARS & LEGENDS August 2010

Billy Crystal
by John Hagnar

William Edward “Billy” Crystal, born March 14,1948 is an American actor, writer, producer, comedian and film director. He gained prominence in the 1970s for playing Jodie Dallas on the ABC sitcom “Soap” and became a Hollywood film star during the late 1980s and 1990s, appearing in critical and box office successes “When Harry Met Sally” and “City Stickers” I and II. He has hosted the Academy Awards eight times.

Billy and his wife Janice have two daughters, actresses Jennifer and Lindsay, and are now grandparents. They reside in Pacific Palisades, California.

Crystal won the 2005 Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event for 700 Sundays, a two-act, one-man play, which he conceived and wrote about his parents and his childhood growing up on Long Island. He toured the U.S. with the show in 2006 and Australia in 2007.

In the movie “City Stickers”, Crystal wore a New York baseball cap. In the movie “When Harry Met Sally” the second scene starts with him and his closest friend in the movie (Bruno Kirby, who also starred in “City Slickers”) at a Yankees game.
In “City Stickers II: The Legend of Curly’s Gold” was a 1994 comedy, filmed in Moab, Utah. Although a financial success, the film did not quite reach the popularity of the first movie, receiving a generally mixed response.

When the film company was in Moab, Billy Crystal used the theatre room of the Hollywood Stuntmen’s Hall of Fame to hold their screening sessions in the evenings. It was then that John Hagner (Founder) of the Hall of Fame and “Artist of the Stars” did a special portrait drawing (shown here) of Billy, who signed the original with a nice compliment.

In 1996, the Hall of Fame vacated the building they were in since 1989, which is s located just off Main Street at 100 E. 100 N. This building was originally the Mormon Church built it 1925. The Hall of Fame is presently looking for a building to relocate to and reopen to the visiting public. Anyone interested in helping this project may become a Sponsor with a donation of any amount to the Hollywood Stuntmen’s Hall of Fame, 81 W. Kane Creek Blvd. - #12, Moab, Utah 84532. Cell phone: 435-260-2160 (John Hagner). Anyone interested in having a DVD of the Hall of Fame when it was open, may contact Mr. Hagner. Website for the Hall of Fame is: www.stuntmen.org