Veteran actor and comedian Billy Crystal was honored with the inaugural PaleyFest Award during a special evening dedicated to his career at PaleyFest NY in Manhattan. Hosted by the Paley Center for Media, the event featured a sold-out onstage conversation between Crystal and longtime friend Whoopi Goldberg at the Bennack Theater.
The celebration highlighted Crystal's upcoming autobiographical one-man Broadway play, 860, which previews at the Imperial Theatre ahead of its official opening on October 21. Named after the street address of his longtime Pacific Palisades home destroyed in the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, the stage production explores grief, resilience, and family through Crystal's signature comedic style.
Over a career spanning more than fifty years, Crystal has built an enduring legacy across television, film, and theater. He first achieved television fame in the late 1970s playing Jodie Dallas on the groundbreaking sitcom Soap, followed by a memorable tenure on Saturday Night Live that cemented his status as a comedy superstar.
On the big screen, Crystal starred in defining classic films including When Harry Met Sally..., City Slickers, The Princess Bride, and Analyze This, while voicing the iconic character Mike Wazowski in Pixar's Monsters, Inc. franchise. Additionally, his charismatic presence as a nine-time host of the Academy Awards remains standard-setting in modern live television.
860 marks Crystal's return to Broadway following his Tony Award-winning hit 700 Sundays and his 2022 musical Mr. Saturday Night. Directed by Scott Ellis, 860 promises to give audiences an intimate, humorous, and moving window into the life of one of American entertainment's most beloved figures.
