Billy Crystal 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 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
Billy Crystal included an introductory video segment in which he comedically inserts himself into scenes of that year's nominees in addition to a song following his opening monologue. 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 throughout the US with the show in 2006 and then Australia in 2007. Following the initial success of the play, Crystal wrote the book "700 Sundays" for Warner Books, which was published on October 31, 2005. In conjunction