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 the FX comedy series "The Comedians", which ran for just one season before being canceled. Crystal's first film role was in Joan Rivers' 1978 film "Rabbit Test", the story of the "world's first pregnant man." Crystal appeared briefly in the Rob Reiner "rockumentary" "This Is Spinal Tap" (1984) as Morty The Mime, a waiter dressed as a mime at one of Spinal Tap's parties. He shared the scene with a then-unknown, non-speaking Dana Carvey, stating famously that "Mime is money." He later starred in the action comedy "Running Scared" (1986) and was directed by Reiner again in "The Princess Bride"