Comedian Billy Crystal paid heart-felt tribute Monday night to his friend, the late Robin Williams, during the Emmy Awards ceremony in downtown Los Angeles, calling him a genius whose energy could not be harnessed.
“He made us laugh, hard,” Crystal said of Williams, who committed suicide Aug. 11 at his home in Northern California. The 63-year-old, Oscar-winning actor, comedian and philanthropist had been battling depression and was in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease.
“Every time you saw him — on television, movies, nightclubs, arenas, hospitals, homeless shelters, for our troops overseas, and even in a dying girl’s living room for her last wish,” Crystal said. “He made us laugh, big time.
“I spent many happy hours with Robin on stage, and the brilliance was astounding, the relentless energy was kind of thrilling. I used to think if I could just put a saddle on him and stay on for eight seconds I was going to do OK.”
Crystal told the Nokia Theatre audience anecdotes about being with Williams, including once at a baseball game in New York.
“Robin knew nothing about baseball. I asked him, ‘What’s your favorite team?’ And he said, ‘The San Franciscos.”
Crystal said Williams “could be funny anywhere,” but said he was also “the greatest friend you can ever imagine.”
“Supportive, protective, loving — it’s very hard to talk about him in the past because he was so present in all of our lives,” he said. “For almost 40 years, he was the brightest star in the comedy galaxy. But while some of the brightest of our celestial bodies are actually extinct now, their energy long since cooled, but miraculously because they float in the heavens so far away from us now their beautiful light will continue to shine at us forever, and the
glow will be so bright, it’ll warm your heart. It’ll make your eyes glisten and you’ll think to yourselves, ‘Robin Williams, what a concept.”’
Williams was nominated nine times for Emmy Awards during his career, beginning with a 1979 nod for lead actor in a comedy for “Mork & Mindy.” He won two Emmys for individual performance in a variety or music program, for
“Carol, Carl, Whoopi and Robin” in 1987 and “ABC Presents: A Royal Gala” in 1988.
