One of Billy Crystal's first breakthroughs came while he was working as a part-time comic and school-teacher. Called upon -- as a last-minute replacement for Robert Klein -- to entertain at a roast for Muhammad Ali, Crystal produced an imitation of Ali so uncannily accurate that the boxer hugged him -- and promised thenceforth to consider the comedian his "little brother."
[Billie Holliday, who once babysat Bill Crystal, endowed the future comedian with a fitting nickname: "Face."]
Sources
Internet Movie Database; People magazine
