Billy Crystal to Receive Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize

According to The New York Times, Billy Crystal will be the 10th recipient of the annually awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. The award will be presented October 11 at the Kennedy Center in DC, in a tribute performance to be televised by PBS.

Crystal, an eight-time host of the Academy Awards ceremony, starred in 'Soap' in the 1970s, before becoming a regular on "Saturday Night Live." He has appeared in films including Analyze This, Throw Momma From The Train, Deconstructing Harry, and City Slickers. Last year, he hosted a special 'Comic Relief' telethon for Hurricane Katrina victims, with Whoopi Goldberg and Robin Williams. His autobiographical one-man play, 700 Sundays, won him a Tony Award and became the highest grossing non-musical in Broadway's history.

The first recipient of the Mark Twain Prize was Richard Pryor in 1998, with past recipients including Goldberg, Neil Simon, Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin.

Photo by Ben Strothmann