Billy Crystal The Princess Bride (1987)
William Edward Crystal was born in 1948 in Long Beach, New York, raised on Long Island in a music-industry family — his father co-founded the jazz label Commodore Records. He trained at NYU film school and broke through as the first openly gay character on American network television, Jodie Dallas on Soap (1977–1981). By 1987 he was a Saturday Night Live veteran, a stand-up headliner, and one year out from Throw Momma from the Train (1987) — but two years before When Harry Met Sally... (1989) would make him a leading man.
Rob Reiner cast Crystal as Miracle Max — the disgruntled former miracle worker who revives Westley with the chocolate-coated pill — for one extended scene late in the film, opposite Carol Kane as his wife Valerie.b33
Four hours of latex daily
The Miracle Max makeup — bald cap, drooping nose, age prosthetics, white wisp of hair — was designed by Peter Robb-King and took approximately four hours to apply each shooting day. Crystal has reported that he developed the voice (a high, querulous, vaguely Yiddish-inflected old-man register) by studying his own grandfather and uncle, both of whom had worked at the Commodore Records jazz label.
"I based Miracle Max on my Uncle Berns and my grandfather. The voice is right out of the back room at Commodore Records, where these guys would sit and complain about everything." — Billy Crystal, Vanity Fair (2012)
Reiner had to leave the set
Most of the published making-of folklore on the scene concerns Reiner's inability to keep a straight face during takes. Crystal improvised continuously around Goldman's scripted lines — much of the MLT material (mutton, lettuce, and tomato sandwich), the gag about Humperdinck firing him, the lines about being "the best kisser in Florin" — was on the day. Reiner has said he had to leave the soundstage repeatedly so the laughter would not bleed into the audio.
"It was so funny that I had to leave. I was crying. He was making me wet myself." — Rob Reiner, Vanity Fair (2012)
Mandy Patinkin has reported that he developed an actual rib injury holding in laughter during one of the takes, and that the injury bothered him for the duration of the shoot.
Career around the role
After Princess Bride came Memories of Me (1988), When Harry Met Sally... (1989), the first of his Oscar-hosting runs (1990; he hosted nine times across 1990–2012), City Slickers (1991, his peak as leading man), Mr. Saturday Night (1992, which he also directed), Forget Paris (1995), Analyze This (1999), and the long voice-acting career as Mike Wazowski in Monsters, Inc. (2001) and Monsters University (2013).
He has spoken often about Princess Bride and Miracle Max in particular as the role he gets asked about most by strangers.
"Of all the things I've done, the one people stop me for in the street more than anything else is Miracle Max. More than City Slickers, more than When Harry Met Sally. It's that one scene." — Billy Crystal, Entertainment Weekly (2017)