Emmy watchers were probably already a little misty even before Billy Crystal's moving tribute to Robin Williams. Sara Bareilles gave us chills with her beautiful rendition of "Smile" during the In Memoriam section of the show. The visual memorial ended with a photo of Robin, who just died on August 11 after taking his own life. Fellow comedian and close friend Billy honored Robin with a special tribute speech. Here's a portion of his words:"He made us laugh. Hard. 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. He made us laugh, big time. I spent many happy hours with Robin on stage. I mean, 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."
Billy shared a story about being in a baseball broadcasting booth with Whoopi Goldberg and Robin, who knew nothing about baseball. Robin could be funny anywhere, Billy added, and he would come to all of his family functions.
"As genius as he was on stage, he was the greatest friend you could 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. 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 ... miraculously, because they float in the heavens so far away from us now, their beautiful light will continue to shine on 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.'"
Beautiful.
The tribute ended with a video package of Robin on various talk shows. What do you think - did Billy and the Emmys do Robin proud?
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