Comedian Billy Crystal delivered a touching tribute to his longtime friend Robin Williams during the 66th primetime Emmy awards on Monday.

“Every time you saw him – on television, in 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,” Crystal said.

Following the annual In Memoriam segment commemorating television stars who died in the past year, Crystal took the stage for a speech on his friend who died on 11 August.

“I spent may happy hours with Robin onstage. 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’d be all right.

“As genius as he was onstage, 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.”

Williams was nominated for a primetime Emmy award four times but never won.

“For almost 40 years he was the brightest star in the comedy galaxy, but while some of the brightest of celestial bodies are actually extinct, their molten energy long since cooled, miraculously, because they float in the heavens so far away from us now, their beautiful light will shine on us forever. And the glow will be so bright, it will warm your heart and make your eyes glisten, and you’ll think to yourselves, Robin Williams, what a concept.”

Small references to Williams were made at other times in the ceremony. Jimmy Kimmel wore rainbow-striped suspenders under his suit vest, an homage to William’s character Mork from the sitcom Mork and Mindy.