

Billy Crystal and robin Williams hosting “Comic Relief.” (Keith Shimada/AP)

Billy Crystal has been tapped to pay tribute to his close friend Robin Williams during the In Memoriam segment at the Primetime Emmy Awards next week, the TV academy confirmed Wednesday.

After the news of Williams’s death broke last Monday, Crystal tweeted simply, “No words.” The actors have known each other for decades. Along with Whoopi Goldberg, they used to host the Comic Relief charity television specials on HBO starting in the 1980s. They also co-starred in the 1997 comedy “Father’s Day” with Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Plus, they made a very bizarre joint cameo on “Friends” in a Season 3 episode:

Emmy Awards executive producer Don Mischer told the Hollywood Reporter that plans for the traditional segment are still “in discussion.”

“While we are all still coming to terms with this week’s tragic news, we are working to give Robin Williams the proper and meaningful remembrance he so well deserves,” he said. Mischer added to TV Guide: “We all know what Robin meant to the television community and to everyone, and the unique take on comedy that he brought to all of us. It’s about what can we do to properly remember Robin and create perhaps an emotional moment about him.”

Last week at a news conference, officials said that Williams’s preliminary cause of death was suicide due to hanging. Williams’s publicist said that Williams, who struggled with alcohol and drug addiction, was also battling “severe depression.” His wife, Susan Schneider, later said her husband was in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease.