Biographies > Robin Williams

Robin McLaurin Williams (born July 21, 1951) is an Academy Award-winning American actor and comedian. As an actor he has had starring roles on television, stage, and film.

Biography

Early life

Robin Williams was born in 1951 in Chicago to a Ford Motor Company executive father (born 1901, died 1987) and Laurie Williams, a model (born 1922). He was raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and Marin County, California. While in California, Robin attended Redwood High School in Larkspur and grew up in the suburb of Tiburon. In Michigan, he attended Detroit Country Day School, which boasts other famous alumni, including Steve Ballmer from Microsoft and Courtney Vance from Law and Order: Criminal Intent. Robin's father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams, of English, Welsh and Irish descent, was a senior executive at Ford in charge of the Midwest area. Robin's mother Laurie was a New Orleans-born former model of French descent. He has two half-brothers. He described himself as a quiet child whose first imitation was of his grandmother to his mom. He did not overcome his shyness until he became involved with his high school drama department. At high school, he won a "Faisal" award for "Most Likely To Not Succeed".

He was a classmate of the late Superman star Christopher Reeve in the Juilliard School. Williams and Reeve were the only two students chosen by John Houseman to be accepted into his elite acting program. They remained good friends for the remainder of Reeve's life. Williams visited Reeve after the horseback riding accident that paralyzed him from the neck down and tried to cheer him up by arriving as an eccentric Russian doctor (similar to his role in Nine Months) and claimed that he was there to perform a colonoscopy. Reeve stated that he laughed for the first time since the accident and knew that life was going to be okay.

Early stand-up and TV career

Williams first achieved notice for his stand-up routines performing for tips and working clubs like the Purple Onion in San Francisco. After studying at Claremont McKenna College (then called Claremont Men's College) with the Strut and Fret theatre group in Claremont, California, and at Juilliard Drama School (where he befriended and roomed with actor Christopher Reeve), he was cast by Garry Marshall as the alien Mork in a guest role in the TV series Happy Days.

As Mork, Williams improvised much of his dialogue and devised plenty of rapid-fire verbal and physical comedy, speaking in a high, nasal voice. Mork's appearance was so popular with viewers that it led to a spin-off hit television sitcom, Mork and Mindy, which ran from 1978 to 1982. Williams became an overnight sensation, and Mork was featured on posters, coloring books, lunchboxes, and other merchandise. His nonsensical catchphrases, including the greeting "nanoo nanoo" and the swear word "shazbat", were widely known.

In the '80s, Williams began to reach a wider audience with his standup comedy, including two Home Box Office (HBO) comedy specials, An Evening with Robin Williams (1982) and Robin Williams: Live at the Met (1986). His standup work has been a consistent thread through his career, as is seen by the success of his one-man show (and subsequent DVD) Robin Williams Live on Broadway (2002).

After some encouragement from his friend Whoopi Goldberg, he was set to make a guest appearance in the 1991 Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "A Matter of Time", but he had to cancel due to a scheduling conflict; Matt Frewer took his place as time-traveling con man, Professor Berlingoff Rasmussen.

Williams also appeared on an episode of Whose Line is it Anyway? (Season 3, Episode 9: Nov. 16, 2000). During a game of "Scenes from a Hat," the scene "What Robin Williams is thinking right now" was drawn, and Williams stated "I have a career. What the hell am I doing?"

Cinema fame

The majority of Williams' acting career has been in film, although he has given some memorable performances on stage as well (notably as Estragon in a production of Waiting for Godot). His first starring roles, Popeye (1980) and The World According to Garp (1982), were both considered flops, but with Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) Williams was nominated for an Academy Award and established a screen identity. Many of his roles have been comedies tinged with pathos, for example, The Birdcage, Mrs. Doubtfire.

In particular, his role as the Genie in the animated film Aladdin was instrumental in establishing the importance of star power in voice actor casting. Later, Williams once again used his voice talents in Bicentennial Man, the 2005 animated feature Robots, and an uncredited vocal performance in 2006's Everyone's Hero. Furthermore, he was the voice of The Timekeeper, a former attraction at the Walt Disney World Resort about a time-traveling robot who encounters Jules Verne and brings him to the future.

Williams has also starred in dramatic films, earning himself two subsequent Academy Award nominations: first for playing an unorthodox and inspiring English teacher in Dead Poets Society (1989), and later for playing a troubled homeless man in The Fisher King (1991). Other acclaimed dramatic films include Awakenings (1990), What Dreams May Come (1998), and Jakob the Liar (1999).

In 1997, he won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for his role as a psychologist in Good Will Hunting. However, by the early 2000s, he was thought by some to be typecast in films such as Patch Adams (1998) and Bicentennial Man (1999) that critics complained were excessively maudlin. This apparently prompted Williams to take radically unconventional roles, beginning with the dark comedy as a lowlife kiddie show host in Death to Smoochy, followed by One Hour Photo in a watershed performance as an obsessed film developer, Insomnia as a sociopathic writer, and The Final Cut, which is more in tune with Williams as a protagonist.

He is known for his wild improvisational skills and impersonations. Because his quick-wit performances frequently involve ingenious humor designed and delivered in rapid-fire succession completely while on stage, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest impromptu comedians of all time. According to the Aladdin DVD commentary, most of his dialogue as the Genie was improvised. He is a talented mimic and can jump in and out of characters and various accents at an extremely fast pace. Williams states that he began doing impersonations as a child, mimicking his aunt's southern accent.

In 2006, he starred in five movies including Man of the Year and was the Surprise Guest at the 2006 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. He appeared on an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition that aired on January 30, 2006. Via a live video link to the De'Aeth family whose house and animal rescue shelter were being made over, he encouraged their son Cody, a budding comedian, and gave the family's shelter a recreational vehicle used in the movie R.V..

At one point, he was in the running to play the Riddler in Batman Forever until director Tim Burton dropped the project. Williams had earlier been a prime candidate to play the Joker in Batman. He had expressed interest in assuming the role in the sequel to 2005's Batman Begins.

He was portrayed by Chris Diamantopoulos in the made-for-TV biopic Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Mork & Mindy (2005), documenting the actor's arrival in Hollywood a struggling comedian and becoming an overnight star when he landed the role in Mork & Mindy.

On Inside the Actor's Studio, Al Pacino said that Williams was his idol.

Personal life

Williams' first marriage was to Valerie Velardi on June 4, 1978, with whom he had one child, Zachary (born 1983). The marriage ended in 1988. On April 30, 1989, he married Marsha Garces, Zachary's former nanny. They have two children, Zelda Ray (born 1989) and Cody Alan (born 1992). Williams currently resides in a large house in the upper-class Sea Cliff neighborhood of San Francisco. Incidentally, Williams is good friends with film director Chris Columbus who is also a San Francisco resident. Williams has starred in Columbus' films Mrs. Doubtfire and Bicentennial Man.

Williams is a Democrat and is a firm supporter of the gay community.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Williams had a serious addiction to cocaine; he has since kicked the habit. One quote attributed to him: "Cocaine is God's way of telling you that you are making too much money." Williams was a close friend and frequent partier alongside John Belushi. Williams says the death of his friend and the birth of his son prompted him to quit drugs: "Was it a wake-up call? Oh yeah, on a huge level. A grand jury will sober you up pretty quickly."

On August 9, 2006, it was reported that Williams recently entered himself into a rehabilitation center for alcoholism. His publicist has confirmed, saying "After 20 years of sobriety, Robin Williams found himself drinking again and has decided to take proactive measures to deal with this for his own well-being and the well-being of his family. He asks that you respect his and his family's privacy during this time. He looks forward to returning to work this fall to support his upcoming film releases."

Computer games and animes

Williams is a self-confessed gamer known to enjoy online video games, recently playing Warcraft 3, Half-Life and the first-person shooter Battlefield 2 as a sniper. In addition, he also plays the tabletop wargame Warhammer 40,000. In an interview for a video game magazine, he stated that Nintendo contacted him once and told him because of his love of video games, if there ever is a live action Pokémon movie made, he would be their first, last and only choice to play Professor Oak. He named his daughter Zelda because his son is a devoted fan of the Legend of Zelda video game series. Williams was even in talks to do a voice for the game Half-Life 2, because he is a big fan of the series. However, scheduling conflicts prevented this.

On January 6, 2006 he performed live at Consumer Electronics Show during Google keynote.

In the 2006 E3, on the invitation of Will Wright, he demonstrated the creature editor of Spore while simultaneously commenting on the creature's look: "This will actually make a platypus look good." He also complimented the game's versatility, comparing it to Populous and Black & White.

Williams is a fan of the Japanese anime Neon Genesis Evangelion (EVA). In fact, the toy used in One Hour Photo was from Robin's personal collection. Also, in the CGI film Robots (movie), Williams' character carries a spear nearly identical to the Lance of Longinus prominiently featured in EVA.

Charity work

Williams and his wife, Marsha founded the Windfall Foundation, a philanthropic organization to raise money for many different charities. Williams devotes much of his energy doing work for charities, including the Comic Relief fund-raising efforts. He is also a cycling fan, known to own hundreds of bicycles and to attend the Tour de France. Through his interest in cycling, he has been a friend and supporter of Lance Armstrong and his foundation, performing at events for the foundation.

Directly after 9/11, Williams was shown donating blood numerous times to help victims of the attacks.

Williams has performed in the USO for U.S. troops stationed in Iraq for three years. Just days after the start of the Iraq War, Williams performed for American troops stationed in Afghanistan.