Robin Williams

For other people named Robin Williams, see Robin Williams (disambiguation).

Robin Williams
Robin Williams entertaining the crew of USS Enterprise in the Persian Gulf in December 2003
Birth name	Robin McLaurin Williams
Born	July 21, 1951 or 1952 Chicago, Illinois, United States
Medium	stand-up comedy, television, film
Nationality	American
Years active	1975 - present
Genres	Improvisational comedy, Physical comedy, Surreal humor, Observational comedy, Political satire
Subject(s)	pop culture, human sexuality, recreational drug use, American politics, current events
Spouse	Valerie Velardi (1978-1988) (1 child) Marsha Garces Williams (1989-present) (2 children)
Notable works and roles	Mork in Mork and Mindy, Adrian Cronauer in Good Morning, Vietnam, John Keating in Dead Poets Society, Peter Pan in Hook, Genie in Aladdin and Aladdin and the King of Thieves, Mrs. Doubtfire/Daniel Hillard in Mrs. Doubtfire, Sean Maguire in Good Will Hunting President Theodore Roosevelt in Night at the Museum

Robin McLaurin Williams (born July 21, 1951 or 1952) is an Academy Award-winning American actor and comedian. He has had starring roles on television, stage, and film.

Biography

Early life and education

Williams was born in Chicago, Illinois. His father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams (1906-87) was a senior executive at Ford in charge of the Midwest area. His mother, Laura McLaurin Smith (1922-2001), was a former model from Jackson, Mississippi. Williams was raised in the Episcopal church and grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and Marin County, California. While in California, Robin attended Redwood High School in Larkspur and grew up in the San Francisco suburb of Tiburon. In Michigan, he attended Detroit Country Day School, an exclusive college-preparatory school which boasts other famous alumni, including Steve Ballmer from Microsoft and Courtney Vance from Law and Order: Criminal Intent. In an interview with Michael Parkinson, Williams stated that when he saw Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb he was immediately inspired to become an actor.

He has two half-siblings: Laura, on his mother's side, and Todd on his father's side. 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. In high school, he won an award for "Most Likely To Not Succeed".

Every year, two thousand students audition for twenty places in the freshman class at Juilliard. Only two or three are accepted into the Advanced Program. Williams and Christopher Reeve were the only students accepted by John Houseman into the Advanced Program in 1973. Reeve and Williams had several classes together in which they were the only two students. In their dialects class, Williams had no trouble mastering all dialects naturally, whereas Reeve was more meticulous about it. Williams' manic comedy did not impress all of his teachers, but his dramatic performances impressed everyone. Williams and Reeve developed a close friendship, and 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 cheered him up by arriving as an eccentric Russian doctor (similar to his role in Nine Months). Williams 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/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 appearing in the cast of the short lived The Richard Pryor Show on NBC, 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 "Nanu, Nanu!" and the expletive "shazbot", were widely known.

Starting in the late 70s and throughout the '80s, Williams began to reach a wider audience with his standup comedy, including three HBO comedy specials, Off The Wall (1978), 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). He was voted as 13th on Comedy Central's list 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time.

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: November 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 here?"

Although Williams has had a successful stand-up career, there have been accusations of him stealing material, and some comedians have refused to perform in front of him due to fears of plagiarism.

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 and 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 A.I, the 2005 animated feature Robots, the 2006 Academy Award winning Happy Feet, 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. In 2006 Williams starred in The Night Listener, a thriller about a radio show host who realizes he's developed a friendship with a child who may or may not exist.

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 Cory, 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 as 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 has one child, Zachary (born April 1983). The marriage ended in 1988. On April 30 1989, he married Marsha Garces. They have two children, Zelda Ray (born July 31 1989) and Cody Alan (born November 25 1991). Williams currently resides in a large house in the upper-income Sea Cliff neighborhood of San Francisco. Incidentally, Williams is good friends with film director Chris Columbus who is also a San Francisco resident. He also has a summer house in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Williams has starred in Columbus' films Mrs. Doubtfire, Nine Months and Bicentennial Man.

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. The grand jury helped too". (Inside the Actors Studio, Episode 94, Season 7).

On June 29 2006 Robin appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. During the appearance he lampooned Rush Limbaugh for his addiction to prescription pain medication by asking "Where was he (Rush) staying in the Caribbean? Club Medicated?" On August 9 2006, Williams 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."

Other interests

Williams is a self-confessed gamer known to enjoy online video games, recently playing Warcraft 3 and World Of Warcraft, 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, Zachary, 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's 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 prolific collector of sports memorabilia. He is known to be a San Francisco Giants fan and can occasionally be seen at AT&T Park during games.

Williams enjoys rugby union and is a fan of the New Zealand All Blacks he is also a keen follower of the National Rugby League in Australia and lists his favourite team as the North Queensland Cowboys saying his favourite players are Matt Bowen, Steve Southern and Luke O'Donnell, he also follows The Queensland Maroons in the State of Origin.

He 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, Williams' character carries a spear nearly identical to the Lance of Longinus prominiently featured in EVA.

Williams also maintains an interest in weaponry, with a collection consisting of several antique swords and knives.

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. As recently as January 24-25 2007, he performed two live stand-up comedy shows in Boston, MA. Donations from the events were split between the USO Operation Care Package and the Greater Boston Food Bank

In 2006, he helped fund and also wrote the foreword to the book "Home Wasn't Built in a Day" with the nonprofit writing center 826 Valencia. The book was written by public school students from Galileo Academy of Science and Technology in San Francisco.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1977	Can I Do It 'Till I Need Glasses?
1980	Popeye	Popeye	Film Debut
1982	The World According to Garp	T.S. Garp
1983	The Survivors	Donald Quinelle
1984	Moscow on the Hudson	Vladimir Ivanov
1986	Seize the Day	Tommy Wilhelm
	Club Paradise	Jack Moniker
	The Best of Times	Jack Dundee
1987	Good Morning, Vietnam	Adrian Cronauer	Nominated for an Academy Award.
1988	The Adventures of Baron Munchausen	King of the Moon	Credited as Ray D. Tutto
	Portrait of a White Marriage	Air Conditioning Salesman	Cameo
1989	Dead Poets Society	John Keating	Williams nominated for Actor Oscar. Film won Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay
	Back to Neverland	Vacationer/Lost Boy	Co-Starred with Walter Cronkite in this now defunked video that used to play at the Disney-MGM Studios's Animation Courtyard theatre.
1990	Awakenings	Dr. Malcolm Sayer
	Cadillac Man	Joey O'Brien
1991	Hook	Peter Pan
	The Fisher King	Parry
	Dead Again	Doctor Cozy Carlisle
1992	Toys	Leslie Zevo
	Aladdin	Genie	Voice, Won a Special Golden Globe for his performance.
	The Timekeeper (or From Time to Time or LeVisionarium)	The Timekeeper	Voice; short subject; this is a former Circle-Vision 360° film at Walt Disney World, Disneyland Paris and Tokyo Disneyland.
	FernGully: The Last Rainforest	Batty Koda	Voice
	Shakes the Clown	Mime Class Instructor
	I'm From Hollywood		Documentary
1993	Mrs. Doubtfire	Daniel Hillard / Mrs. Doubtfire	Also producer
	Being Human	Hector
1994	In Search of Dr. Seuss	Father
1995	Aladdin and the King of Thieves	Genie	Voice
	Jumanji	Alan Parrish
	To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar	John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt	Cameo (uncredited)
	Nine Months	Dr. Kosevich
1996	Hamlet	Osric
	The Secret Agent	The Professor
	Jack	Jack Powell
	The Birdcage	Armand Goldman
1997	Good Will Hunting	Sean Maguire	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
	Flubber	Professor Philip Brainard
	Deconstructing Harry	Mel/Harry's Character
	Fathers' Day	Dale Putley
1998	Patch Adams	Hunter "Patch" Adams
	Junket Whore		Documentary
	What Dreams May Come	Chris Nielsen
1999	Bicentennial Man	Andrew Martin
	Jakob the Liar	Jakob Heym/Narrator	Also executive producer
	Get Bruce		Documentary
2001	A.I.: Artificial Intelligence	Dr. Know	Voice
2002	The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch		Cameo
	Insomnia	Walter Finch
	Death to Smoochy	'Rainbow' Randolph Smiley
	One Hour Photo	Sy Parrish
2004	Noel	Charlie Boyd/The Priest	Uncredited
	House of D	Pappass
	The Final Cut	Alan W. Hakman
2005	In Search of Ted Demme
	The Big White	Paul Barnell
	Robots	Fender	Voice
	The Aristocrats		Documentary
2006
	Night at the Museum	Teddy Roosevelt
	Man of the Year	Tom Dobbs
	Happy Feet	Ramon/Lovelace	Voice
	Everyone's Hero	Napoleon Cross	Voice; (Uncredited)
	RV	Bob Munro
	The Night Listener	Gabriel Noone
2007	License to Wed	Father Frank	Post-production
	August Rush	Wizard	Post-production

Discography

Williams sings a version of "Come Together" with Bobby McFerrin on In My Life, a Beatles tribute album produced by George Martin. Williams also appeared in the music video of McFerrin's hit song "Don't Worry, Be Happy".

• Reality...What a Concept (1977)
• Throbbing Python of Love (1983)
• A Night at the Met (1986)
• Pecos Bill (1988)
• Live 2002 (2002)

DVDs and videos

• An Evening with Robin Williams (1982, VHS)
• Robin Williams: Live at the Met (1986, VHS)
• Robin Williams: Live on Broadway (2002)

Television guest appearances

• Man who loses his wife in a robbery: Homicide: Life on the Street (1994)
• George Martin: In My Life (1998) with Bobby McFerrin
• Himself on the American version of Whose Line is it Anyway?
• Himself: Mind of Mencia
• Man having lost his wife to his best friend: Friends
• Himself on Real Time With Bill Maher (2006).
• Himself on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 It Helps To Laugh (2006).
• Himself on TV Land's Sit Down Comedy with David Steinberg (2007).

Footnotes and references

• "Road Trip with Robin"
• "Robin Williams mimic ends 'fraud'" (BBC News)
• "Robin Williams' impersonator stopped" (AskMen.com)
• "Robin Williams Enters Rehab", August 9 2006 (Access Hollywood)
• Lovece, Frank, New York Newsday (April 27 2006)

External links

• Robin Williams at IMDb
• Template:Voice actor
• Robin Williams at the TCM Movie Database
• Robin Williams at the Internet Broadway Database
• Template:Ymovies name
• Robin Williams' Stand Up Comedy Acts a small video collection (Live On Broadway - 2002)
• The Robin Williams Fansite
• [1] Robin Williams at Hollywood premiere of Happy Feet
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