Jump to content

Robin Williams

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 71.143.21.122 (talk) at 03:03, 27 December 2005 (→‎Trivia). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Robin Williams performing in Iraq. Shirt says "I Love New York" in Arabic.

Robin McLaurin Williams (born July 21, 1951) is a multi-award-winning American actor and comedian who was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and Marin County, California. His father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams, of English, Welsh, and Irish descent, was a senior executive at Ford in charge of the Midwest area, and his mother Laurie was a New Orleans-born former model of French descent.

He first achieved notice for his stand-up routines 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, he was cast by Garry Marshall as the alien Mork in a guest star part in Happy Days that was so popular it led to his own television series, Mork and Mindy, which ran from 1978 to 1982. The majority of his acting career has been for cinema, although he has made some memorable performances on stage as well (notably as Estragon in a production of Waiting for Godot).

His first starring roles in Popeye and in The World According to Garp were both flops, but with Good Morning Vietnam Williams established a screen identity. Many of his roles have been comedies tinged with pathos (e.g. 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 actor talents in the 2005 animated feature Robots.

He has also starred in dramatic films such as Dead Poets Society (1989), Awakenings (1990) and What Dreams May Come (1998). 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 stereotyped in films such as Patch Adams (1998) and Bicentennial Man. This apparently prompted him to take radically unconventional roles beginning with the dark comedy Death to Smoochy, followed by One Hour Photo, Insomnia, and The Final Cut.

He is known for his wild improv skills and impersonations. He is a talented mimic and can jump in and out of characters at an extremely fast pace. His comic style is a major influence on late night talk show host/comedian Conan O'Brien. Williams states that he began doing impersonations as a child mimicking the Southern accent of his aunt.

Williams has been accused, on multiple occasions, of stealing comic material. Probably the most famous of these is a bit he did on the Late Show with David Letterman about telephone head implants. This bit had not only been a well-known routine done by Ray Romano for years, but the reason that this was the most public incident involving allegations of plagiarism is that Romano had done the same bit on The Late Show only days before Williams' appearance.

Williams' first marriage was to Valerie Velardi on June 4, 1978, with whom he had one child, Zachary. That marriage ended in 1988. He married for a second time on April 30, 1989, to Marsha Garces and they have two children together.

Robin Williams and his wife Marsha Garces Williams founded the Windfall Foundation, a philanthropic organization to raise money for many different charities. Robin 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.

Watching his frantic mannerisms and immediate changes in personality, some have speculated that Williams is affected by bipolar disorder, but this has never been confirmed. A more likely explanation for his remarkable creativity and intense impulsive humor may be the reason that he is often referred to as "the poster child for ADD," though this statement is often said with a sarcastic edge.

In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. He was portrayed by Chris Diamantopoulos in the made for television 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.

Trivia

Robin Williams has performed for in the USO for U.S. troops stationed in Iraq for 3 years. Just days after the start of the Iraq War, Williams perfromed for American troops stationed in Afganistan to reassure them America hadn't forgotten about them.

He is a staunch Democrat, and a San Francisco resident (he owns a large house in the upper-class Seacliff neighborhood).

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

He named his daughter Zelda because his son is a devoted fan of the video game series.

Being extremely hairy, many jokes about him refer to that.

Filmography

Wikiquote has quotations related to Robin Williams.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robin_Williams&oldid=32831933"