the life of

ROBIN WILLIAMS

scroll to read

CHILDHOOD

Robin McLaurin Williams was born at St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago, Illinois on July 21, 1951. His mother, Laurie McLaurin, was a former model from Jackson, Mississippi, whose great-grandfather was Mississippi senator and governor Anselm J. McLaurin. Williams's father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams, was a senior executive in Ford Motor Company's Lincoln-Mercury Division. Williams had two elder half-brothers, Robert and McLaurin. While his mother was a practitioner of Christian Science, Williams was raised as an Episcopalian and later authored a comedic list, "Top Ten Reasons to be an Episcopalian."During a TV interview on Inside the Actors Studio in 2001, he credited his mother as being an important early influence for his sense of humor, noting also that he tried to make her laugh to gain attention.

Williams attended public elementary school at Gorton Elementary School (now Gorton Community Center) and middle school at Deer Path Junior High School (now Deer Path Middle School), both in Lake Forest, Illinois. He described himself as a quiet and shy child who did not overcome his shyness until he became involved with his high school drama department. Williams' friends recall him as being very funny. In late 1963, when Williams was twelve, his father was transferred to Detroit. They lived in a 40-room farmhouse on 20 acres in suburban Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where he was a student at the private Detroit Country Day School. He excelled in school, where he was on the school's soccer team and wrestling team, and became class president.

As Williams' father was away much of the time and his mother also worked, he was attended to by the family's maid, who was his main companion. When Williams was 16, his father took early retirement and the family moved to Tiburon, California. Following the move, Williams attended Redwood High School in nearby Larkspur. At the time of his graduation in 1969, he was voted "Most Likely Not to Succeed" and "Funniest" by his classmates.

TIME AT JULLIARD

After high school graduation, Williams enrolled at Claremont Men's College in Claremont, California to study political science, then later dropped out to pursue acting. Williams then studied theatre for three years at the College of Marin, a community college in Kentfield, California. According to Marin drama professor James Dunn, the depth of Williams's talent first became evident when he was cast in the musical Oliver! as Fagin. Williams was known to improvise during his time in Marin's drama program, putting cast members in hysterics. Dunn called his wife after one late rehearsal to tell her that Williams "was going to be something special."

In 1973, Williams attained a full scholarship to the Juilliard School in New York City. He was one of only 20 students accepted into the freshman class and one of only two students to be accepted by John Houseman into the Advanced Program at the school that year; the other was Christopher Reeve. William Hurt and Mandy Patinkin were also classmates. Reeve remembered his first impression of Williams when they were two new students at Juilliard:

He wore tie-dyed shirts with track suit bottoms and talked a mile a minute. I'd never seen so much energy contained in one person. He was like an untied balloon that had been inflated and immediately released. I watched in awe as he virtually caromed off the walls of the classrooms and hallways. To say that he was "on" would be a major understatement.

Williams and Reeve remained close friends until Reeve's death in 2004, following his having become a quadriplegic after a horse-riding accident. Zak, Williams' son, said they were like brothers in their friendship. Williams paid many of Reeve's medical bills and gave financial support to his family.

Williams left Juilliard during his junior year in 1976 at the suggestion of Houseman, who said there was nothing more Juilliard could teach him. His teacher at Juilliard, Gerald Freedman, notes that Williams was a "genius," and the school's conservative and classical style of training did not suit him, therefore no one was surprised that he left.

"Do you think God gets stoned?
I think so. Look at the platypus."

STAND UP

Williams performing stand-up comedy at a USO show on December 20, 2007. After his family moved to Marin County, Williams began his career doing stand-up comedy shows in the San Francisco Bay Area in the mid-1970s. His first performance took place at the Holy City Zoo, a comedy club in San Francisco, where he worked his way up from tending bar to getting on stage. In the 1960s, San Francisco was a center for a rock music renaissance, hippies, drugs, and a sexual revolution, and in the 1970s, Williams helped lead its "comedy renaissance," writes critic Gerald Nachman. Williams says he found out about "drugs and happiness" during that period, adding that he saw "the best brains of my time turned to mud." He moved to Los Angeles and continued doing stand-up shows at various clubs, including the Comedy Club, in 1977, where TV producer George Schlatter saw him. Schlatter, realizing that Williams would become an important force in show business, asked him to appear on a revival of his Laugh-In show. The show aired in late 1977 and became his debut TV appearance. Williams also performed a show at the LA Improv that same year for Home Box Office. While the Laugh-In revival failed, it led Williams into a career in television, during which period he continued doing stand-up at comedy clubs, such as the Roxy, to help him keep his improvisational skills sharp.

TELEVISION

Robin Williams in 1979. The photo was taken by Michael Dressler and used for the March 12, 1979 cover of Time magazine. It was installed in the National Portrait Gallery to commemorate Williams after his death. After the Laugh-In revival and appearing in the cast of The Richard Pryor Show on NBC, Williams was cast by Garry Marshall as the alien Mork in a 1978 episode of the hit TV series Happy Days. Williams impressed the producer with his quirky sense of humor when he sat on his head when asked to take a seat for the audition. As Mork, Williams improvised much of his dialogue and physical comedy, speaking in a high, nasal voice. Mork's appearance was so popular with viewers that it led to the spin-off hit television sitcom Mork & Mindy, which ran from 1978 to 1982; the show was written to accommodate Williams's improvisations. Although he portrayed the same character as in Happy Days, the series was set in the present in Boulder, Colorado instead of the late 1950s in Milwaukee. Mork & Mindy at its peak had a weekly audience of 60 million and was credited with turning Williams into a "superstar." According to critic James Poniewozik, the series was especially popular among young people as Williams became a "man and a child, buoyant, rubber-faced, an endless gusher of invention."

Mork became an extremely popular character, featured on posters, coloring books, lunch-boxes, and other merchandise. Mork & Mindy was such a success in its first season that Williams appeared on the March 12, 1979, cover of Time magazine, then the leading news magazine in the U.S. The cover photo, taken by Michael Dressler in 1979, is said to have "[captured] his different sides: the funnyman mugging for the camera, and a sweet, more thoughtful pose that appears on a small TV he holds in his hands" according to Mary Forgione of the Los Angeles Times. This photo was installed in the National Portrait Gallery in the Smithsonian Institution shortly after Williams's death to allow visitors to pay their respects. Williams was also on the cover of the August 23, 1979, issue of Rolling Stone magazine, with the cover photograph taken by famed photographer Richard Avedon.

Starting in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Williams began to reach a wider audience with his stand-up comedy, including three HBO comedy specials, Off The Wall (1978), An Evening with Robin Williams (1982) and Robin Williams: Live at the Met (1986). Also in 1986, Williams co-hosted the 58th Academy Awards. Williams was also a regular guest on various talk shows, including The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Late Night with David Letterman, on which he appeared 50 times. Letterman, who knew Williams for nearly 40 years, recalls seeing him first perform as a new comedian at the Comedy Store in Hollywood, where Letterman and other comedians had already been doing stand-up. "He came in like a hurricane," said Letterman, who said he then thought to himself, "Holy crap, there goes my chance in show business."

Williams's stand-up work was a consistent thread through his career, as seen by the success of his one-man show (and subsequent DVD) Robin Williams: Live on Broadway (2002). He was voted 13th on Comedy Central's list "100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time" in 2004. Williams and Billy Crystal were in an unscripted cameo at the beginning of an episode of the third season of Friends. His many TV appearances included an episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and he starred in an episode of Law and Order: SVU. In 2010, he appeared in a sketch with Robert De Niro on Saturday Night Live, and in 2012, guest-starred as himself in two FX series, Louie and Wilfred. In May 2013, CBS started a new series, The Crazy Ones, starring Williams, but the show was canceled after one season.

A MASTER IN FILM

DEAD POET'S
SOCIETY

RELEASED: 1989


American drama film written by Tom Schulman, directed by Peter Weir and starring Robin Williams. Set at the conservative and aristocratic Welton Academy in the northeast United States in 1959, it tells the story of an English teacher who inspires his students through his teaching of poetry.

HOOK

RELEASED: 1991


When his young children are abducted by his old nemesis, Capt. Hook (Dustin Hoffman), middle-aged lawyer Peter Banning (Robin Williams) returns to his magical origins as Peter Pan. Peter must revisit a foggy past in which he abandoned Neverland for family life, leaving Tinkerbell (Julia Roberts) and the Lost Boys to fend for themselves. Given their bitterness toward Peter for growing up, and their allegiance to their new leader, Rufio, the old gang may not be happy to see him.

GOOD WILL HUNTING

RELEASED: 1997


Will Hunting (Matt Damon) has a genius-level IQ but chooses to work as a janitor at MIT. When he solves a difficult graduate-level math problem, his talents are discovered by Professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard), who decides to help the misguided youth reach his potential. When Will is arrested for attacking a police officer, Professor Lambeau makes a deal to get leniency for him if he will get treatment from therapist Sean Maguire (Robin Williams).

JUMANJI

RELEASED: 1995


A magical board game unleashes a world of adventure on siblings Peter (Bradley Pierce) and Judy Shepherd (Kirsten Dunst). While exploring an old mansion, the youngsters find a curious, jungle-themed game called Jumanji in the attic. When they start playing, they free Alan Parrish (Robin Williams), who's been stuck in the game's inner world for decades. If they win Jumanji, the kids can free Alan for good, but that means braving giant bugs, ill-mannered monkeys and even stampeding rhinos!

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM

RELEASED: 2006


A night watchman (Ben Stiller) at a museum of natural history makes a startling discovery: Thanks to the unleashing of an ancient Egyptian curse, the museum's animals, birds, bugs and other exhibits spring to life after the building closes, and former President Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams) is among those the hapless guard encounters.

THE BUTLER

RELEASED: 2013


After leaving the South as a young man and finding employment at an elite hotel in Washington, D.C., Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker) gets the opportunity of a lifetime when he is hired as a butler at the White House. Over the course of three decades, Cecil has a front-row seat to history and the inner workings of the Oval Office. However, his commitment to his "First Family" leads to tension at home, alienating his wife (Oprah Winfrey) and causing conflict with his anti-establishment son.

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM

RELEASED: 1987


Radio funny man Adrian Cronauer (Robin Williams) is sent to Vietnam to bring a little comedy back into the lives of the soldiers. After setting up shop, Cronauer delights the G.I.s but shocks his superior officer, Sergeant Major Dickerson (J.T. Walsh), with his irreverent take on the war. While Dickerson attempts to censor Cronauer's broadcasts, Cronauer pursues a relationship with a Vietnamese girl named Trinh (Chintara Sukapatana), who shows him the horrors of war first-hand.

THE FISHING KING

RELEASED: 1991


After shock jock Jack Lucas (Jeff Bridges) inadvertently provokes a caller into murdering a group of innocent people in a Manhattan bar, he grows depressed and turns to booze. As he's about to hit rock bottom, Lucas meets a homeless man named Parry (Robin Williams), whose wife was killed by the caller Lucas pushed to the brink. Mentally scarred by his loss, Parry spends his days searching for the Holy Grail. Lucas, feeling culpable for the poor man's plight, pledges to help him in his quest.

ALADDIN

RELEASED: 1992


When street rat Aladdin frees a genie from a lamp, he finds his wishes granted. However, he soon finds that the evil has other plans for the lamp, and for Princess Jasmine. But can Aladdin save Princess Jasmine and his love for her after she sees that he isn't quite what he appears to be?

HAPPY FEET

RELEASED: 2006


Mumble (Elijah Wood), a young emperor penguin, lives in Antarctica. Like others of his kind, he needs to be able to sing to attract a mate, but he has a terrible voice. Instead, Mumble must express himself, and lure a female through his amazing talent for tap-dancing.

DECONSTRUCTING HARRY

RELEASED: 1997


Novelist Harry Block (Woody Allen) has become a success by turning his family and friends' lives into fodder for his books. Due to his novels' popularity, the university that once kicked Harry out has asked him to return for a ceremony that will honor him. As Harry sets out for the trip, he is confronted by his fictional characters, as well as real people who no longer want anything to do with him, and he learns how deeply his overly candid stories have affected those around him.

MRS. DOUBTFIRE

RELEASED: 1993


Troubled that he has little access to his children, divorced Daniel Hillard (Robin Williams) hatches an elaborate plan. With help from his creative brother Frank (Harvey Fierstein), he dresses as an older British woman and convinces his ex-wife, Miranda (Sally Field), to hire him as a nanny. "Mrs. Doubtfire" wins over the children and helps Daniel become a better parent, but when both Daniel and his nanny persona must meet different parties at the same restaurant, his secrets may be exposed.

AWARDS

1978: Golden Globe Award for Best Actor
Television Series Musical or Comedy, Mork and Mindy

1980: Golden Globe Award for Best Actor
Television Series Musical or Comedy, Mork and Mindy

1980: Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album, Reality... What a Concept

1987: Golden Globe Award for Best Actor
Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, Good Morning, Vietnam

1988: Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album, A Night at the Met

1987: Emmy Award: Outstanding
Individual Performance In A Variety Or Music Program,
"Carol Burnett Special: Carol, Carl, Whoopi and Robin"

1988: Emmy Award: Outstanding Individual Performance
In A Variety Or Music Program, "ABC Presents a Royal Gala"

1989: Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album, Good Morning Vietnam

1991: Golden Globe Award for Best Actor
Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, The Fisher King

1993: Golden Globe Award for Best Actor
Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, Mrs. Doubtfire

1996: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding
Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, The Birdcage

1997: Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Good Will Hunting

1997: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance
by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, Good Will Hunting

2003: Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album, Robin Williams Live 2002

2005: Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award

DEATH

Williams committed suicide on August 11, 2014 in his home in unincorporated Paradise Cay, California at the age of 63. In the initial report released on August 12, the Marin County Sheriff's Office deputy coroner stated Williams had hanged himself with a belt and died from asphyxiation. It was revealed following his death that Williams had been suffering from severe depression, and had been sleeping in a different room from his wife due to restlessness and anxiety caused by his Parkinson's. The final autopsy report, released in November 2014, affirmed that Williams had committed suicide as initially described; neither alcohol nor illegal drugs were involved, while any prescription drugs present in Williams' body were at "therapeutic" levels. The report also noted that Williams had been suffering "a recent increase in paranoia." An examination of his brain tissue revealed the presence of "diffuse Lewy body dementia." Williams' doctors reportedly believe that Lewy body dementia "was the critical factor" that led to his suicide.


His body was cremated and his ashes were spread in San Francisco Bay on August 21.

LEGACY AND INFLUENCE

Although Williams was first recognized as a stand-up comedian and television star, he later became known for acting in film roles of substance and serious drama. He was considered a "national treasure" by many in the entertainment industry and by the public. His on-stage energy and improvisational skill became a model for a new generation of stand-up comedians. Many comedians valued the way he worked highly personal issues into his comedy routines, especially his honesty about drug and alcohol addiction, along with depression. According to media scholar Derek A. Burrill, because of the openness with which Williams spoke about his own life, "probably the most important contribution he made to pop culture, across so many different media, was as Robin Williams the person."

Williams' unusual free-form style of comedy became so identified with him that new comedians imitated him. Jim Carrey impersonated his Mork character early in his own career. Williams's high-spirited style has been credited with paving the way for the growing comedy scene which developed in San Francisco. Young comedians felt more liberated on stage by seeing Williams's spontaneous style: "one moment acting as a bright, mischievous child, then as a wise philosopher or alien from outer space."According to Judd Apatow, Williams's rapid-fire improvisational style was an inspiration as well as an influence for other comedians, however, his talent was unique enough that no one else tried to copy it.

As a film actor, Williams' roles often influenced others, both in and out of the film industry. Director Chris Columbus, who directed Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire, says that watching him work "was a magical and special privilege. His performances were unlike anything any of us had ever seen, they came from some spiritual and otherworldly place." Looking over most of Williams' films, Alyssa Rosenberg at The Washington Post was "struck by the breadth of Williams' roles", and how radically different most were, writing that "Williams helped us grow up." On December 16, 2014, it was revealed that, as a result of his death, Williams was the fastest growing search term on Google in 2014.

1958 to 2014

ROBIN WILLIAMS