Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams was born at St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, on the 21st of July 1951. His father Robert Fitzgerald Williams served as a senior executive in Ford's Lincoln-Mercury Division while his mother Laurie McLaurin came from Jackson Mississippi. The family lived in a forty-room farmhouse on an estate in suburban Bloomfield Hills Michigan after his father transferred there in late 1963. Williams attended the private all-boys Detroit Country Day School where he excelled academically and served as class president. He also wrestled for the school team but faced bullying regarding his weight during those years.
His childhood included time spent partly raised by the family maid who became his main companion while both parents worked. At age sixteen the family moved to Tiburon California and Williams enrolled at Redwood High School in nearby Larkspur. He joined the drama club which fostered his interest in arts and entertainment. Upon graduation in 1969 classmates voted him Most Likely Not to Succeed and Funniest. He then studied political science at Claremont Men's College before dropping out to pursue acting.
Williams spent three years studying theater at the College of Marin in Kentfield California. Drama professor James Dunn cast him as Fagin in the musical Oliver! and noted that Williams often improvised leaving cast members in hysterics. Dunn called his wife after one late rehearsal stating Williams was going to be something special. In 1973 he attained a full scholarship to the Juilliard School Group 6 from 1973 to 1976 in New York City. He was one of twenty students accepted into the freshman class alongside Christopher Reeve and William Hurt.
Williams began performing stand-up comedy in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1976. His first performance took place at the Holy City Zoo a San Francisco comedy club where he worked his way up from tending bar. By the late 1970s critics described the city as experiencing a comedy renaissance. Williams moved to Los Angeles and continued performing at clubs including the Comedy Store. There in 1977 television producer George Schlatter saw him and asked him to appear on a revival of Laugh-In.
The show aired later that year marking Williams's television debut. That same year he performed a show at the L.A. Improv for Home Box Office. Although the Laugh-In revival failed it opened doors for his television career. He continued performing stand-up at comedy clubs such as the Roxy to keep his improvisational skills sharp. Williams also took his act overseas and performed at the Fighting Cocks in London.
David Letterman recalled seeing Williams perform as a newcomer at the Comedy Store in Hollywood. Letterman described Williams's arrival as like a hurricane saying there goes my chance in show business. Williams's first credited film role was a minor part in the 1977 low-budget comedy Can I Do It... 'Til I Need Glasses?. However his first starring performance came as the title character in Popeye released in 1980. The film's commercial disappointment was not blamed on his performance.
Williams was cast by Garry Marshall as the alien Mork in the 1978 Happy Days episode My Favorite Orkan. Sought after as a last-minute cast replacement for a departing actor Williams impressed the producer with his quirky humor when he sat on his head during the audition. As Mork Williams improvised much of his dialogue and physical comedy speaking in a high nasal voice. The cast crew and network executives were deeply impressed with his performance.
The executives moved quickly to sign Williams four days later before competitors could make their own offers. Mork's appearance proved so popular with viewers that it led to the spin-off television sitcom Mork & Mindy which co-starred Pam Dawber. The series ran from 1978 to 1982 and was written to accommodate his extreme improvisations in dialogue and behavior. At its peak the show had a weekly audience of sixty million and turned Williams into a superstar.
Among young people the show was very popular because Williams became a man and a child buoyant rubber-faced an endless gusher of ideas according to critic James Poniewozik. Mork became popular 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 12th of March 1979 cover of Time magazine. The cover photo taken by Michael Dressler captured his different sides: the funnyman mugging for the camera and a sweet thoughtful pose.
Williams starred as the lead character in The World According to Garp released in 1982. Critic Roger Ebert wrote of his performance that although Robin Williams plays Garp as a relatively plausible sometimes ordinary person the movie never seems bothered by the jarring contrast between his cheerful pluckiness and the anarchy around him. He continued with smaller roles in less successful films such as The Survivors in 1983 and Club Paradise in 1986.
In 1987 he found his star-making role in director Barry Levinson's Good Morning Vietnam which earned Williams a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. The film is set in 1965 during the Vietnam War with Williams playing Adrian Cronauer a radio shock jock who keeps troops entertained with comedy and sarcasm. Williams was allowed to play the role without a script improvising most of his lines. Over the microphone he created voice impressions including Walter Cronkite Elvis Presley Mr. Ed and Richard Nixon.
In 1989 he played a private-school English teacher in Dead Poets Society which included a final emotional scene that some critics said inspired a generation. Similarly his performance as a therapist in Good Will Hunting deeply affected even real therapists. In Awakenings he plays a doctor modeled after Oliver Sacks who later said the way Williams's mind worked was a form of genius. His voice role as the Genie in Aladdin released in 1992 became one of his most recognized best-loved performances.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s Williams was addicted to cocaine. He was a casual friend of Saturday Night Live comedian John Belushi and partied with him the night before Belushi died of a drug overdose in 1982. The shock of Belushi's death along with the birth of his son Zak prompted Williams to get sober. He turned to exercise and cycling to help alleviate his depression after Belushi's death. According to bicycle shop owner Tony Tom Williams said cycling saved his life.
In 2003 Williams began abusing alcohol again during production of the film The Big White in Alaska. In 2006 he checked into a substance-abuse rehabilitation center in Newberg Oregon. Years later Williams acknowledged his failure to maintain sobriety but said that he never returned to using cocaine. In mid-2014 Williams was admitted to the Hazelden Foundation Addiction Treatment Center in Center City Minnesota again for alcoholism.
In March 2009 Williams was hospitalized due to heart problems. He postponed his one-man tour for surgery to replace his aortic valve repair his mitral valve and correct his irregular heartbeat. The surgery was completed the 13th of March 2009 at the Cleveland Clinic. His publicist Mara Buxbaum commented that he had severe depression before his death.
Williams died at his home in Paradise Cay California on the 11th of August 2014. His primary cause of death was declared as suicide by hanging amid Lewy body dementia and other associated factors. Describing the disease as the terrorist inside my husband's brain Susan Schneider stated however you look at it the presence of Lewy bodies took his life. She noted how culture does not have the vocabulary to discuss brain disease in the way we do about depression.
An autopsy revealed that Williams had diffuse Lewy bodies which had been misdiagnosed as Parkinson's. This may have contributed to his depression. Medical experts struggled to determine a cause and eventually diagnosed him with Parkinson's disease. The Lewy Body Dementia Association clarified that the report confirms he experienced depression anxiety and paranoia which occur in either Parkinson's disease or dementia with Lewy bodies.
Williams's body was cremated at Monte's Chapel of the Hills in San Anselmo. His ashes were scattered over San Francisco Bay on the 21st of August 2014. In the period before his death Williams had been sober but was diagnosed with early-stage Parkinson's disease which he had not made public. His initial condition included a sudden prolonged spike in fear anxiety stress and insomnia.
After Williams's death media outlets published eulogies written by family members including Susan Schneider Marsha Garces Williams and Zelda Williams. President Barack Obama released a statement shortly after Williams's death. During the opening of International Youth Day at the United Nations headquarters Assistant Secretary General Thomas Gass quoted one of Keating's lines from Dead Poets Society: Dare to look at things in a different way!
Shortly after Williams's death Disney Channel aired Aladdin commercial-free over the course of a week with a dedicated drawing of the Genie at the end of each airing. That night the cast of the Aladdin musical joined the audience in a sing-along of Friend Like Me an Oscar-nominated song originally performed by Williams. Fans created makeshift memorials at locations such as the bench in Boston's Public Garden featured in Good Will Hunting.
During the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards on August 25 Billy Crystal presented a tribute referring to him as the brightest star in our comedy galaxy. On the 9th of September 2014 PBS aired a one-hour special devoted to Williams's career. In 2018 HBO produced a documentary about his life and career directed by Marina Zenovich titled Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind. In May 2022 Williams was inducted into a hall of fame at the National Comedy Center in Jamestown New York.
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Common questions
When and where was Robin Williams born?
Robin McLaurin Williams was born at St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, on the 21st of July 1951.
What caused Robin Williams to get sober after his cocaine addiction?
The shock of John Belushi's death from a drug overdose in 1982 along with the birth of his son Zak prompted Robin Williams to get sober.
How did Robin Williams die and what medical condition contributed to his death?
Robin Williams died by suicide hanging on the 11th of August 2014 amid Lewy body dementia which had been misdiagnosed as Parkinson's disease.
Which role made Robin Williams a superstar and when did it run?
Mork & Mindy ran from 1978 to 1982 and turned Robin Williams into a superstar with a weekly audience of sixty million at its peak.
Where were Robin Williams ashes scattered and when did this occur?
Robin Williams ashes were scattered over San Francisco Bay on the 21st of August 2014 following his cremation at Monte's Chapel of the Hills in San Anselmo.