StatsBirth Name: Robin McLaurim Williams Age: 61, born 21 July 1951 Country of origin:  United States Height: 5' 7" Relationship Status: Married Partner: Susan Schneider
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About:
Williams briefly studied political science before enrolling at Juilliard to study theatre. After he left Juilliard, he performed in night clubs where he was discovered for the role of Mork on an episode of "Happy Days" (1974) and the subsequent "Mork & Mindy" (1978) TV series. Williams' wild comic talent involves a great deal of improvisation, following in the footsteps of his idol, Jonathan Winters. Williams has also proven to be an effective dramatic actor.
Williams briefly studied political science before enrolling at Juilliard to study theatre. After he left Juilliard, he performed in night clubs where he was discovered for the role of Mork on an episode of "Happy Days" (1974) and the subsequent "Mork & Mindy" (1978) TV series. Williams' wild comic talent involves a great deal of improvisation, following in the footsteps of his idol, Jonathan Winters. Williams has also proven to be an effective dramatic actor.
Trade Mark:
Wild improvised stream-of-consciousness comedy dialogue where he will do cultural references, impersonations and one-liners with rapid switching.
Frequently portrays offbeat and eccentric characters
Often plays characters lacking in self-awareness
Frequently plays fathers or family men
His skill at imitating voices
Often plays men who have suffered a trauma or loss
Often plays characters with mental instability and/or a deep capacity for violence (One Hour Photo,Insomnia)
Trivia:
Moved to San Francisco when he was 16.
Studied acting briefly at Julliard under John Houseman. Houseman told him he was wasting his talent at Juilliard and he should strike out on his own and do stand-up comedy.
Resides with his family in San Francisco's Seacliff neighborhood.
Was set to play Drew Barrymore's father in the film Home Fries (1998) and had the role during production, but pulled out of the part days before his scenes were to be shot.
Has three children from his first two marriages. Sons Zachary Pym "Zak" Williams, born April 11, 1983, with his first ex-wife Valerie Velardi and Cody Alan Williams, born November 25, 1991 and daughter 'Zelda Williams (I)', born July 31, 1989 with his second ex-wife, Marsha Garces Williams.
October 1997: Ranked #63 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list.
1997: Voted funniest man alive by Entertainment Weekly.
When he auditioned for the role of Mork from Ork on "Happy Days" (1974), producer Garry Marshall who told him to sit down. Williams immediately sat on his head on the chair. Marshall hired him, saying that he was the only alien who auditioned.
During the making of "Mork & Mindy" (1978), Williams departed from the scripts and ad libbed so many times and so well, that the producers stop trying to make him stick to the script and deliberately left gaps in the later scripts leaving only "Mork can go off here" in those places so Robin could improvise.
Album: "Reality . . . What a Concept", on Casablanca Records, 1979.
Was set to appear on the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987) episode, "Star Trek: The Next Generation: A Matter of Time (#5.9)" (1991), as the time traveler, "Prof. Berlinghoff Rasmussen", but a schedule conflict forced him to drop out (the role eventually went to Matt Frewer). He was inspired to seek a Trek role by his friend, Whoopi Goldberg, who made several appearances on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987) as the bartender, "Guinan".
Is a fan of the sport of Rugby Union, and in particular New Zealand All Black star Jonah Lomu, who flew to San Francisco and gifted him with a signed All Black jersey. On a recent visit to New Zealand they were reunited on national TV, Williams humbly accepting another All Black jersey, except this time it had Jonah's number 11 on the back.
Attended Claremont Men's College, where he played soccer.
1998: Listed by Entertainment Weekly as one of the 25 Best Actors.
He is a fan of the comedy series "Monty Python's Flying Circus" (1969).
Studied at Julliard with actor Christopher Reeve. The two remained good friends until Reeve's death in 2004.
Enjoys cycling and occasionally trains with Lance Armstrong.
After having won the Academy Award for Good Will Hunting (1997), he sent Peer Augustinski (who is his standard German dubbing voice) a little Oscar replica with a note: "Thank you for making me famous in Germany".
Graduated from Redwood High School in Larkspur, California, north of San Francisco. Other famous alumni from Redwood include Gabrielle Carteris ("Beverly Hills, 90210" (1990)) and Erin Gray (Kate from "Silver Spoons" (1982)), and Jason Branson, radio talk show guest/therapist and author.
2003: Won Grammy Award for Best Spoken Comedy Album for "Robin Williams - Live 2002".
1980: Hit #104 on the Billboard Singles Charts with "I Yam What I Yam" (Boardwalk 5701).
2003: Ranked #7 in Star TV's Top 10 Box Office Stars of the 1990s.
1996: He reached a unique milestone by having two of his films reach the $100-million mark in the US exactly the same week, Jumanji (1995) and The Birdcage (1996).
Was voted "Least Likely to Succeed" by his fellow graduates at Larkspur.
Early in his career, he told a reporter that he was born in Scotland. His original press releases do indeed list Scotland as his place of birth. He admits now that he was "under the influence" at the time he said this. He was really born in Chicago.
He was voted the 50th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
One week after Christopher Reeve's tragic horse riding accident, Robin visited him in the hospital. However, he was dressed from head to toe in scrubs, spoke with a Russian accent, and had a surgical mask on. He was acting as if he was a real doctor and did a bunch of wacky antics. After he took off his mask, Reeve stated that, "That was the first time he laughed since the accident!".
When "Blame Canada", a song from South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (1999), was nominated for a Best Song Academy Award, it was Williams who performed the song at the ceremony because the actress who sang the song in the film, Mary Kay Bergman, had committed suicide a few months prior to the awards show.
He was considered for the role of Joe Miller in Jonathan Demme's Philadelphia (1993). Denzel Washington was cast instead.
An active supporter of the US Democratic Party, he has been outspoken about his opposition to the war in Iraq. However, he has become the most consistent entertainer of US troops since the war began, leading some to dub him the next Bob Hope.
Has been seen in playing paintball at public reservations near his Northern California residence.
He was a very overweight child. As a result, nobody would play with him. He started talking in different voices to entertain himself.
2004: Dedicated his winning the Cecil B. DeMille award at the Golden Globes to friend Christopher Reeve.
Most of his dialogue in Aladdin (1992) is ad-libbed.
Was a guest on Johnny Carson's next to last episode of the "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (1962), along with Bette Midler.
Is of Welsh and Scottish heritage.
He and his Being Human (1994) and Robots (2005) cast mate, Ewan McGregor, have both shared a role with Alec Guinness. McGregor, of course, played the young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequels. Williams appeared in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1996), as Osric, a part that Guinness had played on stage opposite John Gielgud. Williams also shares that part with another Star Wars series actor, Peter Cushing, who played the same role in the same year in the film, opposite Laurence Olivier.
Co-owns the Rubicon restaurant in San Francisco with Robert De Niro and fellow Bay area resident Francis Ford Coppola.
1993: Wrote the foreword to Gary Larson's book, "The Far Side: Gallery 4".
2002: After a 20-year break from doing stand-up comedy, he came back with a show live on Broadway. It won a Grammy for best spoken word album in 2003.
Though he is highly regarded for his ability to perform numerous different voices, he only has lent his voice to six animated features: FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992), Aladdin (1992), Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996) (V), Robots (2005), Happy Feet (2006) and Happy Feet Two (2011). However, he did voice-over work for a cartoon on Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), played a small role in the TV animated short A Wish for Wings That Work (1991) (TV), and has done narration for different rides and attractions at Disney World. He has also done the voice for the character "Dr. Know" in the movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), which is not a animated movie.
Has an older half brother, Todd.
1976: Performed at the opening of the San Francisco Comedy Competition against Dana Carvey, Harry Anderson and A. Whitney Brown.
Is a fan of "Doctor Who" (1963).
He's a "Star Trek" (1966) fan.
Invented the curse word "Shazbot", first heard in the situation comedy "Mork & Mindy" (1978) (in which Mork says the expression during the opening credits). Later, it was used in an episode of "The Simpsons" (1989) (Treehouse of Horror VI) with the Production Code 3F04, which aired on 10/30/95. In 1998 it was used as a voice chat option in the very popular "Starsiege Tribes" game and was carried over into the sequels, "Tribes 2" and "Tribes: Vengeance". Incidently, "shazbot, nano nano" also remain the last recorded words of the legendary former singer of AC/DC Bon Scott (1946-1980), still available on the album Highway to Hell.
Considers Jonathan Winters and Richard Pryor as his comedic idols.
Was offered the role of The Riddler in Batman Forever (1995). It eventually went to Jim Carrey.
Was considered for the Bobby Wheeler role in the TV series "Taxi" (1978). It went to Jeff Conaway.
Was the second choice for the role of Frank in Little Miss Sunshine (2006), but he turned it down.
1993: Was turned down for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination in for his performance in Aladdin (1992), because he only voiced The Genie.
He likes computer and video-games.
Owns a home and vineyard in Northern California's St. Helena district, hence the quip, "I love the smell of Napa in the morning." Not-too-distant neighbors include football legend Joe Montana (Calistoga) and filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola (Rutherford), both of whom run their own vineyards.
Williams and Robert De Niro were the last stars to see John Belushi alive, albeit on separate visits to bungalow #3 of L.A.'s Chateau Marmont hotel that fateful day in March 1982.
Asked by James Lipton about what he would like to God say when he arrives in the heaven, Williams answered that "There is a seat in the front" in the concert of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Elvis Presley.
Was invited to the party Steve Martin was throwing that turned out to be his wedding.
He is one of the few celebrities to have a segment in Sesame Street that didn't have any puppets or actors playing sesame street regular characters.
Has played both a fictional president in Man of the Year (2006) and a real-life one in Night at the Museum (2006).
He and his former wife frequently visited Australia during their holidays.
Met second wife Marsha Garces Williams when she was nanny for his and first wife Valerie Velardi's son, Zak Williams.
Lives in San Francisco and Napa, California.
Speaks French fluently.
Was voted "Most Humurous" and "Least likely to succeed" in school.
Filed a lawsuit against Frank and Beans Productions, production company of a shelved movie called "A Couple of Dicks". Williams claims that he received $6 million in "fixed compensation", meaning that he would receive the money whether the film was made or not. [October 2008]
Checked himself into rehab to be treated for alcoholism. He already overcome a drug and alcohol addiction in the '80s. He left rehab in September 2006.
Recovering at the Cleveland Clinic after successful open heart surgery on March 13, 2009 to replace his aortic valve.
His role in August Rush (2007) was modeled after the character of Fagin from Oliver Twist (1948), who was played in David Lean's film by Alec Guinness. Guinness also played Osric in John Gielgud's theatrical production of Hamlet. Williams played the role in Kenneth Branagh's film version.
Was frequently called up by Steven Spielberg when he was filming Schindler's List (1993). He would put him on speaker phone so he could tell jokes to the cast and crew to cheer them up. He used his character in Aladdin (1992) most of the time.
During the course of recording the voice of Genie in Aladdin (1992), Robin improvised so much they had almost 16 hours of material. He also ad-libbed so many of his lines that the movie's script was turned down for a Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award nomination.
Has appeared fully nude in The Fisher King (1991) and World's Greatest Dad (2009/I).
Studied acting with Michael Howard in New York City.
Became a vegetarian following his open heart surgery.
Close friend of John Travolta and Eric Idle.
Married for the third time to, Susan Schneider, a graphic designer, on October 23, 2011, at Meadowood Resort in St. Helena, California, among friends and family.
Is of English, Welsh, French and Irish descent.
His great friend, Scottish comedian Billy Connolly, refers to Robin's hairy arms as, "Quest for Fire" opera gloves.
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