On July 21, 1951, at St. Luke's Hospital in
Chicago, Illinois, Robin McLaurin Williams was born. His father, Robert
Fitzgerald Williams, held a prominent position in the Lincoln-Mercury Division
of Ford. His great-grandfather, Anselm J. McLaurin, was a Mississippi senator
and governor. His mother, Laurie McLaurin, was a former model from Jackson,
Mississippi. Robert, Williams' paternal half-brother, and McLaurin, his
maternal half-brother, were Williams' older half-brothers. Williams was brought
up in his father's Episcopal religion even though his mother was a Christian
Science practitioner. During a televised appearance on Inside the Actors Studio
in 2001, Williams recognized his mother as a significant early influence on his
humor, and he attempted to make her laugh to get attention.
Williams attended Deer Path Junior High School
for middle school and Gorton Elementary School in Lake Forest for elementary
school. He describes himself as a shy kid who struggled with it until he joined
the theatrical club in his high school. His close acquaintances recall him as
being incredibly humorous. When Williams was 12 years old and his father was relocated
to Detroit, this occurred in late 1963. He attended the exclusive Detroit
Country Day School while growing up on the family's 20-acre suburban Bloomfield
Hills, Michigan property. He excelled in school, joining the wrestling team and
winning the position of class president.
Williams' mother and father both worked, thus
the family's maid reared him in part and served as his primary playmate. His
father took early retirement when he was 16 and the family moved to Tiburon,
California. After their transfer, Williams enrolled in Redwood High School in
nearby Larkspur. At his graduation in 1969, his classmates selected him as
"Most Likely Not to Succeed" and "Funniest." After
graduating from high school, Williams enrolled at Claremont Men's College in
Claremont, California, to study political science, but he left to pursue
acting. Williams studied theater for three years at the Institution of Marin, a
community college in Kentfield, California.
James Dunn, a theater professor at the
College of Marin, claims that when the young actor was chosen to play Fagin in
the musical Oliver! the breadth of his potential became clear. Williams
frequently improvised during his time in the drama program, sending the cast
into convulsions of laughter. After one late rehearsal, Dunn told his wife that
Williams "was going to be something great."
Williams enrolled in the Juilliard School in
New York City on a full scholarship in 1973. He was one of the 20 freshmen
accepted, and John Houseman only accepted him and Christopher Reeve that year
into the school's Advanced Program.
William Hurt and Mandy Patinkin were also
classmates. Williams and Franklyn Seales shared a room at Juilliard, claims
biographer Jean Dorsinville. Reeve remembers meeting Williams for the first
time as a freshman at Juilliard: "He spoke quickly and wore tie-dyed
shirts and tracksuit bottoms. I'd never seen a person with such enthusiasm. He
had been inflated and then let loose, making him like an untethered balloon. He
caromed off the walls of the classrooms and corridors while I watched in
astonishment. He was definitely "on," and that is an
understatement."
Edith Skinner, whom Reeve referred to as
"one of the world's leading voice and speech teachers," instructed
Williams and Reeve in a dialects course. According to Reeve, Skinner was
baffled by Williams' ability to perform in a number of accents. Michael Kahn
was their main acting instructor, and he was "equally mystified by this
human dynamo." Williams was known to be funny, but Kahn dismissed his
antics as little more than stand-up comedy. With a well-received portrayal as
an elderly man in Tennessee Williams' Night of the Iguana, Williams later put
his critics to rest. Reeve declared: "He was just the elderly man. I was
impressed by his work and grateful that fate had connected us." Right up
to Reeve's passing in 2004, they stayed close. According to Williams' son Zak,
they were like "brothers from another mother" in their relationship.
Williams spent the summers of 1974, 1975, and
1976 busboy at The Trident in Sausalito, California. He left Juilliard in 1976
during his junior year at the advice of Houseman, who claimed that Juilliard
had little more to impart to him. Williams was described as a
"genius" by another of his Juilliard instructors, Gerald Freedman,
who also claimed that the school's conservative and classical teaching method
did not suit him. As a result, no one was shocked when Williams quit. Due to
his improvisational abilities and the wide range of characters he created on
the spot and played on film, in both tragedies and comedies, he is considered
one of the greatest comedians of all time.
Williams started doing stand-up comedy in San
Francisco and Los Angeles in the middle of the 1970s, and he became well-known
for playing the alien Mork in the ABC sitcom Mork & Mindy (1978–1982). The
World According to Garp, Moscow on the Hudson, Good Morning, Vietnam, Dead Poets
Society, Awakenings, The Fisher King, Patch Adams, One Hour Photo, and World's
Greatest Dad were among the critically acclaimed and financially lucrative
movies that appeared in after his breakout performance in Popeye in 1980.
Hook from 1991 to 1992, Aladdin from
1992 to 1993, Mrs. Doubtfire from 1993 to 1995, Jumanji from 1995 to 1995, The
Birdcage from 1996 to 1996, Good Will Hunting from 1997 to 1997, and the Night
at the Museum trilogy from 2006 to 2014. He was nominated for four Oscars,
including Best Supporting Actor for the movie Good Will Hunting. In addition,
he received five Grammy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors
Guild Awards, and two Primetime Emmys.
Williams married Valerie Velardi in June 1978
after having a live-in relationship with the comedian Elayne Boosler. Williams
and Velardi first crossed paths in 1976 while he was a bartender in a San
Francisco pub. Their son, Zachary Pym "Zak" Williams, was born in
1983. Velardi and Williams got divorced in 1988.
Despite the fact that it was commonly believed
that Williams started an affair with Zachary's nanny Marsha Garces in 1986,
Velardi claimed in the 2018 film Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind that the
two had already divorced when the relationship started. On April 30, 1989,
Williams married Garces while she was six months pregnant with their child.
Their two children were Zelda Rae Williams and Cody Alan Williams. In March
2008, Garces and Williams filed for divorce, citing their irreconcilable
differences. Their divorce was legally finalized in 2010.
In St. Helena, California, on October
22, 2011, Williams wed graphic designer Susan Schneider, who would become his
third wife. In Sea Cliff in San Francisco, California, the couple resided.
Williams claims that "My amazement is sparked by my kids. simply to see
them develop into such great individuals."
Williams' body was found on August 11, 2014,
inside his Paradise Cay, California, residence. The world was in disbelief when
it was revealed that Williams had died from "asphyxia related to
hanging" in his suicide. In the months preceding his death, he had had
memory loss, sadness, anxiety, insomnia, and paranoia. His autopsy revealed
that he had Lewy body dementia, a fatal condition that had been misdiagnosed as
Parkinson's disease.
Williams' ashes were scattered over San
Francisco Bay on August 21, 2014, after his remains were cremated at Monte's
Chapel of the Hills in San Anselmo.
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