101 Facts About Robin Williams

Robin McLaurin Williams was an American actor and comedian.

Robin Williams received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and five Grammy Awards.

Robin Williams received his first leading film role in Popeye.

Robin Williams went on to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Good Will Hunting.

Robin Williams starred in the critically acclaimed dramas The World According to Garp, Moscow on the Hudson, Dead Poets Society, Awakenings, Patch Adams, One Hour Photo, and World's Greatest Dad.

Robin Williams starred in family films such as Hook, Mrs Doubtfire, Jumanji, Jack, Flubber, RV, and the Night at the Museum trilogy.

Robin Williams lent his voice to the animated films Aladdin, Robots, Happy Feet, and its 2011 sequel.

Robin Williams's autopsy revealed that undiagnosed and severe Lewy body disease had spread widely in his brain.

Robin McLaurin Williams was born at St Luke's Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, on July 21,1951.

Robin Williams's father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams, was a senior executive in Ford's Lincoln-Mercury Division.

Robin Williams's mother, Laurie McLaurin, was a former model from Jackson, Mississippi, whose great-grandfather was Mississippi senator and governor Anselm J McLaurin.

Robin Williams had two older half-brothers: a paternal half-brother, Robert, and a maternal half-brother, McLaurin.

Robin Williams attended public elementary school in Lake Forest at Gorton Elementary School and middle school at Deer Path Junior High School.

Robin Williams described himself as a quiet child who did not overcome his shyness until he became involved with his high school drama department.

In late 1963, when Robin Williams was 12, his father was transferred to Detroit.

Robin Williams excelled in school, where he was on the school's wrestling team and was elected class president.

Robin Williams studied theatre for three years at the College of Marin, a community college in Kentfield, California.

Robin Williams often improvised during his time in the drama program, leaving cast members in hysterics.

Dunn called his wife after one late rehearsal to tell her Robin Williams "was going to be something special".

In 1973, Robin Williams attained a full scholarship to the Juilliard School in New York City.

Robin Williams was one of 20 students accepted into the freshman class, and he and Christopher Reeve were the only two accepted by John Houseman into the Advanced Program at the school that year.

Robin Williams was like an untied balloon that had been inflated and immediately released.

Robin Williams already had a reputation for being funny, but Kahn criticized his antics as simple stand-up comedy.

Robin Williams left Juilliard during his junior year in 1976 at the suggestion of Houseman, who said there was nothing more Juilliard could teach him.

Gerald Freedman, another of his teachers at Juilliard, said Robin Williams was a "genius" and that the school's conservative and classical style of training did not suit him; no one was surprised that he left.

Robin Williams began performing stand-up comedy in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1976.

Robin Williams gave his first performance at the Holy City Zoo, a comedy club in San Francisco, where he worked his way up from tending bar.

Robin 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".

Robin Williams moved to Los Angeles and continued performing stand-up at clubs, including The Comedy Store.

Robin Williams won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album for the recording of his 1979 live show at the Copacabana in New York City, Reality.

Robin Williams said that, partly due to the stress of performing stand-up, he started using drugs and alcohol early in his career.

Robin Williams further said that he neither drank nor took drugs while on stage, but occasionally performed when hung over from the previous day.

Robin Williams once described the life of stand-up comedians as follows:.

Robin Williams felt secure that he would not run out of ideas, as the constant change in world events would keep him supplied.

Robin Williams explained that he often used free association of ideas while improvising in order to keep the audience interested.

For example, some comedians said that Robin Williams had stolen their jokes, which Robin Williams strongly denied.

Robin Williams later avoided going to performances of other comedians to deter similar accusations.

Robin Williams appeared on the cover of the August 23,1979, issue of Rolling Stone, photographed by Richard Avedon.

Robin Williams was 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.

Robin Williams appeared with fellow comedian Billy Crystal in an unscripted cameo at the beginning of an episode of the third season of Friends.

In 2006, Robin Williams was the Surprise Guest at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, and appeared on an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition that aired on January 30.

The first film role credited to Robin Williams is a small part in the 1977 low-budget comedy Can I Do It.

Robin Williams's first starring performance is as the title character in Popeye, in which Williams showcased the acting skills previously demonstrated in his television work; accordingly, the film's commercial disappointment was not blamed on his performance.

Robin Williams continued with other smaller roles in less successful films, such as The Survivors and Club Paradise, though he said these roles did not help advance his film career.

The film is set in 1965 during the Vietnam War, with Robin Williams playing the role of Adrian Cronauer, a radio shock jock who keeps the troops entertained with comedy and sarcasm.

Robin Williams was allowed to play the role without a script, improvising most of his lines.

In 1989, Robin Williams played a private-school English teacher in Dead Poets Society, which included a final, emotional scene that some critics said "inspired a generation" and became a part of pop culture.

In Insomnia, Robin Williams portrayed a murderer on the run from a sleep-deprived Los Angeles police detective in rural Alaska.

Also in 2002, in the psychological thriller One Hour Photo, Robin Williams portrayed an emotionally disturbed photo development technician who becomes obsessed with a family for whom he has developed pictures for a long time.

Robin Williams' performances garnered him various accolades, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Good Will Hunting; as well as two previous Academy Award nominations, for Dead Poets Society, and as a troubled homeless man in The Fisher King, respectively.

Allen knew that Crystal and Robin Williams had often worked together on stage.

At first, Robin Williams refused the role since it was a Disney movie, and he did not want the studio profiting by selling merchandise based on the movie.

Robin Williams's performance paved the way for other animated films to incorporate actors with more star power.

Robin Williams continued to provide voices in other animated films, including FernGully: The Last Rainforest, Robots, the Happy Feet film franchise, and an uncredited vocal performance in Everyone's Hero.

Robin Williams was the voice of The Timekeeper, a former attraction at the Walt Disney World Resort about a time-traveling robot who encounters Jules Verne and brings him to the future.

Years after the films, Janet Hirshenson revealed in an interview that Robin Williams had expressed interest in portraying Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter film series, but was rejected by director Chris Columbus due to the "British-only edict".

Four films starring Robin Williams were released after his death in 2014: Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, A Merry Friggin' Christmas, Boulevard, and Absolutely Anything.

Robin Williams appeared opposite Steve Martin at Lincoln Center in an off-Broadway production of Waiting for Godot in 1988.

Robin Williams headlined his own one-man show, Robin Williams: Live on Broadway, which played at the Broadway theatre in July 2002.

Robin Williams made his Broadway acting debut in Rajiv Joseph's Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, which opened at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on March 31,2011.

Robin Williams was the host of a talk show for Audible that aired in April 2000 and was only available on Audible's website.

Robin Williams married his first wife, Valerie Velardi, in June 1978, following a live-in relationship with comedian Elayne Boosler.

Velardi and Robin Williams met in 1976 while he was working as a bartender at a tavern in San Francisco.

In March 2008, Garces filed for divorce from Robin Williams, citing irreconcilable differences.

Robin Williams married his third wife, graphic designer Susan Schneider, on October 22,2011, in St Helena, California.

In New York City, Robin Williams was part of the West Side YMCA runners' running team and showed promising results with 34:21 minutes at a 10K run in Central Park in 1975.

Robin Williams was an enthusiast of both pen-and-paper role-playing games and video games.

Robin Williams was a big fan of anime and collecting figures.

Robin Williams liked the film Innocence Ghost in the Shell, and received a DVD copy of Paranoia Agent signed by its director, Satoshi Kon.

Robin Williams became a devoted cycling enthusiast, having taken up the sport partly as a substitute for drugs.

Robin Williams was raised and sometimes identified himself as an Episcopalian.

In 1986, Robin Williams teamed up with Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Crystal to found Comic Relief USA.

Bob Zmuda, creator of Comic Relief, explains that Robin Williams felt blessed because he came from a wealthy home, but wanted to do something to help those less fortunate.

Robin Williams made benefit appearances to support literacy and women's rights, along with appearing at benefits for veterans.

Robin Williams was a regular on the USO circuit, where he traveled to 13 countries and performed to approximately 90,000 troops.

Robin Williams performed with the USO for US troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For several years, Robin Williams supported St Jude Children's Research Hospital.

In 2003, Robin Williams started drinking again while working on the film The Big White in Alaska.

Years afterward, Robin Williams acknowledged his failure to maintain sobriety, but said he never returned to using cocaine, declaring in a 2010 interview:.

In mid-2014, Robin Williams admitted himself into the Hazelden Foundation Addiction Treatment Center in Center City, Minnesota, for treatment for alcoholism.

Robin Williams postponed his one-man tour for surgery to replace his aortic valve, repair his mitral valve, and correct his irregular heartbeat.

Robin Williams described the early symptoms of his disease as beginning in October 2013.

Robin Williams kept saying, 'I just want to reboot my brain.

Robin Williams was found dead in his home in Paradise Cay, California, on August 11,2014.

The final autopsy report, released in November 2014, concluded that Robin Williams' death was a suicide resulting from "asphyxia due to hanging".

An examination of his brain tissue suggested Robin Williams had "diffuse Lewy body dementia".

Robin Williams revealed that in the year before his death, Williams had experienced a sudden and prolonged spike in fear and anxiety, depression, and insomnia, which worsened in severity to include memory loss, paranoia, and delusions.

Robin Williams' body was cremated at Monte's Chapel of the Hills in San Anselmo, and his ashes were scattered over San Francisco Bay on August 21,2014.

Robin Williams was an airman, a doctor, a genie, a nanny, a president, a professor, a bangarang Peter Pan, and everything in between.

At the United Nations headquarters on August 12,2014, Robin Williams was celebrated during the opening of the International Youth Day.

That night, the cast of the Aladdin musical honored Robin Williams by having the audience join them in a sing-along of "Friend Like Me", an Oscar-nominated song originally sung by Robin Williams in the 1992 film Aladdin.

British heavy metal band Iron Maiden dedicated a song to Robin Williams, titled "Tears of a Clown", on their 2015 album The Book of Souls.

That same year, a mural of Robin Williams was created on Market Street in San Francisco.

Robin Williams liked Jay Leno for his quickness in ad-libbing comedy routines, and Sid Caesar, whose acts he felt were "precious".

Robin Williams gave me the idea that it can be free-form, that you can go in and out of things pretty easily.

Robin Williams was influenced by Richard Pryor's fearless ability to talk about his personal life on stage, with subjects including his use of drugs and alcohol, and Robin Williams added those kinds of topics during his own performances.

Robin Williams raised the bar for what it's possible to do, and made an enormous amount of us want to be comedians.

Robin Williams was considered a "national treasure" by many in the entertainment industry and by the public.

Robin Williams created a signature free-form comedy persona so widely and uniquely identified that new comedians like Jim Carrey impersonated him, paving the way for the growing comedy scene which developed in San Francisco.

Robin Williams's performances were unlike anything any of us had ever seen, they came from some spiritual and otherworldly place.

Robin Williams received two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and five Grammy Awards.