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Robin Williams
Cocaine is God’s way of saying you’re making too much money.
— Robin Williams
PLENTY of people think Robin Williams is the funniest man alive, and when he launches into one of his trademark manic riffs, it’s hard to disagree. It’s only when he’s locked into someone else’s script that he occasionally misfires.
The only child of a wealthy Ford Motor executive, Williams amassed 2,000 toy soldiers in his parents’ 30-room mansion as a kid. Trained in drama at Juilliard, he was a mime and a stand-up comic before starring as a loony alien in the ’70s sitcom Mork and Mindy, a role that made him a household name. (”TV or not TV. Whether ’tis nobler to do kiddie crap at 8 o’clock or sweat my ass off in small clubs . . .”)
While Williams was dazzling the nation with records, concerts, and TV appearances, his big-screen output was underwhelming: his first leading role was in Robert Altman’s disastrous live-action Popeye, and while he redeemed himself somewhat in a decent adaptation of The World According to Garp, he was far more likely to turn up in mediocre comedies like The Survivors and Club Paradise. Indeed, Hollywood failed to put Williams’ brilliant improvisational gifts to good use until Good Morning, Vietnam, which earned him an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe Award in 1987.
But while his overall film output has continued to be erratic, he has shown surprising range, tackling dramatic as well as comedic roles, and turning in stellar performances in Dead Poets Society, Awakenings, and The Fisher King. His work as the voice of the genie in Disney’s animated Aladdin helped fuel that film’s phenomenal, cross-generational success.
Privately, Williams has enjoyed his share of scandal. As if he needed extra energy, he reportedly snorted coke with John Belushi just before Belushi’s 1982 death, and in 1986 he was sued for $6.2 million by an ex-girlfriend who claimed he infected her with herpes; Williams filed a counter-suit claiming the charges were false and she was trying to extort money from him. The case was settled in 1992, and the terms were not disclosed. After divorcing his first wife, Williams married his son’s former nanny. He let her produce Mrs. Doubtfire, and she let him ham it up, and the result was a commercial blockbuster that further cemented his standing as Hollywood’s most popular funnyman. His recent string of comedy hits — The Birdcage, Jack, Fathers’ Day, and Flubber (a remake of the classic Disney comedy The Absent Minded Professor) — prove that he is not yet ready to relinquish his comedy crown to Jim Carrey, a fact made even more apparent when Entertainment Weekly named Williams the “Funniest Man Alive.”
Williams achieved a critical pinnacle in his career by winning a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his restrained performance as a South Boston therapist in Gus Van Sant’s 1997 charmer Good Will Hunting. He has since starred in a series of films, none of which have done much to fire the collective consciousness: Vincent Ward’s visually lush drama What Dreams May Come, about a man killed in an automobile accident who searches for his wife in the afterlife, disappointed at the box office; Patch Adams, the true story of a physician who bucked the medical system by treating patients with humor therapy, was not what the doctor ordered; Jakob the Liar, about a ghetto-dwelling Jew who attempts to cheer his fellow comrades by fabricating news reports of Allied troops advancing on Nazi Germany, incited nothing but jeers; and Bicentennial Man, the story of a robot who longs to become human, proved to be so much predictable tripe.
Williams is set to star in The Interpreter, in which he’ll play a man who takes a job as an interpreter and winds up mediating an international crisis. Pulling double duty as producer and star, Williams will then tackle the cyberthriller Rim and the biopic Damien of Molokai, an account of the Belgian priest who tended to members of a Hawaiian leper colony in the late 1800s.
Occupation: Actor, Comedian
Date of Birth: July 21, 1952
Place of Birth: Chicago, Ill., USA
Sign: Sun in Cancer, Moon in Leo
Relations: Wife: Marsha Garces; ex-wife: Valerie Velardi; kids: Zachary, Zelda, Cody
Education: Claremont Men’s College, College of Marin, Juilliard School
Fan Mail: C/O Blue Wolf Productions
725 Arizona Ave., Suite 202
Santa Monica, CA 90401
USA
Robin Williams: Credits
MOVIES
Actor
Bicentennial Man — 1999
Jakob the Liar — 1999
Get Bruce — 1999
Patch Adams — 1998
What Dreams May Come — 1998
Fathers’ Day — 1997
Flubber — 1997
Good Will Hunting — 1997
The Birdcage — 1996
Jack — 1996
The Secret Agent — 1996
Hamlet — 1996
Jumanji — 1995
Nine Months — 1995
Being Human — 1994
FernGully: The Last Rainforest — 1992
Toys — 1992
The Fisher King — 1991
Dead Again — 1991
Hook — 1991
Shakes the Clown — 1991
Awakenings — 1990
Cadillac Man — 1990
Dead Poets Society — 1989
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen — 1988
Good Morning, Vietnam — 1987
The Best of Times — 1986
Club Paradise — 1986
Seize the Day — 1986
Moscow on the Hudson — 1984
An Evening With Robin Williams — 1983
The Survivors — 1983
The World According to Garp — 1982
Children of Babylon — 1980
Popeye — 1980
Can I Do It . . . ‘Till I Need Glasses — 1977
Other Movie Credits
Aladdin and the King of Thieves — 1996 (Voice only)
Timekeeper — 1992 (Voice only)
FernGully: The Last Rainforest — 1992 (Voice only)
Aladdin — 1992 (Voice only)
MUSIC
Pecos Bill — 1988
A Night at the Met — 1987
Good Morning, Vietnam — 1987
Reality . . . What a Concept — 1979
TV
Friends — 1997 (Series; guest appearance)
In Search of Dr. Seuss — 1994 (Movie)
Homicide: Life on the Street — 1993 (Series; appearance)
The Larry Sanders Show — 1992 (Appearance (also 1994))
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales — 1992 - 1993 (Series; host)
Comic Relief V — 1992 (Host)
Robin Williams Talking With David Frost — 1991 (Guest)
A Wish for Wings That Work — 1991 (Movie; voice only)
Comic Relief IV — 1990 ( )
An Evening With Bette, Cher, Goldie, Meryl, Lily, and Robin — 1990 ( )
Comic Relief III — 1989 (Host)
All-Star Toast to the Improv — 1988 (Special)
ABC Presents a Royal Gala — 1988 (Special; Emmy)
Will Rogers: Look Back in Laughter — 1987 (Host)
Seize the Day — 1987 (Movie)
Robin Williams–An Evening at the Met — 1987 (Special)
Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam — 1987 (Documentary; narrator)
Comic Relief II — 1987 (Host)
A Carol Burnett Special — 1987 (Emmy)
The 58th Annual Academy Awards Presentation — 1986 (Co-Host)
Saturday Night Live — 1984 (Series; host (also 1986, 1988))
Faerie Tale Theater: Tale of the Frog Prince — 1982 (Episode)
E.T. & Friends — 1982 (Special; host)
Laugh In — 1979 (Series)
Mork & Mindy — 1978 - 1982 (Series)
The Richard Pryor Show — 1977 (Appearance)
Comedy Tonight — 1977 ( )
Happy Days — 1974 (Episode)
Williams, Robin Web sites
Jakob the Liar
Official Columbia/Sony site has film synopsis, cast information and trailer.
http://www.spe.sony.com/movies/jump/jakobtheliar.h…
Last reviewed by DottieHinkle
Mr. Showbiz Celebrities: Robin Williams
Features a profile, biography, credits and related news.
http://mrshowbiz.go.com/people/robinwilliams/
Last reviewed by ccrowe21
Ultimate Robin Williams Website
Comprehensive fan site details the actor’s past, present and future projects. Includes articles, audio/video clips and newsletter.
http://www.ibn-khouri.com/rwilliams/
Last reviewed by Lady_Tasha
Audible.com: Robin Williams
Robin Williams hosts a weekly series of comedy and conversations with guests. Membership required. “For Mature Audiences: contains explicit language.”
http://www.audible.com/rw/site_link.html
Last reviewed by DottieHinkle
Birdcage, The
Official MGM site with photos and Quicktime files.
http://www.mgmua.com/thebirdcage/
Last reviewed by DottieHinkle
Patch Adams
Get behind the scenes of this comedy starring Robin Williams. Site also includes movie photos and video clips.
http://www.patchadams.com/
Last reviewed by DottieHinkle
Robin Williams
This site includes a biography, pictures, articles and links.
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Set/1255/willia…
Last reviewed by Lady_Tasha
Photo Gallery-
Topics: Actor, Celebrities, Comedian
Tags: Bicentennial Man, Comedian, Fathers' Day, Flubber, Hamlet, Hook, Jack, Jumanji, Nine Months, Patch Adams, The Secret Agent
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