Biography
American actor who, after improv at L.A.'s Comedy Store, took his
non-stop madness into the TV series "Mork and Mindy." From
9/14/1978 he played Mork, a delightfully demented interplanetary visitor,
for $15,000 a week. As a then unknown Julliard drama student, he had made
his first appearance as Mork in a one-shot stint on "Happy
Days." The character made such an immense impact with the public that
it led to the winning series. In addition to TV, Williams has done many
films, movies that were hilarious, touching, dramatic, histrionic; some
duds and some memorable classics.
Robin grew up in an affluent family background, the only child of a
wealthy Ford Motor executive. His mom was a fashion model, his first
exposure to the entertainment world. He was a solitary child, able to
comfortably play alone in his parents 30-room mansion with his 2,000 toy
soldiers in a world of his own imagination. He attended high school in
Marin County and graduated in 1969.
Williams studied politics and economics in Claremont Men's College, a
selective school in southern California. During freshman year, he took a
class in improvisational theater and knew that he had discovered his
destiny. Performing created an outlet for his creativity. When he
announced his career choice to his executive father, his dad dryly
suggested that he learn a backup skill, "like welding, just in
case." Trained in drama at Juilliard, he explored the max of his
flamboyance as a stand-up comic, thinking on his feet with the challenge
of improv. He earned extra pocket money as a street and theater mime.
With a love affair, Williams dropped out of Julliard and drama classes.
When the affair ended, he stayed in the Bay Area and started doing standup
in small clubs. He played on his rapid-fire free associations and
unpredictable leaps from accent to accent. He was wild and uncensored, the
manic synapses of his brain exploding in all directions of absurdity. By
1978, he moved to Los Angeles where he beamed in from another planet as
Mork.
Williams married dancer Valerie Velardi in 1978 and their son Zachary
was born in 1982. The heady success of Mork over its first four years
began to wane and as the show lost momentum, he began to worry that his
success was a fluke, and turned to drugs and alcohol. His life was
spinning out of control. Critics called his performances lightweight and
wondered if he had the discipline or complexity to move into successful
film performances.
Though he was dazzling the nation with records, concerts, and TV
appearances, his first film experience was a disastrous “Popeye,” in
1980. In 1982, his friend John Belushi died of a drug OD, a shock and a
wake-up call.
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 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.
He redeemed himself somewhat in a decent adaptation of “The World
According to Garp,” 1982 but it was followed by mediocre comedies such
as “The Survivors” 1983 and “Club Paradise,” 1986. He won an Oscar
in 1987 for his performance as a wisecracking disc jockey in "Good
Morning, Vietnam," the first time that Hollywood took the risk of
putting his brilliant improvisational gifts to good use. The film captured
his manic energy brilliantly.
After the shellshock of fame, Williams career began to falter. In his
private life, his marriage took several years to fold and was finally
finished in 1988. He began to reappraise his life toward becoming a
non-smoking vegetarian who jogs, exercises and reads. He made a second
marriage, to Marsha Garces on 4/30/1989, a month after his divorce became
final. Marsha had been a former nanny in 1984 for his first child, Zach,
and the scandal sheets tried to paint her as a home-wrecker. Robin and
Marsha formed their own production company, Blue Wolf, and she produced
“Mrs. Doubtfire” in which she encouraged him to ham it up, and the
result was a commercial blockbuster that further cemented his standing as
Hollywood's most popular funnyman. They had a daughter, Zelda, shortly
after they married, and son Cody on 11/25/1991. His father's health began
to fail, an impetus for them to reach out in relating as friends and
comrades. His dad died 10/18/1989, just about when Williams' life and work
was coming into focus.
A new introspection and restraint began to show in subsequent films,
and Williams began tackling serious roles with poise and maturity as well
as children's movies such as "Aladdin" and "Jumanji. He
began to show a surprising range, tackling dramatic as well as comedic
roles, and turning in stellar performances in “Dead Poets Society,”
1989, for which he earned his second Academy Award nomination for Best
Actor, and “The Fisher King,” 1991.
His work as the voice of the genie in Disney's animated
"Aladdin" helped fuel that film's phenomenal, cross-generational
success and he made “Flubber” in 1997. Williams achieved a critical
pinnacle in his career by winning a 1998 Best Supporting Actor Oscar for
his restrained performance as a South Boston therapist in Gus Van Sant's
1997 charmer, “Good Will Hunting.”
The devoted family man doesn't flaunt his wealth, but his home is his
pride and joy. He owns two magnificent homes in the San Francisco area,
drives pricey cars, bought himself a jet and is co-owner of a Bay Area
restaurant.
Forbes magazine has ranked him the nations top 40 and his fortune has
been estimated at $150 million, not bad for a stand-up comedian who plays
with talking green slime.
Through all of the scandals, the box office failures and accusations
that he has lost his edge, Robin Williams has remained one of America's
most loved celebrities. Despite harsh criticism, people turned out in
droves to see “Patch Adams,” 1998 and always seem willing to give the
star the benefit of the doubt. In 2001, Williams is set to star in “The
Interpreter,” in which he winds up mediating an international crisis.
Pulling double duty as producer and star, he will then tackle the
cyber-thriller “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.
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