Robin Williams dies with 63. Actor.
Love his kindness and his movies. He was always so funny and amazing in the movies and on TV.
Here it goes the story of Robin Williams from Wikipedia
Thanks to Robin Williams on Wikipedia
Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork & Mindy (1978–82), Williams went on to establish a successful career in both stand-up comedy and feature film acting. His film career included such acclaimed films as Popeye (1980), The World According to Garp (1982), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Dead Poets Society (1989), Awakenings (1990), The Fisher King (1991), and Good Will Hunting (1997), as well as financial successes such as Hook (1991), Aladdin (1992), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Jumanji (1995), The Birdcage (1996), Night at the Museum (2006), and Happy Feet (2006). He also appeared in the video "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin.
Williams was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor three times, and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Good Will Hunting. He also received two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and five Grammy Awards.
Williams suffered from depression throughout his life, and also struggled with drug and alcohol addiction. On August 11, 2014, he was found dead after committing suicide by hanging at his home in Paradise Cay, near Tiburon, California.
Early life and education
Robin McLaurin Williams was born in Chicago, Illinois, on July 21, 1951. His mother, Laurie McLaurin (c. 1923 – September 4, 2001), was a former model from Jackson, Mississippi, whose own great-grandfather was Mississippi senator and governor Anselm J. McLaurin. His father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams (September 10, 1906 – October 18, 1987), was a senior executive at Ford Motor Company in charge of the Midwest region. Williams had English, Welsh, Irish, Scottish, German, and French ancestry. He was raised in the Episcopal Church (while his mother practiced Christian Science), and later authored the comedic list, "Top Ten Reasons to be an Episcopalian."
Williams attended elementary school in Lake Forest, Illinois and began middle school there. His young friends recall him as being very funny. When Williams's father was transferred to Detroit, the family moved from the Chicago area to a 40-room farm house in suburban Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where he was a student at the Detroit Country Day School. He excelled in school and became president of the class. He was on the school's soccer team and wrestling team. In middle school, Williams was bullied and would seek out new routes home to avoid his tormentors. He told jokes to his mother to make her laugh and pay attention to him. Williams spent much of his time alone in the family's large home, playing with his 2,000 toy soldiers. "My only companions, my only friends as a child were my imagination," he said.
Williams's father was away much of the time and, when he was home, Williams found him "frightening". His mother worked too, leaving Williams to be attended to by the maids they employed. Williams claimed his upbringing left him with an acute fear of abandonment and a condition he described as "Love Me Syndrome."
When Williams was 16, his father took early retirement and the family moved to Woodacre, California, where he attended the public Redwood High School in nearby Larkspur. When he graduated in 1969, the senior class voted him both "Most Likely Not to Succeed" and "Funniest."
Williams studied political science at Claremont McKenna College (then called Claremont Men's College) in Claremont, California. Williams left Claremont and attained a full scholarship to the esteemed Juilliard School in New York City. In between Claremont and Juilliard, he returned to Marin County and studied theatre for three years at a community college, the College of Marin, where according to drama professor James Dunn, Williams's talent first became evident when he was cast as Fagin in Oliver!. He had two brothers: Robert Todd Williams (June 14, 1938 – August 14, 2007) and McLaurin Smith.
Williams described himself as a quiet child whose first imitation was of his grandmother to his mother. He did not overcome his shyness until he became involved with his high school drama department. In 1973, Williams was one of only 20 students accepted into the freshman class at Juilliard and one of only two students to be accepted by John Houseman into the Advanced Program at the school that year; the other was Christopher Reeve. William Hurt was another classmate. Williams left Juilliard during his junior year in 1976 at the suggestion of Houseman, who told him, "There's just nothing more we can teach you. So you should go out and work."
Personal life
Marriages and children
On June 4, 1978, Robin Williams married his first wife, Valerie Velardi. They met in 1976 when he worked as a bartender at a tavern in San Francisco. Their son Zachary Pym "Zak" Williams was born on April 11, 1983. During Williams's first marriage, he was involved in an extramarital relationship with Michelle Tish Carter, a cocktail waitress whom he met in 1984. Williams and Velardi divorced in 1988.
On April 30, 1989, he married Marsha Garces, a Filipino American and Zachary's nanny, who was several months pregnant with his child. They had two children, Zelda Rae Williams (born July 31, 1989) and Cody Alan Williams (born November 25, 1991). In March 2008, Garces filed for divorce from Williams, citing irreconcilable differences. Williams married his third wife, graphic designer Susan Schneider, on October 23, 2011, in St. Helena, California. Their residence was Williams's house in Sea Cliff, a neighborhood in San Francisco, California.
Of what gives him a sense of wonder, Williams stated, "My children give me a great sense of wonder. Just to see them develop into these extraordinary human beings."
Family and friends
While studying at Juilliard, Williams befriended Christopher Reeve. They had several classes together in which they were the only students, and they remained good friends for the rest of Reeve's life. Williams visited Reeve after the horse-riding accident that rendered him a quadriplegic, and cheered him up by pretending to be an eccentric Russian doctor (similar to his role in Nine Months). Williams claimed that he was there to perform a colonoscopy. Reeve stated that he laughed for the first time since the accident and knew that life was going to be okay.
On August 14, 2007, Williams's elder brother, Robert Todd Williams, died of complications from heart surgery performed a month earlier.
Other interests
Williams was a passionate supporter of his hometown's professional sports teams, the San Francisco 49ers and the San Francisco Giants.
He was a member of the Episcopal Church. He described his denomination in a comedy routine as "Catholic Lite—same rituals, half the guilt."
Williams was an avid enthusiast of video games and named two of his children after game characters. He named his daughter after Princess Zelda from The Legend of Zelda action-adventure game series. They both have been featured in an ad for the Nintendo 3DS remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. His son may have been named after Cody from the beat 'em up game Final Fight. He also enjoyed pen-and-paper role-playing games and online video games, playing Warcraft III, Day of Defeat, Half-Life, and the first-person shooter Battlefield 2 which he played as a sniper. He was also previously a fan of the Wizardry series of role-playing video games. In the wake of his passing, a petition was started by several players of World of Warcraft and eventually signed by over 11,000 players, requesting him to be memorialized in the game in some way. The day after the petition was announced, Blizzard Entertainment responded that they will indeed memorialize Robin Williams in the game with an NPC (non-player character) at the Worlds End Tavern in the in-game city of Shattrath, in which he will tell jokes and entertain players in the game.
On January 6, 2006, Williams performed live at the Consumer Electronics Show during Google's keynote. In the 2006 E3, on the invitation of Will Wright, he demonstrated the creature editor of Spore while simultaneously commenting on the creature's look: "This will actually make a platypus look good." He also complimented the game's versatility, comparing it to Populous and Black & White. Later that year, he was one of several celebrities to participate in the Worldwide Dungeons & Dragons Game Day.
Williams's favorite book was the Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov, the actor expressed enthusiasm at the idea of playing the character Hari Seldon in an adaptation. His favorite book growing up as a child was The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, which he later shared with his children, "I would read the whole C.S. Lewis series out loud to my kids. I was once reading to Zelda, and she said 'Don't do any voices. Just read it as yourself.' So I did, I just read it straight, and she said 'That's better.'"
A fan of professional road cycling, Williams was a regular on the US Postal and Discovery Channel Pro Cycling team bus and hotels during the years Lance Armstrong dominated the Tour de France. He owned over 50 bicycles.
Williams enjoyed rugby union and was a fan of a former All Black, Jonah Lomu.
Williams enjoyed listening to jazz, "specifically Keith Jarrett piano solos". He also listened to Tom Waits, Radiohead, and Prince.
Williams was a supporter of eco-friendly vehicles. He drove a Toyota Prius and was on the waiting list for an Aptera 2 Series electric vehicle before the company folded in December 2011.
In 2010, Williams announced that he would love to play the Riddler in the next installment to the Batman films by director Christopher Nolan, though Nolan has stated that the Riddler would not be featured in the film.
On Israel's 60th Independence Day in 2008, Williams appeared in Times Square along with a number of other celebrities to wish Israel a "happy birthday". He had described himself as an "honorary Jew".
Charity work
Williams and his second wife, Marsha, founded the Windfall Foundation, a philanthropic organization to raise money for many charities. Williams devoted much of his energy to charity work, including the Comic Relief fundraising efforts (the program was hosted by himself, Billy Crystal, and Whoopi Goldberg). In December 1999, he sang in French on the BBC-inspired music video of international celebrities doing a cover of The Rolling Stones' "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)" for the charity Children's Promise.
In response to the 2010 Canterbury earthquake, Williams donated all proceeds of his "Weapons of Self Destruction" Christchurch performance to helping rebuild the New Zealand city. Half the proceeds were donated to the Red Cross and half to the mayoral building fund. Williams performed with the USO for U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Williams also supported St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for several years.
Addiction and health problems
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Williams had an addiction to cocaine. Williams was a close friend of and frequent partier alongside John Belushi. He said the death of his friend and the birth of his son Zak prompted him to quit drugs and alcohol: "Was it a wake-up call? Oh yeah, on a huge level. The grand jury helped too."
Williams started drinking alcohol again in 2003, while working in a small town in Alaska. On August 9, 2006, he checked himself in to a substance-abuse rehabilitation center in Newberg, Oregon. He later said that he was an alcoholic. His publicist delivered the announcement:
After 20 years of sobriety, Robin Williams found himself drinking again and has decided to take proactive measures to deal with this for his own well-being and the well-being of his family.
While acknowledging his failure to maintain sobriety, Williams would never return to use of cocaine, declaring in a 2010 interview:
"No. Cocaine – paranoid and impotent, what fun. There was no bit of me thinking, ooh, let's go back to that. Useless conversations until midnight, waking up at dawn feeling like a vampire on a day pass. No."
Williams was hospitalized in March 2009 due to heart problems. He postponed his one-man tour in order to undergo surgery to replace his aortic valve. The surgery was successfully completed on March 13, 2009, at the Cleveland Clinic.
Illness and death
In mid-2014, Williams had admitted himself into the Hazelden Foundation Addiction Treatment Center in Lindstrom, Minnesota, for continued sobriety treatment related to his alcoholism. According to his publicist, Williams suffered from depression.
At around 11:45 a.m. (PDT) on August 11, 2014, Williams was discovered by his personal assistant at his home in Paradise Cay, an unincorporated enclave of the town of Tiburon, California. About ten minutes later, county emergency 911 dispatchers received a telephone call reporting Williams was unresponsive and not breathing. The Marin County Sheriff's Office and firefighters from two local fire protection districts immediately responded to the scene, and Williams was pronounced dead shortly after they arrived, at 12:02 p.m. (PDT). To prevent unauthorized photos from being taken or disclosed (since Marin County has no county morgue), Williams's body was brought to the Napa County morgue for autopsy by Marin County's chief forensic pathologist, Dr. Joseph Cohen.
At a press conference on August 12, 2014, the Coroner Division of the Marin County Sheriff's Office disclosed that Williams had apparently hanged himself with a belt, and that the cause of death based on preliminary autopsy results was "asphyxia due to hanging." Results from toxicology tests are expected in two to six weeks.
Film
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | The Richard Pryor Show | Various roles | Writer 2 episodes |
| 1977 | Laugh-In | ||
| 1977 | Eight is Enough | Episode: "The Return of Auntie V" | |
| 1978 | Happy Days | Mork | Episode: "My Favorite Orkan" |
| 1978 | America 2-Night | Jason Shine | Episodes: "Jason Shine" and "Olfactory Distosis Telethon" |
| 1978–1982 | Mork & Mindy | Mork | 92 episodes Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy (won in 1979 and nominated in 1980) Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Comedy Series |
| 1979 | Happy Days | Mork | Episode: "Mork Returns" |
| 1979 | Out of the Blue | Mork | Episode: "Random's Arrival" |
| 1982 | Faerie Tale Theatre | Frog/Prince Robin | Episode: "Tale of the Frog Prince" |
| 1982 | SCTV Network | Various | Episode: "Jane Eyrehead" |
| 1984 | Pryor's Place | Gaby | Episode: "Sax Education" |
| 1987 | Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam | Baby-san | Voice Documentary |
| 1990 | Sesame Street | Himself | Episode 2749[1] |
| 1991 | Big Bird's Birthday or Let Me Eat Cake | Himself | This is a Sesame Street special that aired during the show's usual time slot on March 15, 1991.[2] |
| 1991 | Sesame Street | Himself | Episode 2795[3] |
| 1991 | A Wish For Wings That Work | The Kiwi | Voice Credited as Sudy Nim |
| 1993 | Sesame Street | Himself | Episode 3077[4] |
| 1994 | Homicide: Life on the Streets | Robert Ellison | Episode: "Bop Gun" Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor – Drama Series |
| 1992–1994 | The Larry Sanders Show | Himself | 2 episodes |
| 1994 | In Search of Dr. Seuss | The Father | Movie |
| 1997 | Friends | Tomas | Uncredited Episode: "The One with the Ultimate Fighting Champion" |
| 1998 | Sesame Street | Himself | Episode 3709[5] |
| 1998 | One Saturday Morning | Genie | 2 episodes |
| 1999 | L.A. Doctors | Hugo Kinsley | Episode: "Just Duet" |
| 2001 | Sesame Street | Himself | Episode 3923[6] |
| 2003 | Freedom: A History of Us | Josiah Quincy Ulysses S. Grant Missouri farmer Wilbur Wright Orville Wright |
4 episodes |
| 2003 | Life With Bonnie | Kevin Powalski | Episode: "Psychic" |
| 2008 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Merritt Rook | Episode: "Authority" Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor – Drama Series |
| 2009 | SpongeBob SquarePants | Himself | Episode "Truth or Square" |
| 2012 | Wilfred | Dr Eddy / Himself | Episode: "Progress" |
| 2012 | Louie | Robin | Episode: "Barney/Never" |
| 2012 | Sesame Street | Himself | Episode 4280[7] |
| 2013–2014 | The Crazy Ones | Simon Roberts | 22 episodes Nominated - Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series |
| Robin Williams | |
|---|---|
Williams at the Happy Feet Two premiere, 2011
|
|
| Born | Robin McLaurin Williams July 21, 1951 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | August 11, 2014 (aged 63) Paradise Cay, California, U.S. |
Cause of death
|
Asphyxia due to hanging (preliminary autopsy results) |
| Alma mater | Juilliard School |
| Occupation | Actor, stand-up comedian, film producer, screenwriter |
| Years active | 1972–2014 |
| Spouse(s) | Valerie Velardi (m. 1978–88) Marsha Garces (m. 1989–2008) Susan Schneider (m. 2011; until his death in 2014) |
| Children | 3 (including Zelda Williams) |
| Comedy career | |
| Medium | Stage, film, television |
| Genres | Character comedy, improvisational comedy |
| Influences | Jonathan Winters,[1][2] Warner Bros. Cartoons,[3] Dudley Moore,[4] Peter Sellers,[4] Peter Cook,[4] Jerry Lewis[5] |
| Influenced | |
| Website | robinwilliams.com |
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