Robin Williams

Williams was born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and Marin County, California. His father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams, of English, Welsh, German, and Irish descent, was a senior executive at Ford in charge of the Midwest area, and his mother Laurie was a New Orleans-born former model of French descent.

Comic career

He first achieved notice for his stand-up routines in San Francisco. After studying at Claremont McKenna College (then called Claremont Men's College) with the Strut and Fret theatre group in Claremont, California, and at Juilliard Drama School (where he befriended and roomed with actor Christopher Reeve), he was cast by Garry Marshall as the alien Mork in a guest star part in the TV series Happy Days.

Mork's appearance was so popular with viewers that it led to a spin-off hit television series, Mork and Mindy, which ran from 1978 to 1982.

Film and cinema fame

The majority of Williams' acting career has been in film, although he has given some memorable performances on stage as well (notably as Estragon in a production of Waiting for Godot). His first starring roles, Popeye (1980) and The World According to Garp (1982), were both flops, but with Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) Williams was nominated for an Academy Award and established a screen identity. Many of his roles have been comedies tinged with pathos (e.g. The Birdcage, Mrs. Doubtfire).

In particular, his role as the Genie in the animated film Aladdin was instrumental in establishing the importance of star power in voice actor casting. Later, Williams once again used his voice talents in A.I.: Artificial Intelligence and in the 2005 animated feature Robots.

Williams has also starred in dramatic films. He was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for his role as an unorthodox and inspiring English teacher in Dead Poets Society (1989). His later dramas included Awakenings (1990) and What Dreams May Come (1998).

In 1997 he won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for his role as a psychologist in Good Will Hunting. However, by the early 2000s, he was thought by some to be typecast in films such as Patch Adams (1998) and Bicentennial Man (1999). This apparently prompted Williams to take radically unconventional roles, beginning with the dark comedy as a lowlife kiddie show host in Death to Smoochy, followed by One Hour Photo in a watershed performance as an obsessed film developer, Insomnia as a sociopathic writer, and The Final Cut, which is more in tune with Williams as a protagonist.

He is known for his wild improv skills and impersonations. He is a talented mimic and can jump in and out of characters and various accents at an extremely fast pace. Williams states that he began doing impersonations as a child, mimicking the Southern accent of his aunt.

Personal life, charity work

Williams' first marriage was to Valerie Velardi on June 4, 1978, with whom he had one child, Zachary. That marriage ended in 1988. He married for a second time on April 30, 1989, to Marsha Garces and they have two children together.

Williams devotes much of his energy doing work for charities, including the Comic Relief fund-raising efforts. He is also a cycling fan, known to own hundreds of bicycles and to attend the Tour de France. Through his interest in cycling, he has been a friend and supporter of Lance Armstrong and his foundation, performing at events for the foundation. Williams and his wife Marsha founded the Windfall Foundation, a philanthropic organization to raise money for many different charities.

Watching his frantic mannerisms and immediate changes in personality, some have speculated that Williams is affected by bipolar disorder, but this has never been confirmed. A more likely explanation for his remarkable creativity and intense impulsive humor may be the reason that he is often referred to as "the poster child for ADD," though this statement is often said with a sarcastic edge.

In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted one of the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. He was portrayed by Chris Diamantopoulos in the made for television biopic Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Mork & Mindy (2005), documenting the actor's arrival in Hollywood a struggling comedian and becoming an overnight star when he landed the role in Mork & Mindy.

He can currently be seen in Barry Sonnenfeld's RV as a family man who ends up in an unlikely competition with another family, headed by Jeff Daniels. He has just completed (May 06) filming the role of Teddy Roosevelt, which required him to dye his hair red-orange.

In The 2006 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards he was the Surprise Guest who got slimed