American actor and comedian Robin McLaurin Williams was born on 21st July 1951 in Chicago, Illinois and passed away on 11th August 2014. He was married and had 3 children.
When he was an elementary school student, Robin was a very shy kid, so whilst attending in high school years later, he joined the school’s drama section to beat his timidity. Apart from being a brilliant student, he was part of the wrestling team as well as class president. In 1969, he graduated and went to college to study political science. However, he realised it was not his ‘field’ and opted for acting instead, following a 3-year course. He immediately showed his ability as a comedian when he gave an excellent performance in a school musical, highly amusing his classmates who described him as ‘very funny’.
Robin then obtained a scholarship and met ‘Superman’ actor Christopher Reeve. Together they had dialect classes and their teacher as well as Reeve were amazed by Robin’s talent and how he managed to speak in different dialects at once. Robin and Christopher became close friends and remained as such until Reeve died in 2004.
William’s career started in 1976 with stand-up comedy performances in night clubs and a year later debuted on a TV show. But real fame arrived in 1978 with the famous sitcom ‘Mork & Mindy’ which ran for 4 years and he became a superstar. This success helped him attract bigger audiences and he proceeded with his comical shows and funny movie roles for the rest of the 70s as well as the 80s. Some comedy movies include ‘Popeye’, ‘Patch Adams’ and ‘Mrs Doubtfire’.
Apart from comedy, Robin starred in several films featuring more dramatic/serious roles like ‘Dead Poet’s Society’, ‘Awakenings’ and ‘Good Will Hunting’, to name a few. Most probably, however, his big screen breakthrough was when he was given a role in the movie ‘Good Morning, Vietnam’, where he played a radio disk jockey who entertained his listeners with jokes and/or melodramatic exaggerations. For this part he was given permission to play the role without a script, improvising the lines there and then, leaving the film crew bewildered with his capabilities. He also had voice roles in many animated movies, the best and most popular one being the voice of the ‘Genie’ in ‘Aladdin’.
At one time, Robin was a drug addict and an alcoholic but he sought help and managed to overcome these problems. In 2009, he was operated in his heart and later he suffered from depression. In 2014, he passed away after committing suicide, according to the autopsy.
During his 38-year career, Robin won 16 awards amongst which there are 2 Emmy, 5 Grammy and 6 Golden Globe. He also supported various charities. Robin will remain as one of the most loved comedy actors of all time.
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