This is the true-life story of Robin Williams.
Number 11.
Beginnings
Millions of this late star's fans grew up
with his voice and sense of humor in numerous
movies over the years.
But, many of us don't know how he started.
Robin McLaurin Williams came into the world
on July 21, 1951, in Chicago, Illinois.
His dad, Robert Fitzgerald Williams, worked
as a senior executive for the Lincoln-Mercury
Division of the Ford Motor Company, and his
mother, Laurie McLaurin , was from Jackson,
Mississippi and used to model.
On his mother's side, Robin was related to
Anselm J. McLaurin , the Governor of Mississippi
from 1896 to 1900.
Robin went to Gorton Elementary School in
Lake Forest and attended Deer Path Junior
High after that.
Later on, Williams said that during his early
school years, he had difficulty overcoming
his shyness.
When he turned twelve, his dad was transferred
to Detroit, Michigan, and they lived in a
farmhouse with forty rooms on twenty acres
of land.
While going to Detroit Country Day School,
Robin truly excelled, even joining the soccer
and wrestling teams and being elected class
president.
At sixteen, Williams and his family moved
to Tiburon, California where he went to Redwood
High School.
When he graduated in 1969, Robin was voted
"Funniest" and, interestingly, "Most Likely
NOT to Succeed" by his class.
Number 10.
Impressive Education
After his high school career, Williams started
attending classes at Claremont Men's College
for political science before dropping out
to pursue acting.
He then attended the College of Marin in Kentfield,
California where he studied theater.
After playing Fagin in Oliver - his first
on-stage performance - his drama professor
quickly noticed how much talent Williams had.
After one rehearsal, the professor called
his wife to tell her that Robin "was going
to be something special."
We now know that he was spot on!
In 1973, he earned a full scholarship to the
renowned New York City Juilliard School.
Williams was one out of twenty total students
who were accepted by the school that year.
Plus, the famous British actor and producer,
John Houseman, accepted only Robin and one
other student, Christopher Reeve, into the
Advanced Program that year.
He was quick to wow the professors with his
abilities, including imitating accents like
English, Russian, Scottish, Irish, and Italian
with ease.
Williams and Christopher Reeve remained best
friends throughout the years until he passed
in 2004 after struggling as a quadriplegic
following a horse-riding accident.
Throughout the mid-1970s, Robin was working
as a busboy, and he left Juilliard in 1976
after Houseman said Williams had nothing more
to learn from the school.
Number 9.
Funny Man
Williams had already begun doing stand-up
comedy during his time at Juilliard.
His first performance was in San Francisco
at the Holy City Zoo, where he started as
a bartender.
In 1977, after moving to Los Angeles, Williams
was seen by George Schlatter, a television
producer, while performing at the Comedy Club.
Schlatter quickly asked Williams to appear
on the show Laugh-In, a sketch comedy program.
The show aired that same year, becoming the
actor's debut appearance on television.
Although the series ultimately failed, Williams'
career kept growing, and he continued performing
at various stand-up clubs to sharpen his improvisational
skills.
Number 8.
Video Game Fanatic
Something you probably didn't know about Robin
Williams is that he was an enormous fan of
tabletop role-playing games, as well as video
games.
In some ways, acting, role-playing, and video
games all have something in common - they
allow you to live as somebody else for a while.
So, maybe Williams' fascination with these
things isn't overly surprising.
One of the actor's favorite games was The
Legend of Zelda series.
He even named his daughter after the title
character, Zelda.
Number 7.
Taking Its Toll
Like so many other celebrities out there,
Robin Williams faced some hard times throughout
his comedy career, especially once he started
doing stand-up.
He later noted that, partially because of
the stress he endured from stand-up, he began
using substances and drinking alcohol.
Williams assured everyone that he never did
either of those things while he was on stage.
But, he also said that he was sometimes hungover
from the night before while performing.
Robin recalled that the life of a stand-up
comedian is a "brutal field" because of the
party-oriented lifestyle, the lack of job
security, and the constant pressure that comes
with it.
Since comedy is so competitive, he was even
accused of stealing other comedians' jokes.
David Brenner, a former comedian, actor, and
author, once stated that he confronted Williams
face-to-face and physically threatened him
for allegedly using his jokes.
Whoopi Goldberg sided with Robin, however,
explaining that reusing another comic's material
is common practice and difficult to avoid,
and Williams denied the accusation altogether.
Number 6.
Television
Williams' career expanded far beyond stand-up
comedy, and one of the ways it did so was
in television.
Although Laugh-In didn't work out, he appeared
in The Richard Pryor Show in a couple of episodes
before getting the role of Mork, an alien,
in the Happy Days episode "My Favorite Orkan."
Since Robin's appearance as the otherworldly
character was so popular, it led to a spin-off
series called Mork & Mindy.
The show was even written to accommodate Williams'
improvisations in behavior and dialogue.
At its prime, the series had sixty million
viewers every week.
This role is often credited as what made Williams
a superstar, even earning him the cover of
Time magazine during the series' first season.
The comic's stand-up career took off around
this time as well.
In the late 1970s and through the 80s, he
had three specials on HBO, An Evening with
Robin Williams, Off The Wall, and Robin Williams:
Live at the Met.
Williams also co-hosted the 1986 Academy Awards
ceremony.
Plus, the star became a regular guest on several
talk shows, including Late Night with David
Letterman and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny
Carson.
Number 5.
Cycling Enthusiast
Another surprising fact about this renowned
man was that he was an avid cyclist.
Williams was known more for his acting prowess
and comedy, but he was also fairly well-known
in the world of biking.
He began cycling to overcome his addiction
to substances, but the sport became more than
a hobby.
Williams even befriended one of the world's
most famous cyclists, Lance Armstrong, after
attending a benefit ride for the athlete's
cancer charity.
Since then, the two were as tight as brothers,
Williams even coming to his defense when Armstrong
was accused of using illegal enhancers to
win.
They rode together during a rest day for the
2002 Tour de France, and they often used Robin's
private jet to travel between the United States
and Europe so their training wouldn't be disrupted.
Before becoming friends with Armstrong, he
was buddies with Greg LeMond, another renowned
cyclist.
LeMond invited Williams to ride with him,
which he said made him an "instant groupie."
The actor's love of the sport resulted in
him purchasing a garage full of bikes, eighty-seven
of which were donated to charity by his children
following his passing.
Number 4.
Genie
Williams was known for his movie roles, arguably
more than anything else.
His role as the title character in Mrs. Doubtfire
has audiences laughing as much today as it
did when it came out in 1993.
Williams truly showed his expansive abilities
in other types of movies as well, including
the drama-thriller One Hour Photo and the
biographical comedy-drama Good Morning, Vietnam.
He also won an Oscar for his role as the therapist,
Sean, in Good Will Hunting.
But, one of this actor's most iconic characters
was the voice of Genie in Disney's animated
film Aladdin.
Many people believe that he changed the world
of animation through that single role.
He was paid $75,000 to play Genie - much less
than what he earned for other movies.
Williams made a deal with Disney to not promote
the film as a "Robin Williams" film and to
limit Genie's appearance on posters to just
twenty-five percent.
Despite his attempt to not overtake Aladdin,
Williams is the most talked-about character
in the film to this day.
Since Genie, animated features are star-driven,
meaning everyone can pinpoint exactly who
voices which character with ease, like Mike
Myers as Shrek and Eddie Murphy as Donkey,
according to Rotten Tomatoes.
Before Aladdin, it was rare for anyone to
recognize an actor's voice in an animated
film.
Number 3.
Marriages
Robin Williams got married for the first time
in June 1978 to Valerie Velardi.
They met two years prior when Williams was
bartending in San Francisco.
She gave birth to their son, Zachary, in 1983.
Five years later, the two called it quits.
In 1989, he tied the knot with Marsha Garces,
who had been Zachary's nanny while he was
still married to Valerie.
However, their romance didn't start until
after he and Valerie had separated.
Williams and Marsha had two children, Zelda
Rae and Cody Alan Williams, born in 1989 and
1991 respectively.
They divorced in 2010, and Williams married
once more to Susan Schneider in 2011.
They lived together in Sea Cliff, San Francisco.
Number 2.
Chronic Struggles
Although he seemed like a happy man overall,
Williams struggled with various issues his
entire life.
In the early 1980s, his friend, John Belushi,
succumbed to an overdose, which was a wake-up
call for Williams.
This is when he turned to cycling to battle
his addiction, as well as his depression.
He endured a stint of drinking while filming
a movie in 2003 in Alaska, but he checked
himself into a rehab center in 2006, stating
that he was an alcoholic.
In 2009, Williams was hospitalized with heart
problems and had to undergo surgery to get
his aortic valve replaced.
He checked himself into rehab a second time
in 2014 for drinking again.
Very shortly after, Williams was discovered
deceased in his home in Paradise Cay.
Later on, doctors discovered that there were
no illegal substances involved, and an examination
of his brain suggested that he had diffuse
Lewy Body Dementia - a disease that causes
anxiety, fear, insomnia, tremors, among other
things.
Williams was showing symptoms of the disease
beginning in late 2013.
In addition to the physical discomfort it
caused, he also suffered from paranoia, memory
loss, and delusions, and his wife attributed
his passing to the disease.
Number 1.
Mourning
When the news broke about Robin Williams,
the entire world began mourning.
Numerous talk show hosts, including Jimmy
Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, David Letterman, and
Conan O'Brien, paid tribute to the late actor
on their shows.
Broadway darkened its lights on the evening
of August 14, 2014, honoring Williams' theater
work, and the cast of Broadway's Aladdin had
the audience join them in singing Genie's
well-known song from the film, "Friend Like
Me."
People set up memorials at Robin's Hollywood
Walk of Fame star, as well as at various significant
locations from his career, such as the home
used in Mrs. Doubtfire, the Boston Public
Garden bench in Good Will Hunting, and the
Parrish Shoes sign in New Hampshire, where
Jumanji was partly filmed.
His daughter, Zelda, stated following her
father's departure, "[the] world is forever
a little darker, less colorful and less full
of laughter in his absence."
