Robin Williams - Biography

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A hyperkinetic performer who made his name as part of the burgeoning West Coast comedy scene in the late 1970s, Robin Williams first seized the nation's imagination as the ad-libbing extra-terrestrial, Mork from Ork, on the popular sitcom "Happy Days," which quickly led to the spin-off show, "Mork and Mindy" (ABC, 1978-82). Once established as both a stand-up comedian and a small screen star, he moved on to feature work where he has proven successful in both dramatic and comic roles.

The only child of an automobile executive and a homemaker, Williams was raised in a wealthy environment and harbored no desire to perform. He preferred sports and his studies until his family relocated to Marin County, CA around 1967. While attending Claremont Men's College, Williams discovered theater and dropped out to pursue a career, eventually landing at Juilliard. After three years in NYC, Williams returned to San Francisco and struggled to find his niche in stand-up comedy. In 1976, he auditioned at the Improv and his career was on its way.

Williams made his TV debut as a member of the ensemble of a revival of "Laugh-In" (NBC, 1977-78). In February 1978, he debuted as Mork, a manic, fast-talking space alien, on an episode of the ABC sitcom "Happy Days". Producer Garry Marshall was so impressed, he executive produced the spin-off series "Mork and Mindy", which paired Williams with Pam Dawber and quickly became a hit with Mork's catchphrase of "Nanu, nanu" entering into the lexicon. The hyperactive actor continued to make appearances at comedy clubs while starring in the sitcom. The small screen could barely contain Williams and his free associative antics and it was only a matter of time before he would try his hand in features. Although his launch as a film lead, in "Popeye" (1980), was a disappointmentaudiences were thrown by director Robert Altman's purist visionbox-office success came two years later with George Roy Hill's "The World According to Garp" (1982). Except for "Moscow on the Hudson" (1984), in which he believably played a Russian seeking asylum in America, his follow-up features were unmemorable. Although some of his finest moments in "Good Morning, Vietnam" (1987) were the result of on-set improvisations, his unpredictability was at one point seen as a barrier to a dramatic screen career, despite the Best Actor Oscar nomination he received. Williams, however, subsequently defied initial skepticism and proved himself capable of disciplined work. He made a rare dramatic appearance on TV in "Seize the Day" (PBS, 1987) and Peter Weir's "Dead Poets Society" (1989) cast him as a prep school teacher. While he occasionally flashed some of his trademarked shtick in the role, Williams proved a charismatic screen lead and earned a second Best Actor Academy Award nomination. Penny Marshall cast him as real-life doctor Oliver Sacks in "Awakenings" (1990) and despite fine work, co-star Robert De Niro earned most of the accolades. Williams earned a third Best Actor Oscar nod for his turn as a street person in "The Fisher King" (1991).

For much of the rest of the decade, Williams alternated between drama and comedy. He made a fine grown-up Peter Pan in Steven Spielberg's bloated "Hook" (1991) but ironically, the actor had one of his best and most successful screen outings with the animated Disney feature "Aladdin" (1992). Supplying the voice of the Genie and freed from the physical restrictions of live-action acting, Williams took off on some inspired riffs, impersonating scores of pop-culture icons from Arnold Schwarzenegger to William F. Buckley, as the animated images provide lightning-fast visual correlatives to his verbal pyrotechnics. (He later reprised the role in the second direct-to-video sequel, 1996's "Aladdin and the Prince of Thieves".) Another box-office triumph resulted when he joined an illustrious group of actors (Dustin Hoffman, Jack Lemmon and the Monty Python comedy troupe, to name a very few), and donned drag to play a elderly Scottish nanny in Chris Columbus' family comedy "Mrs. Doubtfire" (1993). (This was his first film co-produced with his wife, Marsha Garces Williams, under their production banner Blue Wolf Productions.) He had effective cameos as an obstetrician in Columbus' "Nine Months" and as a used car salesman in "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar" (both 1995) before scoring another box-office hit with "Jumanji" (also 1995). As the adult version of a child who had escaped from a troubled relationship with a distant father into the fantasy world of a board game, Williams drew heavily on his own upbringing. A more subdued performance as Armand, the nightclub owner with a high-strung drag queen lover (Nathan Lane), in "The Birdcage" (1996), Mike Nichols' reworking of 1978's "La Cage aux folles", followed. That same year, he tried valiantly to salvage the sentimental "Jack", about a ten-year-old with a genetic disorder. Williams round out the year, returning to his classical training to play the fop Osric in Kenneth Branagh's full-length "Hamlet".

Since the mid-80s, Williams, Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Crystal have hosted "Comic Relief", HBO specials designed to raise funds to aid the homeless. In 1997, he and Crystal teamed onscreen for the lamentable "Father's Day", a weak remake of a French farce. He rebounded--literally and figuratively--with Disney's "Flubber" (1997), a remake of the 1961 Fred MacMurray vehicle "The Absent Minded Professor", that allowed the comic to tap into his more manic side. Williams went on to deliver one of his best-received performances, for which he earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, as a repressed therapist trying to help a troubled genius in "Good Will Hunting" (1997). After a brief role as an actor whose life is so messy he literally becomes out of focus in Woody Allen's "Deconstructing Harry" (also 1997), Williams undertook the treacly fantasy "What Dreams May Come" and the shamelessly manipulative but crowd-pleasing "Patch Adams" (both 1998), before returning to heavy dramatic material with "Jakob the Liar" (1999), about a man who protects a child from the Nazis.

In 2002 it was back to comedy for Williams, providing much laughs in the Danny Devito directed, "Death To Smoochy," featuring Williams as a revenge-seeking childrens' television show host who is fired and replaced by a purple rhino name Smoochy. Not as funny for Williams was the fact that "Smoochy" was a giant flop. As if on cue, Williams next appeared in two dark dramas, as a killer in "Insomnia" and a stalker in "One Hour Photo" (both 2002). Robins earned praise for these daring roles that were a departure from his comedic persona and enjoyed the rare success of performing in an entirely different genre. He followed up with the morally challenging sci-fi thriller "Final Cut" (2004), playing an expert at editing people's memories to give them more palatable personal histories who discovers a dark and disturbing image from his own childhood. Not one of his better efforts, Final Cut slipped quietly into the dark night of box office failure. Williams then stole the show in Robots (2005), voicing Fender, a robot whose body parts like to fall off at inopportune moments.