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."