Robin Williams

Robin McLaurin Williams was an American actor and comedian whose work moved quickly between stand-up, television, film comedy, family entertainment, drama, thrillers, and animated voice performance. Born in Chicago on July 21, 1951, he came of age during a period when stand-up comedy and television sitcoms could turn a stage performer into a household name. Williams became known for improvisational skill, sudden character shifts, and the wide range of figures he could create and play. He received many awards, including an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, five Grammy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2005.

Williams began performing stand-up comedy in San Francisco and Los Angeles in the mid-1970s. He released comedy albums, including Reality ... What a Concept in 1980, and rose to fame as the alien Mork on the ABC sitcom Mork & Mindy, which ran from 1978 to 1982. His first leading film role came in Popeye in 1980. He later won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Good Will Hunting in 1997, and received Oscar nominations for Good Morning, Vietnam, Dead Poets Society, and The Fisher King.

His screen work was unusually broad. In drama, he appeared in The World According to Garp, Moscow on the Hudson, Awakenings, and World's Greatest Dad. He also took on darker material in Insomnia and One Hour Photo. His comedies and family films included Hook, Toys, Mrs. Doubtfire, Jumanji, The Birdcage, Jack, Flubber, Patch Adams, RV, and the Night at the Museum series. As a voice actor, he worked on Aladdin, Robots, Happy Feet, and Happy Feet Two.

The habits behind Williams’s comic speed and emotional reach were shaped early. He said his mother, Laurie McLaurin, influenced his humor, and that he tried to make her laugh to get attention. As a child, he was quiet and did not overcome his shyness until he became involved with high school drama. After studying political science briefly at Claremont Men’s College, he left to pursue acting, then studied theater at the College of Marin. A drama professor there saw his talent when he played Fagin in Oliver!, where his improvising left cast members in hysterics.

In 1973, Williams received a full scholarship to the Juilliard School in New York City. He studied among actors including Christopher Reeve, William Hurt, and Mandy Patinkin, and Reeve remembered him as a person with extraordinary energy who could seem constantly “on.” Teachers were struck by his quickness with accents and by the force of his presence, though he was also pushed to move beyond comic antics. A performance as an old man in Tennessee Williams’s Night of the Iguana showed another side of his ability. Williams left Juilliard in 1976 after John Houseman suggested the school had nothing more to teach him.

In his final years, Williams struggled with severe depression. His widow said he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and had experienced depression, anxiety, and increasing paranoia. After his death by suicide in 2014 at age 63, an autopsy found diffuse Lewy body disease, with symptoms professionals said were consistent with dementia with Lewy bodies. In the weeks that followed, tributes came in a wave. For a quotes website, his appeal lies in the same qualities that marked his performances: quick wit, emotional range, and a rare ability to make people laugh while leaving room for sadness.