You loved him in Patch Adams and Mrs. Doubtfire, he enthralled you in Dead Poets Society and Good Morning Vietnam, he was hysterical in Jumanji but yet the man who made us laugh suffered silently inside from depression that took a toll on him till he succumbed and breathed his last on 11th August 2014. Robin Williams’s death was a shock to all of his fans and even as it has been two years since his demise, we still remember the man who truly symbolized the profound mask of a clown who we adored and smiled at oblivious of the torment and turmoil within. Robin Williams was a genius in acting and a genius performer.
His teachers at Juilliard acting school stand testimony to his achievements where one of his teachers suggested he leave as there was nothing more the school could teach him. They agreed he was a genius. As we chose to honor one of Hollywood’s most loved stars, simply because he deserves to be remembered, here are 12 little-known facts about Robin Williams. We aren’t going to dwell on the trivia and dates but of those bits of information that were truly interesting anecdotes of his life.
In the early days of trying to launch his career, Williams struggled to make money and even performed a mime act every day on the street outside New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to earn money. He was more or less successful in performing his own standup comedy act in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
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Once Robin Williams was asked by a Redditor if his daughter Zelda was named after the video game Legend of Zelda, Williams admitted it was the idea of his son Zachary but when they heard it, they liked it immediately. Williams loves the legend of Zelda, Call of Duty, Ocarina of Time, Portal and Battlestations Pacific.
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Robin Williams’s big break came with the American sitcom Mork and Mindy when he was cast alongside Pam Dawber as Mindy. He was actually cast as an alien in the Show “Happy Days” but his character Mork was such a hit that it spun off into the series “Mork & Mindy”, However Williams struggled with alcohol addiction soon after and it would take him two decades to come out of it.
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Robin Williams was a cycling fan and even trained with Lance Armstrong. According to sources, he would be seen riding shotgun in Armstrong’s team car during several of his races.
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Williams’s film debut in Robert Altman’s Popeye in 1980 was a disaster but he rebounded back just as strongly with a fantastic performance in “The world according to Garp” and “Good Morning Vietnam” which even won an Oscar nomination. He won an academy award for best supporting actor in his next performance with “Good Will Hunting”.
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Among the facts about Robin Williams, his favorite book as a child was "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”. He would often read it to his kids as well. "Growing up, it was The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe - I would read the whole C.S. Lewis series out loud to my kids. I was once reading to Zelda, and she said "don't do any voices. Just read it as yourself." So I did, I just read it straight, and she said 'that's better.'’
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In Mrs. Doubtfire when Daniel sticks his head in a cake during a visit by Mrs. Stellar, the scene was a spontaneous act by Williams because his frosting makeup was melting from the heat of the camera lights. Another famous incident of improvisation was during the making of the animation film Aladdin when he did about 40 takes with different voices overs to finally get it right. Incidentally, the producers had the role of the Genie written especially for Robin Williams which they admitted was a well-calculated risk that paid off.
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At Juilliard Acting School, he shared a room with his best friend Christopher Reeves who played the earlier, Superman. It was Williams who made Reeves laugh just a few days after his fatal riding accident that paralyzed him permanently. According to Reeves, ''He announced that he was a proctologist and had to examine me immediately," Reeve wrote in his memoir Still Me, according to a New York Times review. "And for the first time since the accident I laughed.'' Reeves and Williams even attended the same dialects class. On Reeves speaking about Robin Williams, he said he never really knew what to make of him as Robin could instantly rattle off in different dialects including Irish, Italian, English, Russian and Scottish.
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Disney tried promoting Aladdin merchandise using the voice of the Genie which was done by Williams. He said "I don't want to sell stuff. It's the one thing I won't do,” Disney tried making it up to him by gifting him a Picasso painting in which the artist imagined himself to be Van Gogh. The painting was worth $1 million.
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While Steven Spielberg was filming Schindler’s List, Robin Williams would call him and crack jokes to make him laugh and keep him in high spirits. Said Williams “I think I only called him once, maybe twice. I called him when I was representing People for the Valdheimers Association. A society devoted to helping raise money to help older Germans who had forgotten everything before 1945. I remember him laughing and going 'thank you.'’
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In 1996, Williams achieved a fantastic Milestone in the history of films which few actors have managed to accomplish. Both his movies, “Jumanji” and “The Birdcage” reached the $100 million mark in the same week.
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When James Lipton Dean emeritus of the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University in New York City Asked Williams what he would like God to say to him when he entered heaven, Robin’s answer was "There is a seat in the front row for you,". This was in reference to concerts by Mozart and Elvis both of whom Williams was a big fan. Robin Williams will always be remembered as one of the stalwarts of comedy in Hollywood. Tragically his struggle with dementia took a huge toll on his life where according to his wife Susan Schneider wrote in a journal of Neurology, that Williams suffered from the worst pathological case of Lewy Body Dementia doctors had ever seen. Williams was slowly losing his mind and repeated said “I just want to reboot my brain”
R.I.P Robin Williams. July 21, 1951 - August 11, 2014
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