These are 9 things you probably did not know about the great actor Robin Williams.
Robin Williams was an American actor, stand-up comedian, producer, and screenwriter.
His career blossomed in the 1980s with the hit TV series Mork & Mindy. Robin Williams went on to establish an amazing career in both stand-up, comedy and feature films. His biggest movies include, ‘Dead Poets Society‘, ‘Awakenings‘, ‘Good Will Hunting‘, ‘Popeye‘, ‘Hook‘, ‘Aladdin‘, and ‘Mrs. Doubtfire‘.
He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor three times. Robin Williams would later receive the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Good Will Hunting. He also receieved two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actor Guild Awards and five Grammy Awards.
On August 11, 2014 the actor was found unconscious in his California home and was pronounced dead at the scene. According to the Marin County’s coroner’s office, the cause of death was suicide by asphyxiation.
You may think you know everything about Robin Williams. But, here are 9 things you probably never knew about the award winning actor.
- Studied acting briefly at Julliard under John Houseman. Houseman told him he was wasting his talent at Juilliard and he should strike out on his own and do stand-up comedy.
- When he auditioned for the role of Mork from Ork on Happy Days (1974), producer Garry Marshall told him to sit down. Williams immediately sat on his head on the chair. Marshall hired him, saying that he was the only alien who auditioned.
- During the making of Mork & Mindy (1978), Williams departed from the scripts and ad libbed so many times and so well, that the producers stop trying to make him stick to the script and deliberately left gaps in the later scripts leaving only “Mork can go off here” in those places so Robin could improvise.
- Was a huge fan of the comedy series Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969).
- Studied at Julliard with actor Christopher Reeve. The two remained good friends until Reeve’s death in 2004.
- After having won the Academy Award for Good Will Hunting (1997), he sent Peer Augustinski (who was his standard German dubbing voice) a little Oscar replica with a note: “Thank you for making me famous in Germany.”.
- Was voted “Least Likely to Succeed” by his fellow graduates in high school.
- Most of his dialogue in Aladdin (1992) was ad-libbed.
- Checked himself into rehab to be treated for alcoholism. He already overcome a drug and alcohol addiction in the 1980s. He left rehab in September 2006.
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Photo Credit: (Peggy Sirota)/Parade.com
