Actor Robin Williams: biography and filmography

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

He is deservedly considered a Hollywood legend. The idol of millions is actor Robin Williams - one of the brightest stars of comedy cinema. The audience is overcome by a real fit of laughter when he transforms into images on the screen. He is not only a talented actor, but also a professional producer. In addition, Robin Williams is the owner of prestigious awards: Oscar and Golden Globe. What was his path to fame and recognition? Let's take a closer look at this issue.

Biography Facts

Actor Robin Williams is a native of Chicago (USA). He was born on July 21, 1952. The boy grew up in a we althy family. His father was the head of the legendary Ford automobile concern. The Williams couple often moved from place to place, and little Robin sometimes found it difficult to adapt to new conditions.

But the parents tried to make sure that he did not need anything: buying him beautiful toys, they thought that Robin would be distracted and not notice their absence. As a result, the parents devoted little time to their offspring, disappearing at work and at festive banquets.

Childhood

The boy was glad that he would have to go to school and socialize there with his peers. He often hooligans in the classroom, teasing teachers and laughing.their classmates. However, his wit and causticity served him as a defense against those around him. The fact is that he was small in stature, had excessive vegetation on his body. Naturally, he became an object of ridicule. In addition, Robin Williams was a timid and slow boy. He overcame the “shyness” complex due to the fact that he began to develop the makings of an actor in himself. Already at school, he spoke with humorous stories that were a great success with his peers.

After school

After receiving a matriculation certificate, the future Hollywood star decides to become a political scientist and enters a specialized college.

However, soon the young man realized that he was only interested in acting. Robin's academic performance left much to be desired, and the young man is expelled from college. He is more and more asserted in the thought that he should choose the profession of an actor. However, the father, having learned that his son had been expelled from his alma mater, said that the offspring, in addition to the profession of an actor, should master another one that could consistently bring him a “piece of bread.”

Study acting

Robin Williams with great difficulty found a university that taught two speci alties at once. He was supposed to receive a diploma in acting and a diploma in welding. But after the death of his father, he was finally convinced that he should deal with electrodes and welding. He travels to New York to try his hand at a theater academy called the Juilliard School of Drama.

After entering this university,he begins to earn extra money in one of the bars. Gradually, studies faded into the background, and the young man began to actively perform humorous programs in a public catering establishment. Then he meets his first wife.

First steps in cinema

The actor's career was not particularly "glued": the young man was not invited to play in the theater, and he and his beloved leave for Los Angeles. In this Californian city, things have gone uphill for the aspiring actor: after several comedy TV shows, Robin is invited to participate in the filming of series, where he is entrusted with supporting roles. The start of his acting career was the work of Williams in Happy Days (1978). He played the image of the alien Mork. This character gained immense popularity, so after a while the comedy series "Mork and Mindy" was created, in which Williams continued to transform into an alien.

Robin's big movie trial balloon is his role in Robert Altman's 1980 film Popeye. He was approved for the role of a sailor. However, it cannot be said that the viewer was delighted with this work of a young man.

However, subsequent roles were not particularly noticeable to movie fans.

Unclaimed actor

Slowly, Robin Williams, an actor whose start was unsuccessful, began to fall into depression. He began to lean on alcohol and cocaine. Such "antidepressants" helped him forget for a while that the films of Robin Williams did not have the proper success with the audience. Disagreements began with his wife. As a result, in the firsthalf of the 80s of the last century, the career of the actor left much to be desired. A reassessment of values in the mind of Williams occurred in 1982, when he learned about the death of his friend John Belushi, who died of a drug overdose. After that, he gave up bad habits.

Career break

"Fine hour" for the actor happened in 1987. Director Barry Levinson is directing the movie Good Morning Vietnam, in which he gets the lead role. The actor is nominated for an Oscar for his work in this film.

Robin Williams, whose filmography includes more than 50 film roles, is honored with two more nominations after filming Dead Poets Society (1989) and The Fisher King (1991).

Followed by work in the films "Mrs. Doubtfire", "Jumanji", "Bird Cages", which were also noted by the viewer. The films of R. Williams became box office. In 1997, he received another "Oscar" (in the nomination of the best supporting actor) for the filigree played image in the film "Good Will Hunting". However, the namesake of the actor, professional interior designer Robin Williams, also achieved great heights in his work. "Design Studio" is one of her unique bestsellers in which she offers classic and modern solutions for furnishing rooms.

And more failures

As for the actor Robin Williams, his ups in his career alternated with downs. His roles played in the films "The Healer Adamas" and "What Dreams May Come" in 1998,not everyone liked it, and the work in the films "Jacob the Liar" and "Bicentennial Liar" turned out to be a failure.

Robin Williams, whose photo did not leave the covers of glossy magazines in the early 90s, decides to change his role, abandoning comedic roles for a while. However, such a measure does not bring the expected result: the film-melodrama "House of D" and the thriller "The Last Swing of the Knife", where the actor plays by no means comedians, again do not have success with the viewer. Then Robin decides to return to his standard image.

The films "Aristocrats", "Man of the Year", "Madhouse on Wheels" again raised the popularity rating of a Hollywood star.

In recent years, Robin Williams has been in great demand in the profession. However, cinematography is not the only area of interest for an actor. He took part in comedy shows with pleasure, voiced animated films.

Private life

The relationship between the famous actor and the opposite sex was rather peculiar. He got married three times. He met his first wife, waitress Valeria Vilardi, while a student at the Juilliard School of Drama. When the actor started having problems with alcohol and drugs, and he himself did not miss a single opportunity to "go left", the family idyll came to an end.

Williams' second wife is his children's nanny Marsha Garces. She founded Blue Wolf Productions with him. Their marriage lasted eighteen years: the divorce took place in 2008.

For the third time "idolmillion "married the designer Susan Schneider, who looked after and cared for him in the last years of his life.

He alth problems

In 2004, the actor became addicted to alcohol again. But so that the "green serpent" could not destroy his family, he went to the clinic for a whole month. So he wanted to get rid of a bad habit that had managed to bring he alth problems into his life.

In 2009, during the premiere of the theatrical production of "The Weapon of Self-Destruction", the actor felt an acute malaise. Doctors diagnosed Robin Williams with aortic valve dysfunction and cardiac arrhythmia. An urgent operation was required, after which the actor's condition improved somewhat.

Robin Williams died on August 11, 2014. The actor's children came to the funeral: sons Zach and Cody, as well as daughter Zelda. For them, the news of the death of their father was a real shock. The actor was found dead in his own home. One version of what happened is suicide.