50 Fun Facts About Robin Williams

In which city was Robin Williams born on July 21, 1951?

Chicago's St. Luke's Hospital was his birthplace; the family later moved to Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and then Tiburon, California.

Williams's father, Robert, was a senior executive at which car company?

Ford employed Robert Williams as a senior executive in its Lincoln-Mercury Division; the family lived in a 40-room farmhouse in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Which future Superman actor was admitted to Juilliard's Advanced Program alongside Robin Williams by John Houseman?

Christopher Reeve and Williams were the only two students Houseman took into the Advanced Program in 1973; they remained close until Reeve's death in 2004.

Williams's first stand-up performance, in 1976, was at a comedy club in which city?

The club was the Holy City Zoo; he later moved to Los Angeles and worked rooms including the Comedy Store.

Williams was cast as the alien Mork in a 1978 episode of which sitcom, before getting his own spin-off?

Happy Days' episode 'My Favorite Orkan', aired in February 1978, introduced Mork, whom Garry Marshall cast after an audition; the spin-off premiered that September.

Mork & Mindy is set in which Colorado city?

Boulder is the setting; Mork arrives in an egg-shaped spacecraft, Pam Dawber played Mindy, and the show ran on ABC from 1978 to 1982.

Which veteran comedian joined Mork & Mindy's final season as Mearth, the couple's child born looking elderly?

Jonathan Winters, Williams's comedy idol, played Mearth from 1981; Orkans age backwards, so the baby hatched looking elderly.

Williams's first starring film role was as which comic-strip character, in a 1980 Robert Altman musical?

Popeye (1980) cast Williams as the sailor opposite Shelley Duvall's Olive Oyl, with songs by Harry Nilsson.

The Sweethaven set for Williams's 1980 musical was built on which Mediterranean island?

Malta's Anchor Bay, near Mellieħa, holds the village of Sweethaven, built in 1979 for the Altman film and kept as a theme park.

Williams earned his first Oscar nomination as a real-life Armed Forces Radio DJ in which 1987 film?

Good Morning, Vietnam, directed by Barry Levinson, let Williams improvise most of the radio-broadcast scenes and earned him a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy.

Which real Saigon DJ's experiences loosely inspired Williams's 1987 breakthrough film?

Adrian Cronauer hosted the Dawn Buster show on Armed Forces Radio Saigon in 1965-66; the film, set in 1965, was shot in Thailand.

In Dead Poets Society (1989), John Keating's fictional academy is in which state?

Vermont is home to the fictional Welton Academy, set in 1959; Peter Weir directed, and Tom Schulman won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

In Awakenings (1990), Williams's Dr Malcolm Sayer is modelled on which neurologist and author?

Penny Marshall directed, and Robert De Niro was Oscar-nominated as Leonard Lowe, a patient revived by the drug L-DOPA.

Which Monty Python member directed The Fisher King (1991), with Robin Williams as homeless Parry?

Terry Gilliam directed, with Jeff Bridges as shock jock Jack Lucas; Mercedes Ruehl won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

In Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991), Williams plays a grown-up Peter Pan who has become what?

A lawyer specialising in mergers, Peter Banning has forgotten Neverland entirely; Dustin Hoffman played Hook and Julia Roberts was Tinker Bell.

Williams voiced Aladdin's Genie for about $75,000 instead of his usual fee of roughly how much?

$8 million was his going rate by 1992, but he took scale on condition that his name and image not be used to sell merchandise, a deal Disney then broke.

To apologise over Aladdin marketing, Disney sent Williams a painting by which artist?

Pablo Picasso's painting was the peace offering; after Joe Roth's public apology in 1994, Williams returned as the Genie in Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996).

Roughly how many hours of tape did Williams record improvising as the Genie?

The Golden Globes gave him a Special Achievement Award for the performance, since animated voice work had no category.

Which 1997 remake of The Absent-Minded Professor starred Williams as Professor Philip Brainard?

Flubber (1997) remade Disney's 1961 The Absent-Minded Professor, with Williams's Professor Brainard inventing the bouncing green goo of the title.

Mrs. Doubtfire was based on a 1987 novel by which British children's author?

Chris Columbus directed and Sally Field played the ex-wife, Miranda.

In Jumanji (1995), Alan Parrish is trapped inside the board game for how many years?

26 years pass between Alan being sucked into the game in 1969 and his release in 1995; the film is set in a fictional New Hampshire town from Chris Van Allsburg's 1981 book.

The Birdcage (1996) is an American remake of which French-Italian film?

La Cage aux Folles (1978), itself from Jean Poiret's play, was remade by Mike Nichols; Nathan Lane played Albert and the cast won the SAG ensemble award.

Williams won his only Oscar for playing therapist Sean Maguire in which film?

Good Will Hunting brought Williams the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in March 1998; Matt Damon and Ben Affleck won Best Original Screenplay the same night, and Gus Van Sant directed.

In the film that won Williams his Oscar, his character teaches psychology at which institution?

Bunker Hill Community College in Charlestown is where Sean teaches; the bench scene between Sean and Will was filmed in the Boston Public Garden.

In which 1998 film does Williams play a real-life doctor who treats patients with humour and compassion?

Patch Adams dramatised Hunter 'Patch' Adams, founder of the Gesundheit! Institute; Tom Shadyac directed, and the same year Williams starred in What Dreams May Come.

Bicentennial Man (1999) is based on a story by which science-fiction author?

Chris Columbus directed, and Greg Cannom's makeup was Oscar-nominated.

In Insomnia (2002), Williams's murderer is pursued through Alaska by a sleep-deprived detective played by whom?

Al Pacino played detective Will Dormer in Christopher Nolan's remake of a 1997 Norwegian film; the same year Williams played a disturbed photo technician in One Hour Photo.

In One Hour Photo (2002), Williams's Sy Parrish works the photo counter of which fictional big-box store?

SavMart is the store; Mark Romanek wrote and directed, and Williams won the Saturn Award for Best Actor.

In the Night at the Museum films, Williams plays a wax figure of which US president?

Theodore Roosevelt's wax figure wears a Rough Rider uniform; Ben Stiller plays night guard Larry Daley at the American Museum of Natural History.

In 1986 Williams co-founded Comic Relief USA with Whoopi Goldberg and which other comedian?

Billy Crystal co-hosted the HBO benefits for the homeless with Williams and Goldberg; the two friends also made an unplanned cameo together on Friends in 1997.

On the USO circuit, Williams travelled to 13 countries and performed for approximately how many troops?

90,000 is the rounded figure for his USO tours from 2002 to 2013, which took him to Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait among the 13 countries.

Williams's daughter, born in 1989, was named after a princess in which video game series?

The Legend of Zelda's Princess Zelda inspired the name Zelda Rae Williams; his sons are Zachary, born 1983, and Cody, born 1991.

Which hobby did Robin Williams take up partly as a substitute for drugs?

Cycling became his passion; he owned dozens of bikes, followed the Tour de France and befriended Lance Armstrong.

Robin Williams was partying with which SNL comedian the night before he died of an overdose in 1982?

John Belushi died at the Chateau Marmont on 5 March 1982; Williams had visited him there hours earlier, and the death helped push him to quit drugs and alcohol.

In March 2009 Williams postponed a tour for surgery to replace which part of his heart?

Aortic valve replacement was done at the Cleveland Clinic, where surgeons also repaired his mitral valve and corrected an irregular heartbeat.

What was the name of the 26-city stand-up tour Williams launched in 2009 after a six-year break?

Weapons of Self-Destruction, delayed by his heart surgery, opened at the end of September that year and was filmed for an HBO special in Washington, DC.

Which CBS sitcom starring Williams as an advertising executive premiered in 2013 and lasted one season?

The Crazy Ones, created by David E. Kelley, ran for 22 episodes in 2013-14; Sarah Michelle Gellar co-starred as his daughter.

How many Grammy Awards did Williams win over his career?

Five Grammys came his way, starting with Reality... What a Concept in 1980 and ending with his 2002 Broadway concert album in 2003; he also won two Primetime Emmys and the 2005 Cecil B. DeMille Award.

Williams was named a Disney Legend in which year?

2009's Disney Legends ceremony, held during the first D23 Expo in Anaheim, honoured him fifteen years after his falling-out with the studio over the Genie.

Williams's 2014 autopsy revealed diffuse Lewy bodies, a condition that had been misdiagnosed as what?

Parkinson's disease had been diagnosed in May 2014, a finding his widow Susan Schneider later said was really diffuse Lewy body disease; he had not gone public with it.

Williams married his third wife, graphic designer Susan Schneider, in which year?

2011 was the year: he married Susan Schneider in St. Helena, California, on 22 October 2011, after marriages to Valerie Velardi (1978-88) and Marsha Garces (1989-2010).

Williams enrolled to study political science at which California institution before dropping out?

Claremont Men's College, later renamed Claremont McKenna, was his first stop; he then studied theatre for three years at the College of Marin before winning a place at Juilliard.

Williams's mother was the great-granddaughter of a senator and governor of which state?

Mississippi's Anselm J. McLaurin served as governor (1896-1900) and US senator; his great-granddaughter Laurie McLaurin, a former model from Jackson, was Williams's mother.

Which Tennessee Williams play saw Robin Williams silence Juilliard critics by playing an old man?

Night of the Iguana, Tennessee Williams's 1961 play, gave him the part of the aged poet Nonno; his teacher Michael Kahn had dismissed his antics as mere stand-up.

During his Juilliard summers, Williams worked as a busboy at The Trident in which California town?

Sausalito's waterfront restaurant The Trident was the summer job; he left Juilliard in 1976 after John Houseman suggested the school had nothing more to teach him.

In which 1997 Woody Allen film does Williams play an actor who is out of focus?

Deconstructing Harry (1997) gives Williams a cameo as Mel, an actor who appears blurred on screen because he has gone 'soft' in life.

What did Williams do at his Mork audition when asked to take a seat?

Sat on his head is what he did, upside down in the chair; Garry Marshall said he hired him because he was the only alien who auditioned.

Williams appeared opposite Steve Martin in a 1988 off-Broadway staging of which play?

Waiting for Godot, staged by Mike Nichols at Lincoln Center's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, paired Williams's Estragon with Martin's Vladimir; his Broadway debut came much later, in Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo.

Who voiced the Genie in The Return of Jafar after Williams refused to sign on for the sequel?

Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer Simpson, took over for the 1994 video sequel after Williams fell out with Disney over the Genie's use in advertising.

Which Harry Potter role did Williams want, only to be blocked by a British-only casting rule?

Rubeus Hagrid was the part he wanted; casting director Janet Hirshenson said Chris Columbus had to turn him down under the all-British casting rule.