Robin Williams
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williamswas an American stand-up comedian, actor, director, producer, writer, singer and voice artist. Starting as a stand-up comedian in San Francisco and Los Angeles in the mid-1970s, he is credited with leading San Francisco's comedy renaissance. After rising to fame as Mork in Mork & Mindy, Williams went on to establish a career in both stand-up comedy and feature film acting. He was known for his improvisational skills...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth21 July 1951
CityChicago, IL
CountryUnited States of America
Performing comedy in San Francisco to begin with is pretty wild. You've got to - you've got the human game preserve to play off of. And it's a lot of great characters everywhere. You work off that, and then you play the rooms, and eventually you get to a point where you're playing a club that is a comedy club, with other comics.
After a while, you just kind of chill. It just becomes a whole different lifestyle and no one bothers you.
The moments of comedy are there. But the whole idea of a vacation is the stripping away of stuff and then, by the end of the vacation, (at least) in my life, you do have these moments as a group, as a family having a great time, so mellow again. It takes a while to do that but that's what this movie is about.
I called them and told them we were coming and said I didn't know how many we were bringing. They said bring them all. They said even if they had to get cots and line them all up, they would accommodate us. It's been great.
Ah, yes, divorce ... from the Latin word meaning to rip out a man's genitals through his wallet.
I met Nelson Mandela, and I really didn't know what to say. It was years ago at a benefit. I was just in awe of this man because of what he'd done.
The improv, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but when it does, it's like open-field running.
The essential truth is that sometimes you're worried that they'll find out it's a fluke, that you don't really have it. You've lost the muse or - the worst dread - you never had it at all. I went through all that madness early on.
If Heaven exists, to know that there's laughter, that would be a great thing.
Tweets? That stuff kills conversation. And people taking pictures with their phone or recording you, sometimes surreptitiously, is creepy. They come up and just start talking to you, and you can see the red light on their phone.
I think 'Dead Poets' was probably my favorite, just to get started with the idea of doing a movie that people treated as more than a movie.
When I went home from Juilliard, I couldn't find acting work.
I write on big yellow legal pads - ideas in outline form when I'm doing stand-up and stuff. It's vivid that way. I can't type it into an iPad - I think that would put a filter into the process.
I have an idea for a movie called 'The Walken Dead' which is about a town where, instead of zombies, everyone becomes Chris Walken.