PEOPLE Robin Williams

By The Editors of PEOPLE

The editors of PEOPLE Magazine present Robin Williams.

• Language: English
• Publisher: People
• Release date: Jul 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9781547851980

Book preview

life

A LIFE IN PICTURES

MAN IN CONSTANT MOTION

A FRENETIC FORCE OF NATURE, ROBIN WILLIAMS BROUGHT ENDLESS JOY TO FAMILY, FRIENDS AND FANS

WE FIRST MET ROBIN WILLIAMS as the gleeful alien at the center of the hit sitcom Mork & Mindy. The 1978-82 series provided an ideal showcase for the comedian, whose improvisations and bursts of wit left audiences doubled over in laughter. Williams soon became a movie star, appearing in memorable films like Good Morning, Vietnam, Dead Poets Society and Mrs. Doubtfire and picked up four Oscar nominations during his career, taking home the trophy for 1997’s Good Will Hunting. Warm and generous, Williams crusaded for the homeless, advocated for spinal-cord-injury research (in honor of close friend Christopher Reeve) and frequently traveled abroad with the USO to entertain American troops.

His death by suicide on Aug. 11, 2014, came as a shock and exposed the personal agony the 63-year-old Williams had suffered with an undiagnosed brain disorder. On the fifth anniversary of his death, People is celebrating the life and legacy of a man who touched the world with his comedy and kindness. He was funny, understood real emotion, understood the human experience and was just an amazing person—but he definitely had demons, Good Will Hunting producer Chris Moore said. This was a guy who truly understood the human condition, and unfortunately the human condition is somewhat tragic.

‘HE WAS THE BRIGHTEST STAR IN A COMEDY GALAXY. BUT WHILE SOME OF THE BRIGHTEST OF OUR CELESTIAL BODIES ARE ACTUALLY EXTINCT NOW, THEIR ENERGY LONG SINCE COOLED, MIRACULOUSLY THEIR BEAUTIFUL LIGHT WILL CONTINUE TO SHINE ON US FOREVER, AND THE GLOW WILL BE SO BRIGHT IT’LL WARM YOUR HEART’

—BILLY CRYSTAL

HEAVY WEATHER Robin was a lightning storm of comic genius, said director Steven Spielberg, and our laughter was the thunder that sustained him.

HIGHER POWER When you’re creating, you just become a vehicle, said Williams (at home in L.A.) in 1979 regarding his improv skills. It seems to come from a divine source, a sense of the wonder of God.

TOP POP Williams was a doting parent to kids (from left) Zak, Zelda and Cody. In so many senses he was the most successful person I know, Zak said in Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind, a 2018 HBO documentary about his father. And yet he didn’t always feel that.

ONE GIANT LEAP Williams built his stand-up career at L.A.’s The Comedy Store. TV or not TV, he once mused. Whether ’tis nobler to do kiddie crap at 8 o’clock or sweat my ass off in small clubs.

LIVE WIRE Williams onstage in Atlanta in 1986. Stand-up, he said, is like drilling for oil. When you finally hit something, you go, ‘Wow!’

DOING GOOD In 2012 the Comic Relief cohost joined other comics at Stand Up for Heroes, to benefit injured members of the armed services.

‘ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS LOOK IN HIS EYES. THEY’RE SO CLEAR, AND HE’S SO GUILELESS’

—MORK & MINDY COSTAR