5 reasons why we’ll always love the funny family guy, Robin Williams
It was the news that shocked and saddened the world this week – Oscar winning, world-renowned funny man, Robin Williams, has died. At 63-years-old and gone far too soon, it shows depression doesn’t discriminate. To celebrate the life of man who made it his quest to bring joy and laughter to the world, we look back at five incredible things you many not know about Robin Williams.
Number 1
After meeting at performing arts conservatory, Juilliard, Williams and Christopher Reeve stayed lifelong friends. After Reeve was hospitalised following a horseback riding accident, Williams thundered into his hospital room dressed as a doctor raring to preform a proctology exam. Reeve later wrote in his book: “Then, at an especially bleak moment, the door flew open and in hurried a squat fellow with a blue scrub hat and a yellow surgical gown and glasses, speaking in a Russian accent. He announced that he was my proctologist, and that he had to examine me immediately... it was Robin Williams... for the first time since the accident, I laughed. My old friend had helped me know that somehow I was going to be okay.”
Number 2
When Steven Spielberg was filming the harrowing 1994 holocaust drama, Schindler’s List, Williams called Spielberg so he could tell him jokes and cheer him up. Spielberg has called these “comic care packages over the telephone.” Williams later explained: “I think I only called him once, maybe twice. I called him when I was representing People for the Valdheimers Association. A society devoted to helping raise money to help older Germans who had forgotten everything before 1945. I remember him laughing and going ‘thank you.’”
Number 3
Ever the improvisational master, Williams was renowned in the showbiz industry for his mighty ability to adlib. Williams produced 16 hours of material for his voice role as the Genie in Disney’s Aladdin in 1992.
He said of his role: “Initially they came in and I was just doing the scripted lines and I asked ‘Do you mind if I try something?’ and then 18 hours of recording later, they had the genie. I just started playing, and they said ‘just go with it, go with it, go with it.’ So I improvised the character. I think that in the end, there were something like 40 different voices that I did for that role.”
Ultimately, it was decided that Williams had ad-libbed so much that the film was ineligible for a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination at the Academy Awards.
Number 4
In his senior year at Redwood High School in California, Williams was voted both the most humorous and least likely to succeed.
Number 5
For his laugh-out-loud role in 1993’s Mrs. Doubtfire, Williams wanted to make sure he wasn't recognisable as Mrs. Doubtfire, so he reportedly went into an adult bookstore in character and bought something without being recognised.
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