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01
After Christopher Reeve’s horse-riding accident, Robin Williams visited him in the hospital disguised in scrubs, speaking with a Russian accent and wearing a surgical mask. He acted like a real doctor and performed wacky antics until he took off his mask, making Reeve laugh for the first time since the accident.
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02
When auditioning for the role of Mork on Happy Days, producer Garry Marshall told Williams to sit down, and he immediately sat on his head on the chair. Marshall hired him because he was the only alien who auditioned.
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03
Steven Spielberg frequently called Williams during the filming of Schindler’s List, putting him on speaker phone so he could tell jokes to the cast and crew to cheer them up. He often used his character from Aladdin.
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04
As a very overweight child, Williams started talking in different voices to entertain himself because nobody would play with him.
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05
He studied at the Juilliard School with Christopher Reeve, and the two remained good friends until Reeve’s death in 2004.
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06
After winning the Academy Award for Good Will Hunting, he sent his German dubbing voice actor Peer Augustinski a little Oscar replica with a note thanking him for making him famous in Germany.
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07
He was voted Most Humorous and Least likely to succeed in school.
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08
During the recording of the Genie in Aladdin, Robin improvised so much that they had nearly 16 hours of material. His ad-libbing led to the script being turned down for a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar nomination.
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09
In the restaurant scene of Mrs. Doubtfire, the cast did not know Williams would make the false teeth fall into a wine glass, so their shocked reactions were genuine.
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10
He co-owned the Rubicon Restaurant in San Francisco with Robert De Niro and Francis Ford Coppola.
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11
During his taping of Inside the Actors Studio, a man in the audience had to be hospitalized after laughing so hard that he acquired a hernia.
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12
On Mork & Mindy, Williams ad-libbed so much that producers left gaps in the scripts for him to improvise.
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13
In 1997, Entertainment Weekly voted him the funniest man alive.
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14
Early in his career, he claimed he was born in Scotland while under the influence, but he was really born in Chicago.
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15
He considered Jonathan Winters and Richard Pryor his comedic idols.
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16
Entertainment Weekly voted him the 50th Greatest Movie Star of all time.
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17
Upon his death, his wife Susan Schneider said she and the world lost a beloved artist and beautiful human being, hoping the focus would be on the joy he gave.
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18
He enjoyed playing pen-and-paper board games monthly with close friends in San Francisco.
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19
As a comic book lover, he accepted the role of the Joker in Batman, but after Jack Nicholson signed on, Warner Bros. let him go, leading Williams to refuse movies with the studio until it apologized.
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20
John Houseman told Williams he was wasting his talent at Juilliard and should do stand-up comedy.
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21
He became close with Lisa Jakub and Mara Wilson, who played his daughters in Mrs. Doubtfire, and stayed in touch with them over the years. Mara called him a source of comfort after her mother’s death.
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22
In 2004, he dedicated his Cecil B. DeMille Award win at the Golden Globes to his friend Christopher Reeve.
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23
He was a huge fan of the Legend of Zelda video games and named his daughter Zelda after the character. Both appeared in a commercial for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword in 2011.
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24
Chris Columbus was amazed at how far Williams took his performance in Mrs. Doubtfire: he would play scenes as scripted two to three times, then improvise, sometimes shooting 15 to 22 takes to get the best material.
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25
He helped pay for Christopher Reeve’s physical therapy and other medical expenses after Reeve’s accident.
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26
He and Robert De Niro were the last stars to see John Belushi alive, visiting Bungalow #3 at the Chateau Marmont on the day Belushi died in March 1982.
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27
When asked what he would like God to say when he arrived in heaven, Williams answered that there is a seat in the front at the concert of Mozart and Elvis Presley.
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28
He accepted the Genie role in Aladdin on condition that his voice would not be used in merchandise or overused in advertising. When Disney broke this promise, he refused to work with them until new CEO Joe Roth apologized.
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29
An autopsy revealed he suffered from Lewy body dementia, a neurodegenerative disorder often mistaken for Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s.
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30
He was invited to the party that turned out to be Steve Martin’s wedding.
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31
On the night of his death, BBC Three had just aired an episode of Family Guy where Peter Griffin wished everyone were Robin Williams.
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32
He reached a milestone with two films reaching $100 million in the U.S. the same week: Jumanji and The Birdcage in 1996.
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33
He appeared in three Best Picture Oscar nominees: Dead Poets Society, Awakenings, and Good Will Hunting.
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34
He enjoyed cycling and occasionally trained with Lance Armstrong.
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35
His remains were cremated and his ashes were scattered along the San Francisco Bay Area.
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36
From August 16 to 18, 2014, Disney honored him by airing Aladdin on its children’s channels with a tribute image reading In Memory of Robin Williams, who made us laugh.
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37
Most of his dialogue in Aladdin was ad-libbed.
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38
His wife Susan Schneider released a statement saying his sobriety was intact and he was brave in his battles with depression, anxiety, and early-stage Parkinson’s, which he had not shared publicly.
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39
He played the same character Mork in three different series: Happy Days, Mork & Mindy, and Out of the Blue.
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40
He became a vegetarian following open heart surgery.
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41
He recovered at the Cleveland Clinic after successful open heart surgery on March 13, 2009, to replace his aortic valve.
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42
In 2003, he won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Comedy Album for Robin Williams – Live 2002.
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43
Though known for many voices, he only voiced six animated features: FernGully: The Last Rainforest, Aladdin, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, Robots, Happy Feet, and Happy Feet Two.
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44
When the song Blame Canada from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was nominated for an Oscar, Williams performed it at the ceremony because the original singer Mary Kay Bergman had committed suicide a few months prior.
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45
There are multiple versions of Mrs. Doubtfire due to the volume of Williams’ improv, making editing difficult; director Chris Columbus likened it to editing a documentary.
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46
He was one of the few celebrities to appear on Sesame Street without any puppets or regular characters.
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47
He married Susan Schneider, a graphic designer, on October 23, 2011 at Meadowood Resort in St. Helena, California.
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48
He was a huge fan of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and Michael Palin said performing with him would have been like being invited to play in a jazz band when you couldn’t play an instrument.
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49
He enjoyed going to comedy clubs and taking pictures with club owners, which made the clubs more popular and encouraged aspiring stand-ups.
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50
He invented the curse word Shazbot, first heard on Mork & Mindy and later used in other media; it remains the last recorded words of AC/DC singer Bon Scott.
