Robin Williams

Did You Know?

• Williams's father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams, was a senior executive in Ford's Lincoln-Mercury Division.
• His favorite novels were The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov, and his favorite book as a child was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
• Williams was a fan of anime and collectible figures; his daughter described him as a figurine hoarder.

Career

Williams began performing stand-up comedy in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1976, with his first performance at the Holy City Zoo, a comedy club where he had worked as a bartender. By the late 1970s, he played a leading role in what critic Gerald Nachman described as the city's comedy renaissance. Williams moved to Los Angeles and continued performing at clubs including the Comedy Store, where television producer George Schlatter saw him in 1977 and asked him to appear on a revival of Laugh-In, marking his television debut.

That same year, he performed a show at the L.A. Improv for Home Box Office. Although the Laugh-In revival failed, it opened doors for his television career. David Letterman recalled first seeing Williams perform as a newcomer at the Comedy Store, describing his arrival as like a hurricane. Williams's first credited film role was a minor part in the 1977 low-budget comedy Can I Do It...

'Til I Need Glasses?, and his first starring performance was as the title character in Popeye (1980), which showcased the acting skills demonstrated in his television work.

Personal life

Williams married actress Valerie Velardi in 1978, whom he had met two years earlier while working as a bartender in San Francisco. Their son Zachary Pym was born in 1983, and they divorced in 1988. While it was reported in 1986 that Williams began an affair with Zachary's nanny, Marsha Garces, Velardi stated in the 2018 documentary Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind that the relationship began after the two had separated. Williams married Garces on April 30, 1989, when she was six months pregnant with their first child, Zelda Rae, born that year; their second child Cody Alan was born in 1991.

Garces filed for divorce in March 2008, citing irreconcilable differences, and the divorce was finalized in 2010. In 2011, Williams married graphic designer Susan Schneider, and they remained married until his death. Williams was a proficient French speaker and enjoyed pen-and-paper role-playing games and video games; his daughter Zelda was named after Princess Zelda from The Legend of Zelda, a family favorite video game series.

Death

Williams died at his Paradise Cay, California, home on August 11, 2014, by suicide by hanging amid Lewy body dementia and other associated factors. His widow Susan Schneider described the disease as the terrorist inside my husband's brain, noting that the presence of Lewy bodies took his life. Medical experts had earlier struggled to determine a cause and had eventually diagnosed him with Parkinson's disease. The Lewy Body Dementia Association clarified that the term diffuse Lewy body dementia in his autopsy report refers to the underlying disease process, and that his symptoms and autopsy findings were explained by dementia with Lewy bodies.

Williams's body was cremated at Monte's Chapel of the Hills in San Anselmo, and his ashes were scattered over San Francisco Bay on August 21, 2014. After his death, media outlets published eulogies written by his family and associates, and President Barack Obama released a statement. At the time of his death, Williams had planned to appear as the Blackmail special guest for the final night of Monty Python's ten-date stage shows in London but canceled, citing severe depression.

Recognition and legacy

Robin Williams first made his name as a stand-up comedian and TV star, but he later became known for serious, meaningful film roles. Many in Hollywood and the public saw him as a national treasure. His high-energy stage presence and improvisation set a new standard for comedians, who admired how he wove deeply personal struggles—like addiction and depression—into his act. Media scholar Derek A. Burrill argued that Williams’s greatest pop culture contribution was simply being himself. Williams developed a unique, freewheeling comedy style so iconic that Jim Carrey imitated him, helping to fuel San Francisco’s comedy scene. Judd Apatow noted that while Williams’s rapid-fire improvisation inspired others, his talent was so singular that no one could truly copy it. Director Chris Columbus, who worked with him on Mrs. Doubtfire, called watching him perform a magical privilege.