In Loving Memory of Robin Williams

Born July 21, 1951 - Passed Away August 11, 2014

This memorial website was created in the memory of Robin Williams , born in Chicago, IL on July 21, 1951 and passed away on August 11, 2014 at 63 years of age.

Robin McLaurin Williams was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and a wide variety of voices. He is often regarded as one of the best comedians of all time. Williams began performing stand-up comedy in San Francisco and Los Angeles during the mid-1970s. And rose to fame for playing the alien Mork in the sitcom Mork & Mindy.

After his first starring film role in Popeye , Williams starred in several critically and commercially successful films including The World According to Garp , Moscow on the Hudson , Good Morning, Vietnam , Dead Poets Society , Awakenings , The Fisher King , Patch Adams , One Hour Photo , and World's Greatest Dad . He also starred in box office successes such as Hook , Aladdin , Mrs. Doubtfire , Jumanji , The Birdcage , Good Will Hunting , and the Night at the Museum trilogy . He was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning Best Supporting Actor for Good Will Hunting. He also received two Primetime Emmy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and five Grammy Awards.

In August 2014, at age 63, Williams committed suicide by hanging at his home in Paradise Cay, California. His widow, Susan Schneider Williams, as well as medical experts and the autopsy experts, attributed his suicide to his struggle with Lewy body disease.

Robin McLaurin Williams was born at St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, on July 21, 1951. His father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams, was a senior executive in Ford's Lincoln-Mercury Division. His mother, Laurie McLaurin, was a former model from Jackson, Mississippi, whose great-grandfather was Mississippi senator and governor Anselm J. McLaurin, a Democrat. Williams had two elder half-brothers: paternal half-brother Robert and maternal half-brother McLaurin. He had English, French, German, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh ancestry. While his mother was a practitioner of Christian Science, Williams was raised in his father's Episcopal faith. During a television interview on Inside the Actors Studio in 2001, Williams credited his mother as an important early influence on his humor, and he tried to make her laugh to gain attention.

Williams attended public elementary school in Lake Forest at Gorton Elementary School and middle school at Deer Path Junior High School. He described himself as a quiet child who did not overcome his shyness until he became involved with his high school drama department. His friends recall him as very funny. In late 1963, when Williams was 12, his father was transferred to Detroit. The family lived in a 40-room farmhouse on 20 acres in suburban Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where he was a student at the private Detroit Country Day School. He excelled in school, where he was on the school's wrestling team and was elected class president.

As both his parents worked, Williams was partially raised by the family's maid, who was his main companion. When he was 16, his father took early retirement and the family moved to Tiburon, California. Following their move, Williams attended Redwood High School in nearby Larkspur. At the time of his graduation in 1969, he was voted "Most Likely Not to Succeed" and "Funniest" by his classmates. After high school graduation, Williams enrolled at Claremont Men's College in Claremont, California, to study political science; he dropped out to pursue acting. Williams studied theatre for three years at the College of Marin, a community college in Kentfield, California. According to College of Marin's drama professor James Dunn, the depth of the young actor's talent became evident when he was cast in the musical Oliver! as Fagin. Williams often improvised during his time in the drama program, leaving cast members in hysterics. Dunn called his wife after one late rehearsal to tell her Williams "was going to be something special".