Robin McLaurim Williams (born July 21, 1951 or 1952) is an Academy Award, six time Golden
Globe, two time Screen Actors Guild Award and Grammy Award winning American actor and
comedian who has done television, stage and film work. In part, his big break was from playing
Mork from Ork, which was highlighted on Mork & Mindy. Soon afterward he became a film star
who is still active as an actor and headlining comic. He wasvoted 13th on Comedy Central Presents:
100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time.

Williams was born in Chicago, Illinois. His mother, Laura McLaurim (née Smith, 1922–2001), was
a former model from Jackson, Mississippi. His father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams (September 10,
1906 – October 18, 1987) was a senior executive at Ford in charge of the Midwest area. Williams
was raised in the Episcopal Church, though his mother practiced Christian Science, and he grew up in
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and Marin County, California. He has two half-brothers: McLaurin and the
late Todd (deceased August 14, 2007).While in California, Williams attended Redwood High School in
Larkspur and grew up in the Marin Countysuburb of Tiburon.[citation needed] In Michigan, he attended
Detroit Country Day School, an exclusive college-preparatory school, which boasts other famous alumni,
 including Steve Ballmer from Microsoft and Courtney Vance from Law and Order: Criminal Intent.

Williams has also starred in dramatic films, earning himself two subsequent Academy Award nominations:
First for playing an unorthodox and inspiring English teacher in Dead Poets Society (1989), and later for
playing a troubled homeless man in The Fisher King (1991); that same year, he played an adult Peter
Pan inthe movie Hook. Other acclaimed dramatic films include Awakenings (1990) and What Dreams
May Come (1998).

At one point, he was in the running to play the Riddler in Batman Forever until director Tim Burton
dropped the project. Williams had earlier been a prime candidate to play the Joker in Batman. He had
expressed interest in assuming the role in The Dark Knight, the sequel to 2005's Batman Begins,
although the part of the Joker was taken by Heath Ledger.

He was portrayed by Chris Diamantopoulos in the made-for-TV biopic Behind the Camera: The
Unauthorized Story of Mork & Mindy (2005), documenting the actor's arrival in Hollywood as a struggling
comedian and becoming an overnight star when he landed the role in Mork & Mindy.

Williams is an avid enthusiast of games, and is known to enjoy both pen-and-paper role-playing games
and online video games, recently playing Warcraft 3, Day of Defeat, Half-Life, and the first-person shooter
Battlefield 2 as a sniper. His daughter, Zelda, is named after Princess Zelda from the Legend of Zelda
series of video games.[citation needed]

On January 6, 2006, he performed live at Consumer Electronics Show during Google's keynote. In the
2006 E3, on the invitation of Will Wright, he demonstrated the creature editor of Spore while simultaneously
commenting on the creature's look: "This will actually make a platypus look good." He also complimented
the game's versatility, comparing it to Populous and Black & White.

Williams is a fan of professional road cycling. During the Lance Armstrong years of domination in the
Tour de France, Williams was a regular on the US Postal and Discovery Channel Pro Cycling team bus
and hotels. Robin is a big fan of the popular anime series, Neon Genesis Evangelion. The toy used in
One Hour Photo belonged to him.

Williams and his estranged wife, Marsha, founded the Windfall Foundation, a philanthropic organization
to raise money for many different charities. Williams devotes much of his energy doing work for charities,
including the Comic Relief fund-raising efforts. He is also a cycling fan, known to own hundreds of
bicycles and to attend the Tour de France. Through his interest in cycling, he has been a friend and
supporter of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, performing at events for the foundation. Robin Williams
joined Kid Rock, Lance Armstrong, Rachel Smith (Miss USA 2007), and Lewis Black on December 20,
2007 at LSA Anaconda Balad, Iraq, and on December 22, 2007, at Naval Station Rota, Spain. He is
also a celebrity spokesperson for the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. He appears regularly on TV
to promote and solicit donations for this institution which is dedicated to researching and curing cancers in
children.