Another excellent actor to be identified in Hollywood is sure to be Robin McLaurin Williams, a complete genius in the area of humor who is always able to deliver outstanding dramatic performances to attract many laudations and accolades throughout his booming career. Hailed from a well-to-do background, Robin was born in Chicago, Illinois, on July 21, 1951, the only child of a former model of French descent called Laura McLaurin and Robert Fitzgerald Williams, a senior Ford Motor Corporation executive. Most of his early life was spent in numerous places because of his father’s job, before the family ultimately settled in Marin County, California, where he attended Larkspur’s Redwood High School to graduate in 1969. Up to this point, he had already been noted among his milieu for his ability to entertain people, a natural skill he initially cultivated either as a solace to relieve his loneliness at home or a proper protective mechanism during his adolescence when he was humiliated at school by his colleagues.
Robin boldly concluded that he left the institution and studied at the College of Marin in Kentfield to learn more about acting, thus abandoning the drive within him to excel at Claremont Men’s College while studying political science. Fortunately, his decision turned out to be the right one because he was later delightfully offered a scholarship to the renowned Juilliard School in New York City for a period of three years under the tutelage of significant actor John Houseman. During this period, the man also took time to develop his skills in public places, performing mime on the streets in addition to doing stand-up comedy whenever he had the capability to do so. All really provided him the experience he needed to appear in the revival of the NBC variety show in 1977, “Laugh-In” and one year later, ABC’s “Happy Days” The response was surprisingly so strong in the latter program, depicted by an alien named Mork, that its director, Garry Marshall, happily created a spin-off called “Mork & Mindy” operating via ABC in the same year.
As expected, the series soon soared to become the TV audience’s favourite before its end in 1982, even prompting Robin to receive an Emmy nomination in the Outstanding Lead Actor category in a Comedy Series while winning a Golden Globe Award for Best TV Actor – Musical/Comedy in 1979. As a consequence, the success certainly brought him to Hollywood’s attention and the funnyman soon found himself landing his first movie role in “Popeye” (1980) followed by another in “The World According to Garp” within a brief span of time (1982). It was not until he joined the cast of “Good Morning, Vietnam” (1987) for the next few years, after getting more of the big screen aspect, that the actor was actually able to embrace the mainstream fame he received. Not only did the movie achieve enormous critical and commercial success, it also won him the best supporting actor nomination at both the 1988 Golden Globe Awards and Academy Awards and the 1989 BAFTA Awards.