Zachary Pym Williams born
Williams’s first child Zachary Pym Williams is born. Zachary is the only child he shares with first wife Valerie Velardi. On spending time with Zachary, who is nicknamed Zach or Zak:
In the morning I often watch TV with Zach. They show those wonderful old Warner Brothers cartoons. To hear a child laugh like that—to see him watch Wile E. Coyote! My God, it’s something incredible! Sometimes while the cartoons are showing, I do wacky voices—you know, the way I do in my act. Sometimes he likes that, but sometimes he says, “Daddy, don’t use that voice. Just be Daddy.” And that’s what I want to do. Just be Daddy.
The World According to Garp
Based on the novel by John Irving, Williams plays T.S. Garp – an only child conceived when his single mother has sex with a brain-damaged soldier in her nursing care, in this drama directed by George Roy Hil. Garp’s life from birth to death is punctuated by events such as: marriage and infidelity, parenting and the loss of a child, social and political activism, fame and death threats. Co-starring, Mary Beth Hurt. Helen Holm, Glenn Close and Jenny Fields.
I started off just improvising like crazy. And [director] George Roy Hill made a face like a weasel in a wind tunnel and I then I went, ‘Not good?’ And he went [breathes deep and whispers], ‘Just say the words.’
Popeye
Williams portrays Popeye in Robert Altman’s musical comedy live-action realization of the American comic strip character Popeye the Sailor Man. Popeye is a spinach-eating sailor in love with Olive Oil (Shelley Duvall) and at odds with Bluto (Paul L. Smith), his perennial nemesis.
Near the end of the movie . . . the studio had pooled all of the money, so all the special effects people left. It was Ed Wood the last weeks of the movie. Shelley Duvall was in a pond, basically, with an octopus with no internal mechanism, having to drape it over her body like a feather boa. I’m in the water, and I’m kind of like sitting there .. . . . . we’re there on Malta, which is a very small island in between Italy and North Africa, and it was some of the worst weather they had had in 60 years. So it was a pretty crazy experience. But! I got to work with Robert Altman and I’ll never forget that.
Apartment Life magazine
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Williams apartment is featured in a magazine feature about his apartment. There is no mention of the location. The spread shows images of a large decorative sheep in the living room, a chromium deco ashtray table with an electric penguin lighter, and a bedroom with the word “Art” in giant neon letters. Williams and his wife describe the apartment as “Deco Techo”.
Wins Grammy
0 0 Jamie Jamie2014-08-11 20:18:062014-08-11 20:18:54Wins Grammy
Wins Golden Globe
0 CommentsWilliams wins a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series – Comedy Or Musical for Mork and Mindy.
(Mork) came from Garry Marshall’s kid who saw Star Wars, and he went to his father and said, “Dad, why can’t they have an alien on ‘Happy Days’?” And Garry was like, “I don’t know, it will be weird.” But I think he did it as kind of a shout out to his son, as a one-off thing, and, I guess, just because it was so strange.
Mork and Mindy
Robin Williams stars in ABC’s thirty minute comedy serial Mork and Mindy. Mork is sent from planet Ork to investigate the primitive lifestyle of earthlings. His spaceship egg lands in Boulder, Colorado, and he makes friends with Mindy McConnell (Pam Dawber). Once Mork reveals to Mindy that he is an alien, she agrees to keep it a secret and to help him adjust to life on Earth. Producer Gary Williams:
He was all set to go, I said, “All right, Robin, we have three cameramen … Okay, Robin, ready, action.” And he ran around, he did a very funny thing, he ad-libbed a little, he said the lines, he was all over the place, and I yell, “Cut! Great!” And to Sam, my oldest cameraman, I said, “Did you get that, Sam?” And Sam said, “Never came by here.” I said, “You gotta move the camera, Sam. The man’s a genius.” And Sam said, “If he’s a genius, he could hit that mark right over there and he’ll be on camera.” So we hired a fourth camera, just to follow Robin.”
Can I Do It Till I Need Glasses?
Williams plays a lawyer and a man with a toothache in this film of short sexually suggestive skits, directed by Robert Levy. Co-starring Roger Behr and Joey Camen. Williams states about this first film:
Gave me the idea that it can be free-form, that you can go in and out of things pretty easily.
Robin Williams born in Chicago
Robin McLaurin Williams is born in Chicago, Ill., to former model and actress Laurie McLaurin and Robert Fitzgerald Williams, a senior executive at Ford. He grows up in Chicago, Michigan and California. His half-brother Todd, born in 1938 and nicknamed ‘Toad,’ is his father’s son from his first marriage, while McLaurin Smith-Williams, his mother’s son from her first marriage, is four years older than Robin. The three boys all grow up as only children. While living in Detroit, where his father is posted by Ford, he has a whole floor of the family’s large rented home to himself and creates imaginary friends to fill it. Comedy is his way of connecting with his mother:
I’d think, I’ll make mommy laugh and that will be okay.
He attends boys-only Detroit County Day School, where he uses comedy as a defence against bullying at school in Detroit, but he is otherwise a serious student:
I started telling jokes as a way to stop getting the shit kicked out of me
He later moves to Redwood Senior High School in Larkspur, Calif., where he joins the drama club, and is voted both ‘The funniest’ and ‘Least likely to succeed.’
When I came out to California to go to high school, it was 1969. I went to this gestalt high school, where one of the teachers actually took LSD one day. So you walked in and you hear (whispers), “I’m Lincoln.”
A poem to his mother:
Think young and you’ll never grow old,
The years will pass you by,
Birthdays are for merrymaking,
Present giving and birthday caking,
Age is the state of your mind
As the days of your years unfold,
Don’t live in the past,
Right up to the last
Think young and you’ll never grow old.