Robin
McLaurin Williams is an Academy Award, Golden Globe and Grammy Award-winning American
actor and comedian widely regarded as one of the greatest impromptu comedians
of all time. Starting out as a stand-up comic, he became an overnight sensation
as a comedic actor playing Mork the alien, first in the TV series Happy Days
and then in the spin-off, Mork and Mindy which ran from 1978 to 1982. The
nonsensical greeting, "Nanu, Nanu" and the explicative "Shazbot!"
quickly entered mainstream culture. Robin Williams' has had a prolific movie career
that started with Popeye in 1980. With an Academy Award Nomination for
1987's Good Morning, Vietnam, his screen career was firmly established.
He won an Academy Award for his supporting role in Good Will Hunting and
Golden Globe Awards for Good Morning, Vietnam, The Fisher King and
Mrs. Doubtfire. Meanwhile, he also won 4 Grammy Awards over the years for
his comedy albums and numerous American Comedy Awards. Robin Williams had a lifelong
friendship with fellow-actor Christopher Reeve, whom he first met as an acting
student at Julliard in 1973. After his friend, Christopher Reeve became paralyzed
in 1995, Robin Williams became deeply involved with The Christopher Reeve Paralysis
Foundation, which is committed to funding research that develops treatments and
cures for paralysis. Known for his boundless energy, Robin Williams devotes much
of it to philanthropic causes for a better world. He has been a long-standing
cornerstone of the Comic Relief fundraising efforts, which raise money for the
homeless and people in need, especially after disasters. Robin Williams and his
wife Marsha founded the Windfall Foundation which raises funds for many charities
such as Doctors Without Borders, The Pediatric AIDS Association and the Make-A-Wish
Foundation.
