by Dan Aldridge
Kevin Spacey
*
‘So sad to think about this. Hard to speak. Hard to say. Hard to take. All I can think about is what a joy he was to be with. I'm devastated. My heart is broken by this news.’
Danny DeVito
*
‘Robin was both my friend and my hero, a unique talent and a kind and generous man; the world will be a much poorer place without him.’
Billy Connolly
*
‘I never met anyone who loved making people laugh more than Robin.’
Minnie Driver
*
‘Just so damn sad. This guy made so many people happy. There will always be that.’
Michael Keaton
*
‘Robin was as sweet a man as he was funny. If you're sad, please tell someone.’
Jimmy Kimmel
*
‘I've never known a sweeter, brighter, more considerate person that Robin. Robin's commitment as an artist to lifting our mood and making us happy is compared to none. He loved us all and we loved him back.’
John Travolta
*
‘I can't believe my lovely friend is gone. My heart goes out to his wife and his beloved children. He brought us so much joy and laughter.’
Eric Idle
SOME INTERESTING FACTS
Robin Williams was a keen cyclist and was known to occasionally train with Lance Armstrong.
Williams and his ex-wife named their daughter Zelda. However, it was neither of them that came up with it; it was their son, Zachary. Upon hearing the name they thought it was a great idea.
Williams owned a vineyard in California. He joked that this was akin to “Gandhi owning a delicatessen”.
The majority of his lines as Genie in Aladdin were completely improvised. Apparently, this resulted in the film’s bid for the Academy Awards’ ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ category being rejected.
He said that his favourite celebrity to impersonate was Jack Nicholson, and that he thought Dana Carvey’s impersonation of himself was the best.
Upon auditioning for the role of Mork (originally in Happy Days), when producer Garry Marshall asked him to sit dow, Williams sat on his head in the chair. Garry Marshall hired him, saying that he was the only alien who auditioned.
During the Mork & Mindy era, script writers used to deliberately leave gaps in the scripts, writing only “Mork can go off here”, leaving Williams with the opportunity to improvise in these gaps.
Williams fell out with Disney because they used his voiceover in Aladdin to sell merchandise. He objected to his voice being used to sell stuff. Disney sent him a Picasso painting by way of apology.
He was a big fan of rugby union and supported the New Zealand All Blacks.
In 1996 he had two films (Jumanji and The Birdcage) reach the huge milestone of $100 million during the same week.
Williams was reportedly voted ‘most humorous’ and ‘least likely to succeed’ during high school.
Billy Connolly, a good friend of Williams’, refers to his (Williams’) arms as Quest for Fire opera gloves.
He co-owned the Rubicon restaurant in San Francisco with Robert De Niro and Francis Ford Coppola.