by Dave Itzkoff
Some friends began calling him Ralph Williams: Author interview with Dick Gale.
“People would just start clapping when we came in”: Author interview with Christie Platt.
Robin honed his stage skills by performing in campus productions: Author interview with Bob Davis.
“We were trying to build the audience”: Author interview with Dick Gale.
“much libation, inhalation and conversation”: Dick Gale, “An Evening with Al Dauber,” Myths, Legends and Tall Tales of CMC IV, Claremont McKenna College.
“when Robin came in, all of a sudden, we had Topo Gigio”: Author interview with Dick Hale.
“We started challenging him. ‘Do a bohemian priest’”: Author interview with Al Dauber.
“An Evening with Al Dauber, co-starring Dick Gale & Rob Williams”: “CMC Mourns, Remembers Actor and Comedian Robin Williams,” https://www.cmc.edu/news/cmc-mourns-remembers-actor-and-comedian-robin-williams.
opened with a parody of To Tell the Truth: Gale, “An Evening with Al Dauber.”
“When Robin came, it brought about a holistic change”: Author interview with Dick Hale.
the single sentence “I really don’t know, sir”: Linderman, “Playboy Interview: Robin Williams.”
one professor asked at the end of the term, “Who is this man?”: Hawkes, “The Transformation of Robin Williams.”
driving a golf cart through a dining hall: Steve Harvey, “OK, So After That Donna Shalala Said…,” Los Angeles Times, February 20, 1999.
The draft number for his birthdate: Selective Service System, “1971 Random Selection Sequence, by Month and Day.” Archived at https://www.sss.gov/Portals/0/PDFs/1971.pdf.
“the Viet Cong had to be coming from Kansas”: Inside the Actors Studio, June 10, 2001.
“Listen, war is not dolce et decorum est”: Rader, “What Really Makes Life Fun.”
he’d already discovered his calling: Hawkes, “The Transformation of Robin Williams.”
“a course at the local trade school to learn how to weld”: Author interview with McLaurin Smith-Williams.
“Mom said, ‘Your grandmother would be very proud’”: Linderman, “Playboy Interview: Robin Williams.”
drawing favorable comparisons to the American Conservatory Theater: James E. Williams, “Dunn’s Collegians Reach New Heights in a World Premiere,” San Rafael (CA) Daily Independent Journal, May 8, 1971.
James Dunn, a San Rafael native and Marine Corps veteran: Alex Horvath, “Mountain Play Director’s Long, Rich Career,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 16, 2003; and Paul Liberatore, “On His 80th Birthday, Jim Dunn Honored with College of Marin Theater Named After Him,” Marin Independent Journal, February 28, 2013.
“You couldn’t walk across our campus in the daytime”: Author interview with James Dunn.
“We had to march. We had to learn how to salute”: Author interview with Dakin Matthews.
“He said, ‘I would really like to get into the play’”: Author interview with James Dunn.
“every night it was a different Chasuble”: Author interview with Ronald Krempetz.
“Most enjoyable of the hard-working cast was Robin Williams as Mr. Martin”: James E. Williams, “Ionesco’s ‘Soprano’ Lightens College’s Evening of Absurd,” San Rafael (CA) Daily Independent Journal, December 4, 1970.
strong marks for his work as Banquo in Macbeth: James E. Williams, “Astounding Talent in College Play,” San Rafael (CA) Daily Independent Journal, July 23, 1971.
“really one of the fine young talents in the college’s theatrical stable”: James E. Williams, “Sizzling Dialogue Helps Bring Professionalism to Roper Play,” San Rafael (CA) Daily Independent Journal, July 24, 1972.
among the cast members who “add strength to the musical”: James E. Williams, “College ‘Fiddler’ Roaring Success,” San Rafael (CA) Daily Independent Journal, April 2, 1973.
“we had a new lighting board and it was doing all kinds of strange things”: Author interview with James Dunn.
“Robin Williams as an unforgettable Fagin”: James E. Williams, “‘Oliver!’ A Smash Hit for Holiday Season,” San Rafael (CA) Daily Independent Journal, December 4, 1972.
“Hi, Robin. How are you? Where’s my five dollars?”: Author interview with Ronald Krempetz.
“He was such a nice guy, such a sweetheart”: Author interview with Joel Blum.
a command performance for Princess Margaret: Marin Shakespeare Company, The Taming of the Shrew, 2004 production notes. Archived at http://marinshakespeare.org/behind-the-scenes-2005/the-taming-of-the-shrew-2004-production/.
The Caucasian Chalk Circle and in The Music Man: David Middlecamp, “Robin Williams Among Notable Alumni of Santa Maria’s PCPA,” San Luis Obispo (CA) Tribune, August 15, 2014.
Danny Kaye’s “The Lobby Number” from Up in Arms: Archived at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrGd42nj3Zk. See also John M. Miller, Up in Arms. Archived at http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article.html?id=544370%7C111405.
“you saw a little figure, which was Jim Dunn”: Author interview with Shelly Lipkin.
“We slept in his bedroom but we came in through a back window”: Author interview with Bob Davis.
His father reluctantly gave him $50: Harry Harris, “A Spacey Fella, This Guy Mork (Ark! Ark! Ark!),” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 29, 1978.
Robin’s audition consisted of two monologues: Peter Marks, “There Is Nothing Funny About This Image,” New York Times, May 12, 2002.
Malvolio’s famous soliloquy: William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, act 2, scene 5. Archived at http://shakespeare.mit.edu/twelfth_night/full.html.
“I remember thinking he didn’t speak very well”: Author interview with Elizabeth Smith.
He was also provided a full scholarship: Lillian Ross, “Workouts,” New Yorker, April 7, 1986.
“I’d been in danger of becoming terminally mellow”: Linderman, “Playboy Interview: Robin Williams.”
a few rows ahead of him, he saw a man slump over: Ibid.
Its Drama Division had been established in 1968: Jeremy Gerard, “Juilliard Drama School, at 20, Stresses Versatility,” New York Times, April 19, 1988.
“It had a very monastic, religious feeling about it”: Author interview with Richard Levine.
“Juilliard actors were considered first-rate. They were also considered pains in the ass”: Author interview with Paul Perri.
The four-year curriculum emphasized long days of studio training: Andrea Olmstead, Juilliard: A History (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999), p. 229.
This Darwinian system operated under the auspices of Houseman: Marilyn Berger, “John Houseman, Actor and Producer, 86, Dies,” New York Times, November 1, 1988.
“he said, ‘The theater needs you’”: Linderman, “Playboy Interview: Robin Williams.” This is, not surprisingly, a slight exaggeration. Though Houseman appeared in many commercials (including his famous series of TV spots for the investment firm Smith Barney), his Volvo advertisements did not begin airing until the late 1970s.
“Roman numerals, like royalty and the Super Bowl”: Matthew Gurewitsch, “A High-Stakes School for Actors,” New York Times, January 26, 1997.
a staggeringly tall, boyishly handsome young man: Christopher Reeve, Still Me (New York: Ballantine Books, 1999), pp. 167–70.
“a short, stocky long-haired fellow from Marin County”: Ibid., p. 171.
“She had no idea what to make of him”: Ibid.
“There were neutral masks, which covered the face”: Author interview with Margot Harley.
“I used to give him big, heroic poems to make him breathe”: Author interview with Elizabeth Smith.
Robin’s delivery “was even funnier than the original”: Reeve, Still Me, p. 171.
he told Robin, “It looks like you were enjoying yourself”: Author interview with Michael Kahn.
“You feel fabulous. We see nothing”: Ian Gibbs, “Five Things We Learned at … Robin Williams’s Q&A in the New Yor
k Comedy Festival,” Time Out New York, November 12, 2012.
“He didn’t have a basic foundation of how to approach acting”: Author interview with Michael Kahn.
Robin was asked to give up his place in Group IV: Margot Harley and Michael Kahn agree on this detail, which is also confirmed by the present-day Juilliard administration.
“classmates related to Robin by doing bits with him”: Reeve, Still Me, p. 171.
“New York seemed unbearably bleak and lonely”: Linderman, “Playboy Interview: Robin Williams.”
“Whatever you were doing in your room”: Author interview with Frances Conroy.
“You would have to walk with someone else to get home safely”: Jeff Muskus, “The Voice Under the (Animated) Cowl,” New York Times, July 31, 2016. Unpublished interview material. Kevin Conroy and Frances Conroy are not related.
“he couldn’t use the word funky anymore”: Author interview with Richard Levine.
“He had one girl come and I think she stayed for six months”: Author interview. This person asked not to be identified by name.
“He may have even slept in the school some nights”: Author interview with Frances Conroy.
“I used to bring him breakfast”: Author interview with Margot Harley.
“We were all baby boomers, raised in one of the fattest times”: Author interview with Paul Perri.
Nonno, a wheelchair-bound ninety-seven-year-old man: Tennessee Williams, The Night of the Iguana. Archived at https://coldreads.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/iguana.pdf.
this performance “immediately silenced the critics”: Reeve, Still Me, p. 171.
“He was on the floor, projecting himself along with his bottom”: Author interview with Margot Harley.
“He did five minutes of just imitating a Coke machine”: Author interview with Paul Perri.
“it looked like he was creating in that moment—he wasn’t”: Muskus, “The Voice Under the (Animated) Cowl.” Unpublished interview material.
“many of the students broke off into little groups”: Kevin Sessums, Facebook post, August 12, 2014. Archived at https://www.facebook.com/kevin.sessums.7/posts/10152672521633708:0.
“His life was absurd”: E. L. Doctorow, Ragtime (New York: Plume, 1996), p. 6.
“Bouncing down the street comes this guy”: Author interview with Todd Oppenheimer.
Robin was doused from above with a sudden splash of water: Author interview with Bennett Tramer.
“The school did have a tendency to want to strip you”: Author interview with Richard Levine.
“You never had a serious conversation with Robin”: Author interview with Todd Oppenheimer.
Reeve was cast in the popular CBS soap opera Love of Life: Reeve, Still Me, p. 174.
“a free spirit who thought nothing about walking through tough neighborhoods”: Linderman, “Playboy Interview: Robin Williams.”
“I really missed my lady friend”: Ibid.
“He would call me, sometimes at one or two o’clock in the morning”: Author interview with Shelly Lipkin.
the mutual agreement that he should withdraw: Statement, the Juilliard School, August 12, 2014.
a persistent urban legend has endured: See, for example, Laurence Maslon and Michael Kantor, Make ’Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America (New York: Twelve, 2008).
“John was very good about letting people go”: Author interview with Margot Harley.
“we all felt it was fine that he left”: Author interview with Michael Kahn.
CHAPTER 3. LEGALIZED INSANITY
“She fell into this Marin County thing”: Ellen Farley, “On the Mork, Get Set, Go—Williams Live,” Los Angeles Times, December 3, 1978.
he fell into what he considered a massive depression: Linderman, “Playboy Interview: Robin Williams.”
Todd had set up shop in the Marina District: Conti, McLaurin & Williams Family Histories, p. 67.
“Marina maggots”: Fagan, “Robert Williams Dies—Winemaker, Bar Owner and Bon Vivant.”
“There was one guy named Beefy”: Ibid.
Del Close, the renegade improv virtuoso: Author interviews with Nick David and Joe Spano.
“the form we were using was too restrictive”: Author interview with Joe Spano.
“I don’t think it was a matter of his aspirations”: Ibid.
she gave him $100 for his wardrobe: David Browne, “Robin Williams,” Rolling Stone, September 11, 2014.
“Serious was very difficult for Robin”: Cynthia “Kiki” Wallace, Facebook post, April 12, 2008. Archived at http://jpgmag.com/photos/197332.
“He had gotten used to getting a laugh”: Browne, “Robin Williams.”
“Admission cost a dollar and we would split the door”: Author interview with Don Novello.
“Well, hike when the energy’s right”: Linderman, “Playboy Interview: Robin Williams.”
“It was such a rush the first time I did it”: Collins, “Robin Williams.”
“If people started heckling you, you just wade over”: WTF with Marc Maron, April 26, 2010.
“you did the standard thing where people could kind of lose track”: Richard Zoglin, Comedy at the Edge (New York: Bloomsbury, 2008), p. 162.
“‘No, Pop, I don’t need that check, but thanks’”: Linderman, “Playboy Interview: Robin Williams.”
“Robin got up and blew everyone away, but he was meek”: John Eskow, “Robin Williams: Full Tilt Bozo,” Rolling Stone, August 23, 1979.
San Francisco had been a comedy town before: Peter Hartlaub, “Comedy Rises in San Francisco, Without Compromise,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 30, 2015.
the Savoy Tivoli and the Old Spaghetti Factory: J. L. Pimsleur, “Obituary—Frederik Walter Kuh,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 12, 1997.
“He would take your breath away”: Author interview with Debi Durst. Her maiden name was Pickell.
“The first time I did improv with him, I couldn’t keep up”: Author interview with Mark Pitta.
“We just wanted to play, just to practice the art, so to speak”: Author interview with Tony DePaul.
“The fourth guy up blew the room away, and it was Robin”: Author interview with Dana Carvey.
the Boarding House, a music club in Nob Hill: Eskow, “Robin Williams: Full Tilt Bozo.”
a sign that its original owner had found: John Cantu, “A Brief History of a Place That Launched a Thousand Quips.” Archived at http://www.johncantu.com/backstagepass/brief-history-holy-city-zoo.html.
a blunt but enthusiastic approach to promoting: Steve Rubenstein, “John Cantu—Passionate Voice for Comics in S.F.,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 14, 2003.
“If you signed up by eight thirty, they would guarantee you a spot”: Author interview with Don Stevens.
Robin was onstage trading quips with Michael Pritchard: Ibid.
“Robin just did a hundred little different pieces”: Author interview with Tony DePaul.
“He was either very quiet, or he was in a monologue”: Author interview with Don Stevens.
“I don’t know who was his best friend”: Author interview with Bob Sarlatte.
“If you were a comic you pretty much drank for free there”: Author interview with Will Durst.
“You could turn on a faucet and cocaine would come out”: Author interview with Steven Pearl.
“The only thing I remember is cocaine”: Author interview with Dana Carvey.
“He wasn’t doing drugs in those days”: Author interview with Tony DePaul.
“You could see his acting skill, more than his being anything revolutionary”: Author interview with Joshua Raoul Brody.
John Wasserman of the San Francisco Chronicle chided him: Hartlaub, “Comedy Rises in San Francisco, Without Compromise.”
“It hit me right on the nose”: Linderman, “Playboy Interview: Robin Williams.”
a rudimentary stand-up contest: Dana Sitar, “Comedians Face Off in Month-Long Competition to Become the Next Robin Williams,” SF Weekly, Ja
nuary 14, 2013; and Jim Richardson, “How to Win the Next San Francisco Comedy Competition,” San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle, November 11, 1979.
“At that time, people didn’t know that much about stand-up”: Author interview with Bob Sarlatte.
“He wore a cowboy hat, had a hairy chest and sweated a lot”: Zoglin, Comedy at the Edge, p. 163.
“he gets about five minutes into his act, and all the lights go out”: Author interview with Bob Sarlatte.
“People in the audience were angry he didn’t win”: Zoglin, Comedy at the Edge, p. 163.
“She was this Italian woman, a Napoletana girl”: Collins, “Robin Williams.”
Robin … decided to talk to Valerie in a feigned French accent: Author interview with Valerie Velardi.
he walked up to her and addressed her in a Western twang: Lester, “Robin Williams: ‘I’m Just Getting Going…”
“He continued to be delightful in many ways”: Author interview with Valerie Velardi.
“he was an only child, as far as I’m concerned”: Joyce Wadler, “Robin Williams Heads for the Hills,” Rolling Stone, September 16, 1982.
“I had come from that way of thinking, that anything is possible”: Author interview with Valerie Velardi.
“Twyla Tharp doesn’t choreograph the June Taylor Dancers”: Linderman, “Playboy Interview: Robin Williams.”
“I might have been a bit of a noodge on the subject”: Author interview with Valerie Velardi.
Robin arrived in Los Angeles in the fall of 1976: William Knoedelseder, I’m Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Stand-Up Comedy’s Golden Era (New York: PublicAffairs, 2009), p. 91.
The Improv was the marginally more polished establishment: Ibid., pp. 20–21; and author interview with Mark Lonow.
the Comedy Store, sat a few blocks north: Zoglin, Comedy at the Edge, pp. 146–48; Knoedelseder, I’m Dying Up Here, pp. 32–35; and author interview with Pauly Shore.
“It was a hugely romantic period”: Author interview with Jay Leno.
“Word spread in the comedy community”: Author interview with Mark Lonow.
the West Hollywood studios of Off the Wall: Author interviews with Wendy Cutler and Andy Goldberg.
“he was brilliant from the get-go”: Author interview with Wendy Cutler.