It’s been six years since his passing, but the world will never forget the legendary greatness that was Robin Williams.
The actor was known for his sweet soul, just as much as he was for his most famous works, including Good Will Hunting , Aladdin , and Mrs. Doubtfire .
To help keep his memory alive, here are 10+ legendary facts about the late star.
1. He got his start in comedy at a church:
After struggling to find work as an actor in his hometown, San Francisco, he found the comedy workshop.
“So I went to this workshop in the basement of a Lutheran church, and it was stand-up comedy, so you don’t get to improvise with others,” he told NPR .
“But I started off doing, ostensibly, it was just like improvising but solo.”
“And then I started to realize, ‘Oh.’ [I started] building an act from there.”
Praise God that he did!
2. His scene in *Friends* was completely improvised:
The story behind his surprise cameo is so epic, and so Robin Williams.
He and Billy Crystal happened to be working at a neighboring set when they stumbled upon the Friends set.
When this happened, the writers asked them if they wanted a guest spot.
Williams and Crystal agreed and ended up improvising the entire scene!
This left the Friends characters having to improvise their lines as well, like when Courteney Cox said she forgot her original story.
3. Most of his lines as the Genie in *Aladdin* were improvised:
Not only that, but he had been in the middle of filming Hook when he voiced the Genie.
“We only had Robin for four four-hour sessions,” revealed supervising animator Eric Goldberg.
“And Williams usually did his recordings after a full day on the set of ‘Hook.'”
He continued: “Still, he gave us 150%. Contrary to what a lot of people think, Robin didn’t bounce off the walls all the time.”
It must have been amazing to watch him act.
4. He formed a bond with Koko the Gorilla:
She was the famous gorilla who knew sign language.
She lived for 46 years before passing away in 2018 at the Gorilla Foundation in Northern California. When Williams met her, the moment was so special.
She recognized the actor from his movies and kept signing for him to tickle her!
“We shared something extraordinary: laughter,” Williams said of the encounter.
RELATED STORIES
Tragically, after Williams died, the Foundation told Koko the news and she fell into sadness.
5. His daughter is named after a video game:
Her name is Zelda, so you can probably guess that Robin was inspired by the main character from The Legend of Zelda .
He also had two other children, Zack and Cody.
6. He went out of his way to get Lydia from *Mrs. Doubtfire* back into school:
Lisa Jakub played Lydia, Williams’s daughter in the movie.
Since she had to be away from school for five months to film, she had been kicked out of her high school.
“My job meant an increased workload for teachers, and they were not equipped to handle a ‘non-traditional’ student. So, during filming, they kicked me out,” she shared on her blog.
After this happened, Robin penned a letter to the school, asking them to take her back.
He wrote: “A student of her caliber and talent should be encouraged to go out in the world and learn through her work.”
He continued: “She should also be encouraged to return to the classroom when she’s done to share those experiences and motivate her classmates to soar to their own higher achievements … she is an asset to any classroom.”
While the school framed the letter, they didn’t allow her to return.
But the sweet gesture was never forgotten by Jakub.
7. He would comfort Steven Spielberg while he filmed *Schindler’s List*:
The guys first became close when Robin played Peter Pan in Speilberg’s Hook .
“Robin knew what I was going through, and once a week, Robin would call me on schedule and he would do 15 minutes of stand-up on the phone,” Spielberg said .
“I would laugh hysterically, because I had to release so much.”
Anyone who has seen the movie understands how heavy it is, so it was much-needed for Robin to do that for him.
8. He helped make voice acting what it is today:
Back when the actor famously voiced the character, Genie, in Aladdin , celebrities doing voice acting was relatively unheard of.
But Robin’s iconic stint doing it paved the way for other celebrities to work on animated films.
9. He was really good friends with Christopher Reeve:
Williams and the Superman actor became buddies during the ’70s when they were roommates at Julliard.
Robin once said that Reeve would feed him since he didn’t have money. Talk about being Superman.
“Literally feeding me because I don’t think I literally had money for food or my student loan hadn’t come in yet, and he would share his food with me,” Robin said.
To add to this adorableness, Reeve’s wife, Dana, even once described them as “closer than brothers.”
10. He forgot to thank his mother in his 1998 Oscar speech:
He had won the Best Supporting Actor for his work in Good Will Hunting .
“I forgot to thank my mother and she was in the audience,” he said on The Graham Norton Show .
Of course, this is something that she wouldn’t let him forget.
“Even the therapist went, ‘Get out!’ That was rough for the next few years. [Mom voice] ‘You came through here [points to his pants]! How’s the award?’”
