The Birdcage is a 1996 American comedy film directed by Mike Nichols, and stars Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, Nathan Lane, and Dianne Wiest. Dan Futterman, Calista Flockhart, Hank Azaria, and Christine Baranski appear in supporting roles. The script was written by Elaine May. It is a remake of the 1978 Franco-Italian film, La Cage aux Folles, by Jean Poiret and Francis Veber, starring Michel Serrault and Ugo Tognazzi.

Plot[link]

Val Goldman and Barbara Keeley are engaged to be married, and wish to have their families meet. Val's father, Armand, owns The Birdcage, a South Beach drag club. His domestic partner is Albert, who appears regularly as "Starina," the show's star drag queen. Barbara's father is ultraconservative Republican Ohio Senator Kevin Keeley, who is seeking re-election as the co-founder of the "Coalition for Moral Order". Fearing their reaction if they learn the truth about Val's parents, Barbara tells her parents that Armand is a cultural attaché to Greece, that Albert is a housewife, and that they divide their time between Greece and Florida; she also changes the family's last name from Goldman to Coleman to hide their Jewish background.

Kevin receives a phone call: Senator Jackson, Kevin's colleague and co-founder of the Coalition for Moral Order, has been found dead in the bed of an underage African-American prostitute; the event receives a large amount of coverage in the media. Louise Keeley proposes a visit to meet their new in-laws as a diversion to save Kevin's political career, and Barbara's marriage into a white, "traditional, wholesome" all-American family will give the Senator excellent PR material. Barbara phones Val in South Beach about the lies she has told her parents. Val convinces Armand to go along with the farce. Armand has the house redecorated in an austere manner, and begins remaking himself as an unassuming, conventional, heterosexual American male. He contacts Val's biological mother, Katherine Archer, and she agrees to join in the charade he is planning.

Despite the changes to the house and Katherine's help, Armand realizes that Albert's outlandish, effeminate mannerisms will reveal the true nature of the Goldman household. Armand asks Albert not to be present for the dinner party that evening; Albert is offended and threatens to leave Armand. A compromise is reached where Albert will act as Val's uncle, but this soon falls apart when Albert cannot effectively pretend to be heterosexual. Another argument ensues and Albert locks himself in his bedroom.

As the evening draws nearer, Agador, the Goldman's flamboyant gay housekeeper, has been made into a butler and chef for the evening, despite the fact that he cannot cook and never wears shoes. The Keeleys arrive at Armand's residence, but Katherine, who is to play Val's mother, ("Mrs. Coleman") is stuck in traffic. Kevin and Louise are worried that Armand's nervousness is because he has heard about the Jackson scandal and is uncomfortable having the Keeleys in his house. Suddenly, Albert emerges dressed as a middle-aged mother. Armand and Val are horrified, fearing that Katherine's arrival will destroy the illusion. Agador has prepared nothing for dinner but a bizarre soup containing shrimp and hard-boiled eggs. Despite the many challenges facing them, Armand, Val and Barbara all act the part and interact with Albert as "Mrs. Coleman".

Before dinner, Louise notices that the soup bowls depict men in homoerotic poses in a classical Greek style. Armand insists that she is mistaken and promptly fills everyone's bowl with the soup before the Keeleys can take a closer look. The primary topic of conversation is politics and, despite many potential pitfalls, Albert wins over the Senator with a very right-wing tirade on the moral collapse of American society. Louise is still suspicious: the dinner was terrible and Armand kept leaving the table. Kevin defends Albert as a true lady and remarks that Armand is just a "pretentious European". Val leaves a note for Katherine on the front door, informing her not to come inside, but two paparazzi photographers, hoping for a scoop, remove the note. Katherine arrives and introduces herself as "Mrs. Goldman". Kevin demands to know why there are two Mrs. Colemans; Val realizes that he cannot keep lying and pulls off Albert's wig, explaining to the Keeleys that while Katherine is his biological mother, Albert is his primary mother figure. Kevin and Louise are taken aback upon learning that Albert and Armand are gay Jewish nightclub owners. Louise breaks down and Kevin announces that they are leaving and demands that Barbara come with them, but the Keeleys have been followed by paparazzi and are trapped as news crews arrive.

The Goldmans, Keeleys, Katherine and Agador consider the best plan of action. Val and Barbara explain why they deceived Kevin and Louise and are forgiven, but the Keeleys fear being tangled up in a scandal if spotted in a gay nightclub. Albert choreographs the Keeleys' escape by dressing them up in drag and having them leave the club as the night's show ends. The plan works and none of the media crews recognize Kevin, Louise or Barbara. The group leaves South Beach with Katherine. Val and Barbara are married in an interfaith ceremony attended by their families.

Cast[link]

• Robin Williams as Armand Goldman - A gay nightclub owner who tries to play it straight when his son's fiancée brings her unsuspecting parents to meet him in South Beach.
• Nathan Lane as Albert - Armand's partner who pretends to be Val's mother by dressing up as, and pretending to be, a woman when the Keeleys arrive. He stars in the nightclub's shows as the drag queen "Starina." Although a man he is Val's mother figure.
• Gene Hackman as Senator Kevin Keeley - Husband of Louise, father of Barbara, and future father-in-law to Val. He is a staunch Republican Senator with conservative social views who is running for re-election and staunchly opposes homosexuality and same-sex marriage. He co-founded the activist group. "Coalition for Moral Order," and struggles to preserve his political career after a close colleague dies while sleeping with a black underage prostitute.
• Dianne Wiest as Louise Keeley - Wife of Kevin, mother of Barbara, and future mother-in-law to Val. She is depicted as passively agreeing with her husband's very conservative positions on public morality and social issues.
• Dan Futterman as Val Goldman - Son of Armand Goldman and Katie Archer. He wants to marry Barbara and has his father pretend to be straight when Barbara's parents come to meet them.
• Calista Flockhart as Barbara Keeley - Daughter of Senator Kevin and Louise Keeley, future wife of Val, and future daughter-in-law of Armand. She wants to marry Val, but when she learns that Val's father has a homosexual partner, she lies to her parents by telling them that Val's dad is an artist and his mom is a housewife.
• Hank Azaria as Agador - The Goldman's Guatemalan housekeeper. He too is flamboyantly gay, speaks with a Latin accent and a lisp, and serves as the butler for when the Keeleys come to visit. He detests wearing shoes and longs to work as a drag queen at The Birdcage.
• Christine Baranski as Katherine Archer - Val's biological mother (after having had a one night stand with Armand) and serial divorcee.
• Tom McGowan as Harry Radman.
• Grant Heslov as National Enquirer photographer.
• Kirby Mitchell as Keeley's opportunistic chauffeur.
• Jay Leno (uncredited) as Himself.
• Mike Starr (deleted scenes) as Harry.

Soundtrack[link]

A number of songs written by Stephen Sondheim were used in the film. The song that Albert rehearses during the sequence with the gum-chewing dancer is entitled "Little Dream", and was written specifically for use in the film.^[1] Albert's first song as "Starina" is "Can That Boy Foxtrot," cut from Sondheim's Follies. The song that Armand and Katherine sing and dance to in her office, "Love Is in the Air," was originally intended as the opening number for the musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in 1962. The song was cut from the show and replaced with Comedy Tonight.^[2]

Reception[link]

The Birdcage opened on March 8, 1996 and grossed $18,275,828 in its opening weekend, topping the box office.^[3] It remained at #1 for the next three weeks before being derailed by the openings of Primal Fear and A Thin Line Between Love and Hate. By the end of its 14-week run, the film had grossed $124,060,553 domestically and $61,200,000 internationally, coming down to a $185,260,553 worldwide total.^[4]

The film holds a 77% "Fresh" rating at the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 43 critic reviews, which are summarized by the site thus: "Mike Nichols wrangles agreeably amusing performances from Robin Williams and Nathan Lane in this fun, if not quite essential, remake of the French comedy La Cage aux Folles."^[5] The review aggregator Metacritic reported that the film received "generally favorable" reviews, with a score of 72% based on 18 reviews.^[6]

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) praised the film for "going beyond the stereotypes to see the character's depth and humanity. The film celebrates differences and points out the outrageousness of hiding those differences."^[7] The film was also nominated for a GLAAD Media Award.^[8]

The film was nominated for American Film Institute's 2000 list, "100 Years...100 Laughs".^[9]

See also[link]

• La Cage aux Folles, the original 1973 French play
• La Cage aux Folles, the 1983 American stage musical
• Cross-dressing in film and television
• List of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender-related films by storyline

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Birdcage at the Internet Movie Database
• The Birdcage at AllRovi
• The Birdcage at Box Office Mojo
• The Birdcage at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Birdcage at Metacritic

Charles Louis Busch (born August 23, 1954) is an American actor, screenwriter, playwright and female impersonator, known for his appearances on stage in his own camp style plays and in film and television. He wrote and starred in his early plays Off-off-Broadway beginning in 1978, generally in drag roles, and also acted in the works of other playwrights. He also wrote for television and began to act in films and on television in the late 1990s. His best known play is The Tale of the Allergist's Wife (2000), which was a success on Broadway.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Busch was born in 1954 and grew up in Hartsdale, New York.^[1][2] He is the son of Gertrude (née Young) and Benjamin Busch.^[3][4] His father wanted to be an opera singer but owned a record store. His mother died when Busch was age 7. He has two older sisters: Meg Busch, a producer of promotional spots for Showtime, and Betsy Busch, a textile designer.^[4] Busch’s aunt, Lillian Blum, his mother's oldest sister and a former teacher, brought him to live in Manhattan after the death of his mother.^[4] She told an interviewer: "He was so shy it was almost pathological. ... Before he moved in with me, I would pick him up in Hartsdale on a Friday afternoon, and he would be like a zombie. But the minute we crossed the river to New York he was absolutely a new boy."^[5] Busch was intensely interested in films as a young child, especially those with female leads from the 30s and 40s.^[2] Blum insisted that Busch read the front page of the newspaper every day to help him keep at least one foot in the real world.^[4]

Busch attended the High School of Music and Art in Manhattan.^[4] He majored in drama at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois^[1] and received his B.A. in 1976.^[2] While at the university, Busch had difficulty being cast in plays and began to write his own material, such as a play called Sister Act about siamese twin showgirls, which succeeded in drawing interest on campus.^[5]

Early theatre years[link]

Busch has usually played the leading lady in drag in his plays. He has said, "Drag is being more, more than you can be. When I first started drag I wasn't this shy young man but a powerful woman. It liberated within me a whole vocabulary of expression. It was less a political statement than an aesthetic one."^[5] His camp style shows simultaneously send up and celebrate classic film genres.^[1] Busch has said, however, "I'm not sure what [campy] means, but I guess if my plays have elements of old movies and old fashioned plays, and I'm this bigger-than-life star lady, that's certainly campy. I guess what I rebelled against was the notion that campy means something is so tacky or bad that it's good, and that I just didn't relate to."^[6] Busch "toured the country in a non-drag one-man show he wrote called 'Alone With a Cast of Thousands.' " from 1978 to 1984.^[4] By 1984, Busch's performance bookings grew slim. He held various odd jobs, such as temporary office assistant, apartment cleaner, portrait artist "at bar mitzvahs", phone salesperson, shop manager, ice cream server, sports handicapper^[4] and artists' model.^[2] He thought that perhaps his last piece would be a skit put on in the Limbo Lounge, a gay bar in the East Village in Manhattan. The skit was a hit and became Busch's most famous Off-off-Broadway play, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom (1984). When it was revived the next year at the Provincetown Playhouse, The New York Times described it as having "costumes flashier than pinball machines, outrageous lines, awful puns, sinister innocence, harmless depravity. ... the female roles [Busch] creates are hilarious vamps, but also high comic characters ... the audience laughs at the first line and goes right on laughing at every line to the end".^[7] Busch stated that it was the longest-running non-musical in off-off-Broadway in history.^[2]

Busch and his collaborators soon created a series of shows, mostly at the Limbo Lounge, such as Theodora, She-Bitch of Byzantium (1984) and Times Square Angel (1985, Provincetown Playhouse).^[1] The company called itself "Theatre in Limbo" and attracted a loyal gay following.^[5] Other early plays include Pardon My Inquisition, or Kiss the Blood Off My Castanets (1986), in which Busch "played both Maria Garbanza, a prostitute, and her look-alike, the elegant Marquesa del Drago."^[8][9] and Psycho Beach Party, which ran from July 1987 to May 1988.^[10] "In his latest incarnation, Mr. Busch is a pigtailed ingenue who wants to become a surfer in Psycho Beach Party, which opened last week at the Players Theater."^[9][11] Other works include The Lady in Question, which ran from July to December 1989 at the Orpheum Theatre (originally produced by the WPA Theatre),^[12] and Red Scare on Sunset, which ran from June to September 1991 at the Lortel Theatre.^[13]

He rewrote the book for the musical Ankles Aweigh for an 1988 production staged by the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut. The New York Times reviewer noted that "Here and there, one sees unmistakable traces of Mr. Busch's touch. In a funny series of appearances, for example, the actor Frank Siano assumes multiple roles, among them a mugging tenor, a spaced-out priest and, in drag, the mother of the musical's leading ladies. And some silly puns and what could be called off-color sight gags bear Mr. Busch's offbeat imprint."^[14] Busch has been a member of the Writers Guild of America since 1989.^[15] His Charles Busch Revue was produced at the Ballroom Theatre in May 1993 in New York. The New York Times reviewer wrote "To the melodramatic strains of 'Town Without Pity,' Mr. Busch impersonates a slithery teen-age tramp, glued into a skin-tight red vinyl dress, who is accidentally killed while being fought over by two leather-jacketed youths. As in his plays like Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and The Lady in Question, the skit illustrates Mr. Busch's skill at taking pop kitsch and using drag to give it several extra jolts of silliness. Among New York's drag performers, he is certainly the most congenial." The reviewer concluded that "even when the material is less than scintillating, the show ... remains consistently charming and ebullient."^[16]

Also in 1993, he performed in a revival of Jean Genet's The Maids at the Off-Broadway Classic Stage Company in the role of Solange.^[17][18] In 1993, he wrote a novel, Whores of Lost Atlantis, a fictionalized re-telling of the creation of Vampire Lesbians of Sodom.^[19] The Green Heart was adapted by Busch from a short story by Jack Ritchie into a musical which was produced by the Manhattan Theater Club at the Variety Arts Theatre in New York City, opening in April 1997. The New York Times review by Ben Brantley noted "This patchy contemporary fable of greed and romance, with a book by Charles Busch and songs by Rusty Magee, almost never takes off except when its villainesses take over. ...while Mr. Busch's book is plump with funny lines, Mr. Magee's lyrics are often flat or laborious. The concepts behind the songs are often inspired."^[20]

He took the male lead in his comedy, You Should Be So Lucky which opened at Primary Stages Company, New York City, in November 1994. Ben Brantley, in his review in The New York Times, wrote "Christopher is portrayed by the play's author, Charles Busch, a fabled drag performer who has hitherto seldom set foot on a New York stage without a glitzy dress and heels high enough to induce vertigo. Here, wearing pants, a mandarin-collar shirt and no discernible mascara or lipstick, Mr. Busch does indeed seem incomplete. He walks with a sad-sack slump, and when he talks, in a small, self-conscious voice, he ducks his head. Christopher is clearly an unfinished soul who hasn't yet found his part in life, and, as he observes forlornly, 'I'm not unique: there are thousands of us living in peculiar circumstances all over the Village.'... 'You Should Be So Lucky'...is a very funny, exceptionally generous-spirited work that's all about dotting the "i" in personality."^[21]

Other works of the 1990s include Swingtime Canteen, produced at the Blue Angel, New York City, in August 1995. The New York Times reviewer wrote that "As the moment demands, Mr. Busch as the grande dame preens, minces, sashays, bats eyes, tosses off the most winningly treacly of smiles, and with reckless abandon drops names of dear, dear friends (Joan Crawford, Loretta Young, Jeanette MacDonald, Cole Porter). He has a way with songs like 'You'll Never Know' and lines like 'We're in a war, ladies, and we've got to win.' "^[22] His one-man show, Flipping My Wig ran at the WPA Theater, New York City, starting in December 1996. Ben Brantley, in his review for The New York Times, wrote that the story is "the sordid but uplifting personal history of a not-so-very-wicked stepmother who only wanted to do right by her family and get a little glamour out of life. ...Many professional drag queens are, however, only impersonators. Mr. Busch is indeed an illusionist and of a particularly affecting stripe. Here, in his assorted incarnations -- from a tough but good-hearted nightclub chanteuse of the Prohibition era to a suburban housewife who becomes Edith Piaf for an evening -- he provides a living bridge between manufactured images of womanhood and the fantasies they inspire. Mr. Busch, a popular crossover cross-dresser since his first hit spoof, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, a decade ago, holds a special place in the world of drag. Walking a delicate line between adulation and ridicule, he avoids both the polemics and the pathos of most men who play women."^[23]

He wrote Queen Amarantha, which played at the WPA Theatre, starting in October 1997; Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote that it examined "sexual identity to new levels of intricacy and earnestness."^[24] His play Die, Mommie, Die! was first performed in Los Angeles, opening in July 1999 at the Coast Playhouse. The Variety reviewer wrote that "Die! Mommy! Die!" is Charles Busch's funniest, most accomplished and, without question, raunchiest work... And, as always, he wears a parade of wigs and pumps with considerable grace and understatement."^[25] and was made into the 2003 feature film of the same name. According to the New York Times reviewer, "The candy-hued camp comedy Die Mommie Die! presents the latest variation of the playwright and drag performer Charles Busch's long-running and very funny alter ego, a swiveling red-haired diva whose exaggerated graciousness and noblesse oblige embody the ne plus ultra of Great Hollywood Ladies....The film, directed by Mark Rucker from a screenplay by Mr. Busch, is at once all plot and no plot at all.Although the supporting performances are carefully shaded caricatures, Die Mommie Die! is really Mr. Busch's show. Within the cramped limitations of drag, he exudes a genuine screen charisma. That star quality as much anything should earn the film a niche in camp heaven."^[3][26]

Film and television[link]

Busch's early film appearances include Ms. Ellen, a fortune teller in drag in Trouble on the Corner (1997).^[27] Busch has twice appeared in film versions of his own plays: Die, Mommie, Die! (1999) and the comedy horror Psycho Beach Party (2000, as Capt. Monica Stark, a policewoman trying to solve the mystery). He co-wrote, starred in and directed the film A Very Serious Person (2006), which starred Polly Bergen and received an honorable mention at the Tribeca Film Festival.^[28][29] He is also the subject of the documentary The Lady in Question is Charles Busch (2006).

Busch had a recurring role in the HBO series Oz from 1999–2000 (the third and fourth seasons) as Nat Ginzburg, an "effeminate but makeup-free inmate on death row, certainly a departure from his usual glamour girl roles."^[30] He also wrote television sitcom pilots and movie treatments as a source of extra income while he was a cult performer. He sold three pilots to CBS that were not produced.^[15]

Stage work, 2000's[link]

Busch's work debuted on Broadway in October 2000, when The Tale of the Allergist's Wife opened, following an Off-Broadway run in February through April 2000.^[31] The play, his first in which he did not star, and the first created for a mainstream audience, was written for actress Linda Lavin,^[32] who played opposite Michele Lee and Tony Roberts.^[33] Allergist's Wife received a 2001 nomination for Tony Award for Best Play and ran for 777 performances.^[34] His other Broadway work was rewriting the book for Boy George's short-lived autobiographical musical Taboo.^[35] Since 2000, Busch has performed an annual one-night staged reading of his 1984 Christmas play Times Square Angel.^[36] In January 2003, he headlined a revival of his 1999 play Shanghai Moon, costarring B. D. Wong at the Drama Dept, Greenwich House Theatre, New York City.^[37]

He has taken the eponymous lead in three productions of Auntie Mame: a staged reading in 1998 and a benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS in 2003^[38] and one a small scale summer touring production (2004).^[39]

Our Leading Lady, Busch's play about Laura Keene, was produced by the Manhattan Theater Club at the City Center Stage II Theatre, in 2007, and starred Kate Mulgrew.^[40][41] His play, The Third Story, premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse in September 2008 with Mary Beth Peil as Peg,^[42] and was then produced in New York by MCC Theatre at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, starring Busch and Kathleen Turner (Peg), opening in February 2009.^[43] Busch wrote and starred in a play, The Divine Sister, a satirical take on Hollywood films about religion, including Doubt and the Sound of Music. It ran at the SoHo Playhouse in New York City, opening in September 2010.^[44]

Performance style and influences[link]

Busch's style is based on movie star acting rather than naturalistic femininity.^[1] Busch later said that he was described as "too thin, too light, which is the euphemism for gay. I was never cast at Northwestern for basically these reasons, and finally, I thought maybe what's most disturbing about me is what is most unique: my theatrical sense, my androgyny, even identifying with old movie actresses".^[5] He specializes in femmes fatales. "I'm an actor playing a role, but it's drag. A lot of drag can be very offensive, but I like to think that in some crazy way the women I play are feminist heroines."^[6]

Busch said, "I've always played a duality. I guess I've always felt a duality in myself: elegance and vulgarity. There's humor in that. I've always found that fun on stage, as well. It's not enough for me to be the whore. I have to be the whore with pretensions or the great lady with a vulgar streak. It's the duality that I find interesting."^[1] Busch generally writes without a political agenda, and he predominantly portrays characters who are white, middle class, gay, and between 20 and 40 years old.^[1]

Busch was inspired by Charles Ludlam, a drag artist who founded The Ridiculous Theatrical Company in 1967 and wrote, directed, and acted in the company's exaggerated, absurdist camp productions. Busch presented his one-man show Hollywood Confidential in a theater owned by The Ridiculous Theatrical Company in July 1978 at One Sheridan Square, New York. He also appeared for several performances in the company's production of Bluebeard as Hecate, also in July 1978. Busch said of this experience: "If I had ever entertained a fantasy of working with the Ridiculous Theatrical Company, doing Hecate got it out of my system."^[45] Busch has said that he was also inspired by seeing Joan Sutherland^[2] and Zoe Caldwell perform when he was a child.^[46] Busch recalled: "When I was about 13 years old, around 1968 or ’69, I went to see Zoe Caldwell in 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.' I was so dazzled that I don’t think I’ve ever recovered."^[46] In 1991, Busch was performing in his play Red Scare on Sunset. He said that he had difficulty connecting with the audience at one of the performances. Caldwell went backstage after the performance to give him some advice: "You are so beautiful. But you were pushing too hard. You’re much better than that. ...It’s the best lesson I’ve learned from a famous person."^[46]

Awards and Nominations[link]

Busch received the Charlie Local and National Comedy Award from the Association of Comedy Artists in 1985 for "special contributions to the art of comedy."^[2] He also received the Manhattan Academy of Cabaret Award in 1985 and 1993.^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

External links[link]

• Charles Busch's official website
• Charles Busch at the Internet Movie Database
• Charles Busch at the Internet Broadway Database
• Charles Busch at the Internet Off-Broadway Database

This article's lead section may not adequately summarize its contents. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of the article's key points. (January 2012)

Robin Williams
Williams at "Stand Up for Heroes" in 2007
Birth name	Robin McLaurin Williams
Born	(1951-07-21) July 21, 1951 (age 60) Chicago, Illinois, United States
Medium	Stand-up, film, television
Nationality	American
Years active	1972–present
Genres	Character comedy, physical comedy, improvisational comedy, satire/political satire, observational comedy, blue comedy
Influences	Peter Sellers, Richard Pryor, Jonathan Winters, George Carlin, Chuck Jones
Influenced	Conan O'Brien, Frank Caliendo,[1] Dat Phan, Jo Koy
Spouse	Valerie Velardi (1978–1988; 1 child) Marsha Garces Williams (1989–2008; 2 children) Susan Schneider (2011–present)
Website	RobinWilliams.com
Academy Awards
Best Supporting Actor 1997 Good Will Hunting – Sean Maguire
Emmy Awards
Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program 1987 Carol and Carl and Whoopi and Robin Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program 1988 ABC Presents A Royal Gala
Golden Globe Awards
Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy 1978 Mork & Mindy – Mork Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy 1987 Good Morning, Vietnam – Adrian Cronauer Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy 1991 The Fisher King – Parry Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy 1993 Mrs. Doubtfire – Daniel Hillard ("Euphegenia Doubtfire") Cecil B. DeMille Award 2005
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture 1996 The Birdcage – Armand Goldman Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role 1997 Good Will Hunting – Sean Maguire
American Comedy Awards
Funniest Actor in a Motion Picture (Leading Role) 1994 Mrs. Doubtfire – Daniel Hillard ("Euphegenia Doubtfire")

Robin McLaurin Williams^[2][3] (born July 21, 1951^[4]) is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork & Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting. He has also won two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globes, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and five Grammy Awards.^[5][6]

Early life[link]

Williams was born in Chicago, Illinois. His mother, Laura McLaurin (née Smith, 1922–2001), was a former model from New Orleans, Louisiana.^[7] His father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams (September 10, 1906 – October 18, 1987), was a senior executive at Ford Motor Company in charge of the Midwest region. His maternal great-great-grandfather was senator and Mississippi governor Anselm J. McLaurin.^[8] Williams is of English, Welsh, Irish, and French ancestry.^[9] He was raised in the Episcopal Church (his mother practiced Christian Science).^[10][11] He grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where he was a student at the Detroit Country Day School,^[12] and later moved to Woodacre, Marin County, California, where he attended the public Redwood High School. Williams studied at Claremont McKenna College (then called Claremont Men's College) for four years.^[13] He has two half-brothers: Todd (who died August 14, 2007) and McLaurin.^[14]

Williams has described himself as a quiet child whose first imitation was of his grandmother to his mother. He did not overcome his shyness until he became involved with his high-school drama department.^[15]

In 1973, Williams was one of only 20 students accepted into the freshman class at the Juilliard School, and one of only two students to be accepted by John Houseman into the Advanced Program at the school that year, the other being Christopher Reeve.^[16] In his dialects class, Williams had no trouble mastering all dialects quickly. Williams left Juilliard in 1976.

Television career[link]

After appearing in the cast of the short-lived The Richard Pryor Show on NBC, Williams was cast by Garry Marshall as the alien Mork in the hit TV series Happy Days.^[17] As Mork, Williams improvised much of his dialogue and physical comedy, speaking in a high, nasal voice. Mork's appearance was so popular with viewers that it led to a spin-off hit television sitcom, Mork & Mindy, which ran from 1978 to 1982; the show was written to accommodate Williams' improvisations. Although he played the same character as in his appearance in Happy Days, the show was set in the present day, in Boulder, Colorado, instead of the late '50s in Milwaukee. Mork was an extremely popular character, featured on posters, coloring books, lunchboxes, and other merchandise.

Starting in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Williams began to reach a wider audience with his standup comedy, including three HBO comedy specials, Off The Wall (1978), An Evening with Robin Williams (1982), and Robin Williams: Live at the Met (1986). Also in 1986, Williams reached an ever wider audience to exhibit his style at the 58th Academy Awards show.^{[citation needed]}

His stand-up work has been a consistent thread through his career, as is seen by the success of his one-man show (and subsequent DVD) Robin Williams: Live on Broadway (2002). He was voted 13th on Comedy Central's list "100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time" in 2004.^[18]

After some encouragement from his friend Whoopi Goldberg, he was set to make a guest appearance in the 1991 Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "A Matter of Time", but he had to cancel due to a scheduling conflict;^[19] Matt Frewer took his place as a time-traveling con man, Professor Berlingoff Rasmussen. Williams, along with Billy Crystal, appeared in a cameo together at the beginning of an episode of the third season of Friends. Both Williams and Crystal's parts weren't originally in the script. They were apparently in the building where the show was shooting and were asked to improvise their lines.^[20]

Williams appeared on an episode of the American version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? (Season 3, Episode 9: November 16, 2000). During a game of "Scenes from a Hat", the scene "What Robin Williams is thinking right now" was drawn, and Williams stated "I have a career. What the hell am I doing here?"^[21] On December 4, 2010, he appeared with Robert De Niro on SNL in the sketch What Up with That.

Movie roles[link]

Most of Williams' acting career has been in film, although he has given some performances on stage as well (notably as Estragon in a production of Waiting for Godot with Steve Martin). His performance in Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) resulted in Williams being nominated for an Academy Award.^[17] Many of his roles have been comedies tinged with pathos.

His role as the Genie in the animated film Aladdin (1992) was instrumental in establishing the importance of star power in voice actor casting. Williams also used his voice talents in Fern Gully, as the holographic Dr. Know in the 2001 film A.I. Artificial Intelligence, in the 2005 animated film Robots, the 2006 Academy Award-winning Happy Feet, and an uncredited vocal performance in the film Everyone's Hero. Furthermore, he was the voice of The Timekeeper, a former attraction at the Walt Disney World Resort about a time-traveling robot who encounters Jules Verne and brings him to the future.

In 1998, he won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for his role as a psychologist in Good Will Hunting.^[17] Williams has also starred in dramatic films, which earned him two subsequent Academy Award nominations: First for playing an English teacher in Dead Poets Society (1989), and later for playing a troubled homeless man in The Fisher King (1991);^[17] that same year, he played an adult Peter Pan in the movie Hook. Other acclaimed dramatic films include Awakenings (1990) and What Dreams May Come (1998). In the 2002 film Insomnia, Williams portrays a writer/killer on the run from a sleep-deprived Los Angeles policeman (played by Al Pacino) in rural Alaska. And also in 2002, in the psychological thriller One Hour Photo, Williams played an emotionally disturbed photo development technician who becomes obsessed with a family for whom he has developed pictures for a long time. In 2006 Williams starred in The Night Listener, a thriller about a radio show host who realizes he has developed a friendship with a child who may or may not exist.

He is known for his improvisational skills and impersonations. His performances frequently involve impromptu humor designed and delivered in rapid-fire succession while on stage. According to the Aladdin DVD commentary, most of his dialogue as the Genie was improvised.

In 2006, he starred in five movies including Man of the Year and was the Surprise Guest at the 2006 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. He appeared on an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition that aired on January 30, 2006.

At one point, he was in the running to play the Riddler in Batman Forever until director Tim Burton dropped the project. Earlier, Williams had been a strong contender to play the Joker in Batman. He had expressed interest in assuming the role in The Dark Knight, the sequel to 2005's Batman Begins,^[22] although the part of the Joker was played by Heath Ledger, who went on to win, posthumously, the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

He was portrayed by Chris Diamantopoulos in the made-for-TV biopic Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Mork & Mindy (2005), documenting the actor's arrival in Hollywood as a struggling comedian.

Disputes with Disney[link]

In gratitude for his success with the Disney/Touchstone film "Good Morning, Vietnam", Williams voiced the Genie in the Disney animated film Aladdin for SAG scale pay ($75,000), on condition that his name or image not be used for marketing, and his (supporting) character not take more than 25% of space on advertising artwork, since Toys was scheduled for release one month after Aladdin's debut. The studio went back on the deal on both counts, especially in poster art by having the Genie in 25% of the image, but having other major and supporting characters portrayed considerably smaller. Disney's Hyperion book, Aladdin: The Making Of An Animated Film, listed both of Williams' characters, "The Peddler" and "The Genie", ahead of main characters but was forced to refer to him only as "the actor signed to play the Genie".^[23]

Williams and Disney had a bitter falling-out, resulting in Dan Castellaneta voicing the Genie role in "The Return of Jafar" and the "Aladdin" animated television series. Castellaneta was also recorded as the original voice for the feature "Aladdin and the King of Thieves". When Jeffrey Katzenberg was fired from Disney and replaced by former 20th Century Fox production head Joe Roth (whose last act for Fox was greenlighting Williams' film "Mrs. Doubtfire"), Roth arranged for a public apology to Williams by Disney. Williams agreed to perform in Hollywood Pictures' "Jack", directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and even agreed to voice the Genie again for the "King of Thieves" sequel (for considerably more than scale), replacing all of Castellaneta's dialogue.^[24]

When Williams re-teamed with "Doubtfire" director Chris Columbus for 1999's "Bicentennial Man", Disney asked that the budget be cut by approximately $20 million, and when the film was released on Christmas Day, it flopped at the box office. Williams blamed Disney's marketing and the loss of content the film had suffered due to the budget cuts. As a result, Williams was again on bad terms with Disney, and Castellaneta was once again recruited to replace him as Genie in the "Kingdom Hearts" video game series and the "House of Mouse" TV series. The DVD release for "Aladdin" has no involvement whatsoever from Williams in the bonus materials, although some of his original recording sessions can be seen.

Robin Williams has recently made peace with The Walt Disney Company and in 2009 agreed to be inducted into the Disney Hall of Fame, designated as a Disney Legend.^[25]

Stand-up career[link]

Williams has done a number of stand-up comedy tours since the early 1970s. Some of his most notable tours include An Evening With Robin Williams (1982), Robin Williams: At The Met (1986) and Robin Williams LIVE on Broadway (2002). The latter broke many long-held records for a comedy show. In some cases, tickets were sold out within thirty minutes of going on sale.

After a six year break, in August 2008 Williams announced a brand new 26-city tour titled "Weapons of Self Destruction". He was quoted as saying that this was his last chance to make cracks at the expense of the current Bush Administration, but by the time the show was staged only a few minutes covered that subject. The tour started at the end of September 2009, finishing in New York on December 3, and was the subject of an HBO special on December 8, 2009.^[26]

Accusations of plagiarism[link]

Williams was accused of stealing material from other comics to the extent that David Brenner claims that he confronted Williams personally and threatened him with bodily harm if he heard Williams utter another one of his jokes.^[27]

Theatre career[link]

In theatre, Williams has headed his own one-man show, Robin Williams: Live on Broadway, that played at The Broadway Theatre in July 2002.^[28] He made his Broadway acting debut in Rajiv Joseph's Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, which opened on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on March 31, 2011.^[29][30][31] He previously appeared opposite Steve Martin at Lincoln Center in an Off-Broadway production of Waiting for Godot.^[32]

Personal life[link]

Marriages and children[link]

Robin Williams' first marriage was to Valerie Velardi on June 4, 1978. They have one child, Zachary Pym (Zak) (born April 11, 1983). During Williams' first marriage, he was involved in an extramarital relationship with Michelle Tish Carter, a cocktail waitress whom he met in 1984. She sued him in 1986, claiming that he did not tell her he was infected with the herpes simplex virus before he embarked on a sexual relationship with her in the mid-1980s, during which, she said, he transmitted the virus to her. The case was settled out of court. Williams and Velardi divorced in 1988.^[33]

On April 30, 1989, he married Marsha Garces, his son's nanny who was already several months pregnant with his child. They have two children, Zelda Rae (born July 31, 1989) and Cody Alan (born November 25, 1991). However, in March 2008, Garces filed for divorce from Williams, citing irreconcilable differences.^[34]

Williams married his third wife, graphic designer Susan Schneider, on October 23, 2011, in St. Helena, California.^[35]

Family and friends[link]

While studying at Juilliard, Williams befriended Christopher Reeve. They had several classes together in which they were the only students, and they remained good friends for the rest of Reeve's life. Williams visited Reeve after the horse riding accident that rendered him a quadriplegic, and cheered him up by pretending to be an eccentric Russian doctor (similar to his role in Nine Months). Williams claimed that he was there to perform a colonoscopy. Reeve stated that he laughed for the first time since the accident and knew that life was going to be okay.^[16]

Wiliams' at the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) in 2005

On August 20, 2007, Williams' elder brother, Robert Todd Williams, died of complications from heart surgery performed a month earlier.^[36]

Addiction and health problems[link]

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Williams had an addiction to cocaine; he has stated that he has since quit. Williams was a close friend of and frequent partier alongside John Belushi. He says the death of his friend and the birth of his son prompted him to quit drugs: "Was it a wake-up call? Oh yeah, on a huge level. The grand jury helped too."^[17]

On August 9, 2006, Williams checked himself in to a substance-abuse rehabilitation center (located in Newberg, Oregon), later admitting that he was an alcoholic.^[37] His publicist delivered the announcement:

After 20 years of sobriety, Robin Williams found himself drinking again and has decided to take proactive measures to deal with this for his own well-being and the well-being of his family.

Williams was hospitalized in March 2009 due to heart problems. He postponed his one-man tour in order to undergo surgery to replace his aortic valve.^[38][39] The surgery was successfully completed on March 13, 2009, at the Cleveland Clinic.^[40][41]

Other interests[link]

Williams is a member of the Episcopal Church. He has described his denomination in a comedy routine as "Catholic Lite—same rituals, half the guilt."^[42]

Williams speaking at the 2008 BBC World Debate.

Williams is an avid enthusiast of games, even naming two of his children after game characters. He named his daughter after Princess Zelda from The Legend of Zelda action-adventure game series.^[43][44][45] They both have even been featured in an ad for the Nintendo 3DS remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.^[46] On this note, his son may have been named after Cody from the beat 'em up game Final Fight.^[47] He also enjoys pen-and-paper role-playing games and online video games, recently playing Warcraft 3, Day of Defeat, Half-Life,^[48] and the first-person shooter Battlefield 2 as a sniper.^[49] He was also previously a fan of the Wizardry series of role-playing video games.^[50]

On January 6, 2006, he performed live at Consumer Electronics Show during Google's keynote.^[51] In the 2006 E3, on the invitation of Will Wright, he demonstrated the creature editor of Spore while simultaneously commenting on the creature's look: "This will actually make a platypus look good."^[52] He also complimented the game's versatility, comparing it to Populous and Black & White. Later that year, he was one of several celebrities to participate in the Worldwide Dungeons & Dragons Game Day.^[53]

A fan of professional road cycling, he was a regular on the US Postal and Discovery Channel Pro Cycling team bus and hotels during the years Lance Armstrong dominated the Tour de France.^[54] He owns over 50 bicycles.^[55]

He also enjoys rugby union and is a big fan of former All Black, Jonah Lomu.^[56]

Williams is a supporter of eco-friendly vehicles. He currently drives a Toyota Prius,^[57] and is on the waiting list for an Aptera 2 Series electric vehicle.^[58]

Williams has recently announced that he would love to play The Riddler in the next installment to the Batman films by director Christopher Nolan, though Nolan has stated that The Riddler will not be featured in the film.^[59]

Williams performing at Camp Victory for the USO on December 13, 2010.

Charity work[link]

Williams and his former wife, Marsha, founded the Windfall Foundation, a philanthropic organization to raise money for many different charities. Williams devotes much of his energy to charity work, including the Comic Relief fundraising efforts (the program is hosted by himself, Billy Crystal, and Whoopi Goldberg).^[17] In December 1999, he sang in French on the BBC-inspired music video of international celebrities doing a cover of the Rolling Stones' "It's Only Rock & Roll" for the charity Children's Promise.^[60]

In response to the 2010 Canterbury Earthquake, Williams donated all proceeds of his "Weapons of Self Destruction" Christchurch performance to helping rebuild the New Zealand city. Half the proceeds were donated to the Red Cross and half to the mayoral building fund with the words "I hope this donation will go some way to helping the extensive rebuilding effort in the city."^[61] Williams has performed with the USO for U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.^[62]

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

Television[link]

Discography[link]

• Reality...What a Concept (1979)
• Throbbing Python of Love (1983)
• A Night at The Met (1986)
• Pecos Bill (1988)
• Live 2002 (2002)
• Weapons of Self Destruction (2010)

Williams appeared in the music video of Bobby McFerrin's hit 1988 song "Don't Worry, Be Happy".^[63] He teamed with McFerrin again to record a cover of The Beatles' "Come Together" for the 1998 George Martin album In My life.

He made a cameo in Cobra Starship's video "You Make Me Feel..." along with his daughter, Zelda Williams.^[64]

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Jay David (1999). The Life and Humor of Robin Williams: A Biography. New York: Quill. ISBN 978-0-688-15245-1. 
• Andy Dougan (1999). Robin Williams: A Biography. Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN 978-1-56025-213-9. 
• Stephen J. Spignesi (1997). The Robin Williams Scrapbook. Secaucus, NJ: Carol Pub.. ISBN 978-0-8065-1891-6. 

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Robin Williams

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Robin Williams

• Robin Williams – official website
• Robin Williams at the Internet Broadway Database
• Robin Williams at the Internet Movie Database
• Robin Williams at the TCM Movie Database
• Robin Williams at Yahoo! Movies