Robin Williams

Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Starting as a stand-up comedian in San Francisco and Los Angeles in the mid-1970s, he is credited with leading San Francisco's comedy renaissance. After rising to fame as Mork in the sitcom Mork & Mindy (1978–82), he went on to establish a career in both stand-up comedy and feature film acting. He was known for his improvisational skills.

After his film debut in the musical comedy Popeye (1980), he starred or co-starred in widely acclaimed films, including the comedy-drama The World According to Garp (1982), war comedy Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), dramas Dead Poets Society (1989) and Awakenings (1990), comedy-drama The Fisher King (1991), the animated musical-fantasy Aladdin (1992), drama Good Will Hunting (1997), and psychological thriller One Hour Photo (2002), as well as financial successes such as the fantasy adventure film Hook (1991), comedy Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), fantasy adventure Jumanji (1995), comedy The Birdcage (1996), and the Night at the Museum trilogy.

Robin and Linda Williams

Robin and Linda Williams are a husband-and-wife singer-songwriter folk music duo from Virginia. They began their musical association in Nashville, Tennessee in 1971, performing in local clubs.

The Williamses first appeared on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion radio show in 1976, gaining them national exposure as the show's audience expanded. They also toured and recorded with Keillor's group, the Hopeful Gospel Quartet. In the summer of 1993 they toured with Mary Chapin Carpenter and later sang on Carpenter's Grammy Award-winning album Stones in the Road. Their 1996 album, Sugar for Sugar, spent 11 weeks in the Top 20 of Gavin's Americana Chart. In 2004, they switched labels, recording Deeper Waters as their first release on Red House Records.

The Williamses also appeared in the film A Prairie Home Companion, and continue to be frequent guests on the radio show of the same name. In their appearance on show number 468 (2008-01-21) of the WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour, they discuss the film and program with host Michael Johnathon.

Robin Williams (writer)

Robin Patricia Williams (born 1953) is an American educator who has authored many popular computer-related books, as well as the book Sweet Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare?. Among her computer books are manuals of style The Mac is Not a Typewriter and The Non-Designer's Design Book, as well as numerous manuals for various Mac OS operating systems and applications, including The Little Mac Book. "Through her writing, teaching, and seminars, ... [Williams] has influenced an entire generation of computer users in the areas of design, typography, desktop publishing, the World Wide Web, and the Macintosh."

Biography

Williams grew up in San Jose and Fremont, California and graduated from Washington High School in Fremont. She later attended Ohlone College and Santa Rosa Junior College. In 2011, she received an MA degree from Brunel University, London, in Shakespeare Authorship studies, and in 2014 she completed a doctoral dissertation for the same university.

She is an author, college instructor, and lecturer. She has been a leader in the New Mexico Internet Professionals Association and the Santa Fe Mac Users Group. She was a founder of The Mary Sidney Society and the Santa Fe Shakespeare Society.

Inside the Actors Studio

Inside the Actors Studio is an American television show on the Bravo cable television channel, hosted by James Lipton. It is produced and directed by Jeff Wurtz; the executive producer is James Lipton. The program, which premiered in 1994, is distributed internationally by CABLEready and is broadcast in 125 countries around the world reaching 89 million homes. It is currently taped at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University's New York City campus.

About the program

The program began as a televised craft seminar for students of the Actors Studio Drama School, originally a joint venture of the Actors Studio and New School University in 1994, with Paul Newman, a former Actors Studio president as its first guest, and soon became Bravo's flagship program. At first taped at the New School's Tishman Auditorium in Greenwich Village, New York City, blocks away from Actors Studio's home in the theater district in midtown Manhattan, it was shifted subsequently to its present location, Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University's New York City campus. The program is presented as a seminar to students of the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University.

Actors Studio

The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded October 5, 1947, by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, Robert Lewis and Anna Sokolow, who provided training for actors who were members.Lee Strasberg joined later and took the helm in 1951 until his death on February 17, 1982. It is currently run by Al Pacino, Ellen Burstyn, and Harvey Keitel. The Studio is best known for its work refining and teaching method acting. The approach was originally developed by the Group Theatre in the 1930s based on the innovations of Constantin Stanislavski. While at the Studio, actors work together to develop their skills in a private environment where they can take risks as performers without the pressure of commercial roles.

History

After an initial meeting held on October 5, 1947 at the Labor Stage, located at 106 W. 39th Street (formerly the Princess Theatre), in which goals and ground rules of the new organization were discussed, the studio officially opened for business the following day at the Union Methodist Episcopal Church, located at 229 West 48th Street, previously home to the Actors Kitchen and Lounge (maintained to assist actors and others unable to afford meals), and long a source of rental rehearsal space for local theatrical producers.

Actors Studio (TV series)

Actors Studio is an American TV show which aired for 65 episodes, from September 26, 1948 to October 26 on the fledgling ABC Television Network; then from November 1, 1949 to June 23, 1950 on CBS Television. (It was one of the first series to be picked up by a network after being cancelled by another network). It was hosted by Marc Connelly.

The series showcased short pieces of adapted, classic and original drama, performed and produced live each week. Among some of the known authors were William Saroyan, James Thurber, Ring Lardner, Edgar Allan Poe, Irwin Shaw and Budd Schulberg. Featured actors included Martin Balsam, Richard Boone, Marlon Brando, Hume Cronyn, Julie Harris, Jean Muir and Jessica Tandy. Recurring performers included Jocelyn Brando, Tom Ewell, Steven Hill, Kim Hunter and Cloris Leachman.

In February 1950, the series moved to Friday nights and was expanded to one hour, alternating every other week with broadcasts of Ford Theatre. In March, the name of the show was changed to The Play's the Thing.

Robin Williams (canoeist)

Robin Williams is a British slalom canoeist who competed in the 1980s. He won two medals in the C-2 team event at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships with a gold in 1981 and a bronze in 1983.

References