The Originals: Robin Williams

There's a good chance that you'll never find anyone that hasn't heard of Robin Williams in one way or another. Middle-aged adults know him from his stand-up albums from the 70's and 80's, as well as playing a certain alien for four years on TV. Younger adults know him from his voice work in animated films, especially a big blue magical type. Kids heard him in "Robots" and "Happy Feet" just in the last few years. Here, truly, is an Original for all ages.

Right from the start, Robin McLaurim Williams, like his manic stand-up of his adult years, was all over the place. He was born on July 21, 1951 in Chicago, but wouldn't stay there long. His father, Robert, was a highly-placed executive with the Ford Motor Company, in charge of the midwest U.S., so the family moved around quite a bit. Robin wouldn't really get to know his father until he was 16 years old, when the man took early retirement from Ford and the family moved to Marin County, California, just outside San Francisco.

This situation helped Robin develop both a good and bad trait for his future: he learned comedy to reach out to his mother, Laurie, also a hard-working and often-absent parent, hoping to make her laugh.
He also developed attachment issues and something he himself described as "Love Me Syndrome," a constant need for acceptance, that would lead to self-destructive habits later on.

Growing up "short, shy, chubby and lonely" (his words again) was hard for Robin, but he found the antidote to bring him out of his shell, the drama club at his high school. The acting bug bit him, and he took it to local colleges and got so good, he got the attention of the world-famous Julliard School in New York, earning a very-hard-to-get full scholarship. Only one other person was accepted by John Houseman for the 1973 class. This person would become very important to Robin personally and to the world at large, and would play a slightly more popular alien than Robin did a few years later.

His name was Christopher Reeve.