The incredibly talented actor has been voted as the funniest person of all time, but people are also remembering him for his kindness and philanthropy.
Global – Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Born in Chicago, Williams began performing stand-up comedy in San Francisco and Los Angeles during the mid-1970s and is credited with leading San Francisco’s comedy renaissance. After rising to fame playing the alien Mork in the sitcom Mork & Mindy (a spin-off from Happy Days), Williams established a career in both stand-up comedy and feature film acting. He was known for his improvisation skills and the wide variety of memorable character voices he created.
On August 11, 2014, Williams sadly committed suicide in his Paradise Cay, California home at age 63. His wife attributed his suicide to his struggle with Lewy body disease.
The incredibly talented actor has been voted as the funniest person of all time, but people are also remembering him for his kindness and philanthropy.
A story recently went around on Reddit about Williams; it goes like this…
A guy is with his family in San Francisco. The man’s father has lost both his parents in a really horrific way and was obviously having a rough time on the night of the memorial service. It was about 2:30 a.m., and the family — mourning and in dress clothes and probably just dragging — went to a doughnut shop, because the man’s father wanted a doughnut, and who says no on a night like that.
Anyway, Robin Williams just happened to be in the shop too, the story goes. He’s eating and drinking coffee and — when this family needed it — Williams was kind to them, right there, in a doughnut shop at 2:30 in the morning. He made the man’s parents smile on a dark day, and that is what the Redditor remembered most.
“I couldn’t tell you what they laughed about, but I remember seeing my parents laugh and smile for the first time in weeks. My dad remembered that so fondly. He always said it was exactly what he had needed in that time, and that he appreciated the way Robin Williams went about it,” wrote the Redditor.
“It wasn’t that he was a celebrity; he was just a nice guy who saw a bunch of sad folks and realised he could probably make a difference. And he did.”
There is no way of knowing if the story is real, being the internet and all but the Washington Post, Independent UK and CNN have all retold the story. There is, however proof of his incredible philanthropic work that started at the beginning of his career and spanned through his entire lifetime.
The first being in 1986, when Williams teamed up with Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Crystal to found Comic Relief USA. This annual HBO television benefit devoted to the homeless has raised $80 million as of 2014. Bob Zmuda, the creator of Comic Relief, explained that Williams felt blessed because he came from a wealthy home, but wanted to do something to help those less fortunate.
Williams made benefit appearances to support literacy and women’s rights, along with appearing at benefits for veterans. He was a regular on the USO circuit, where he travelled to 13 countries and performed to approximately 90,000 troops. After his death, the USO thanked him “for all he did for the men and women of our armed forces.”
Williams and his second wife Marsha founded a philanthropic organization called the Windfall Foundation to raise money for many charities. In December 1999, he sang in French on the BBC-inspired music video of international celebrities doing a cover of The Rolling Stones single “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It)” for the charity Children’s Promise.
In response to the 2010 Canterbury earthquake, he donated all proceeds of his “Weapons of Self Destruction” Christchurch performance to help rebuild the New Zealand city. Half the proceeds were donated to the Red Cross and the other half to the mayoral building fund.
For several years, Williams also supported St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Williams was an incredible actor, but stories like these are proof that he was also a really good man!
by 