Robin Williams's - Change

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. As his comedy goes, he was best 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.

In 1998, Williams won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Dr. Sean Maguire in Good Will Hunting. In addition, Williams was nominated thrice for Best Actor for his performances in Good Morning, Vietnam, Dead Poets Society and The Fisher King. He also received two Primetime Emmy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and four Grammy Awards throughout his career, and was inducted as a Disney Legend in 2009.

Williams was born at St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. His mother, Laurie McLaurin (1922–2001), was a former model from Jackson, Mississippi, whose great-grandfather was Mississippi senator and Governor Anselm J. McLaurin. Williams's father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams, was a senior executive in Ford Motor Company's Lincoln-Mercury Division. Williams had two elder half-brothers, Robert and McLaurin. While his mother was a practitioner of Christian Science, Williams was raised as an Episcopalian and later authored a comedic list, "Top Ten Reasons to be an Episcopalian". During a TV interview on Inside the Actors Studio in 2001, he credited his mother as being an important early influence for his sense of humor, noting also that he tried to make her laugh to gain attention.

Williams attended public elementary school at Gorton Elementary School (now Gorton Community Center) and middle school at Deer Path Junior High School (now Deer Path Middle School), both in Lake Forest, Illinois. He described himself as a quiet and shy child who did not overcome his shyness until he became involved with his high school drama department. Williams's friends recall him as being very funny. In late 1963, when Williams was twelve, his father was transferred to Detroit. They lived in a 40-room farmhouse on 20 acres in suburban Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where he was a student at the private Detroit Country Day School. He excelled in school, where he was on the school's soccer team and wrestling team, and became class president.

As Williams's father was away much of the time and his mother also worked, he was attended to by the family's maid, who was his main companion. When Williams was 16, his father took early retirement and the family moved to Tiburon, California. Following the move, Williams attended Redwood High School in nearby Larkspur. At the time of his graduation in 1969, he was voted "Most Likely Not to succeed" and "Funniest" by his classmates.

Williams married his first wife Valerie Velardi in June 1978, following a live-in relationship with comedian Elayne Boosler. Velardi and Williams met in 1976 while he was working as a bartender at a tavern in San Francisco. Their son Zachary Pym "Zak" Williams was born in 1983. Williams and Velardi divorced in 1988.

On April 30, 1989, he married Marsha Garces, Zachary's nanny, who was pregnant with his child. They had two children, Zelda Rae Williams (born 1989) and Cody Alan Williams (born 1991). In March 2008, Garces filed for divorce from Williams, citing irreconcilable differences. Their divorce was finalized in 2010. Williams married his third wife, graphic designer Susan Schneider, on October 22, 2011, in St. Helena, California.

Williams stated, "My children give me a great sense of wonder. Just to see them develop into these extraordinary human beings."

Williams committed suicide on August 11, 2014, at his home in unincorporated Paradise Cay, California (15 miles (24 km) north of San Francisco), at the age of 63. In the initial report released on August 12, the Marin County Sheriff's Office deputy coroner stated Williams had hanged himself with a belt and died from asphyxiation. It was revealed, following his death, that Williams had been suffering from severe depression, and had been sleeping in a different room from his wife due to restlessness and anxiety caused by his Parkinson's.

The final autopsy report, released in November 2014, affirmed that Williams had committed suicide as initially described. Neither alcohol nor illegal drugs were present, and prescription medications were at therapeutic levels. The report also noted that Williams had been experiencing "a recent increase in paranoia".  An examination of his brain tissue revealed the presence of "diffuse Lewy body dementia". Williams's doctors believe that Lewy body dementia "was the critical factor" that led to his suicide. A year later his widow echoed this diagnosis, saying that Williams's suicide was not motivated by depression, but by Lewy body dementia and Parkinson's, saying, "If Robin was lucky, he would've had maybe three years left".

Williams' body was cremated, and his ashes were spread in San Francisco Bay on August 12.