Description
From New York Times tradition reporter Dave Itzkoff, the definitive biography of Robin Williams – a compelling portrait of one in all The united states’s such a lot liked and misunderstood entertainers.
From his fast-fireplace stand-up comedy riffs to his breakout function in Mork & Mindy and his Academy Award-profitable efficiency in Good Will Hunting, Robin Williams used to be a singularly cutting edge and liked entertainer. He regularly got here throughout as a person possessed, retaining forth on tradition and politics whilst blending in non-public revelations – all with mercurial, tongue-twisting depth as he inhabited and shed one personality after some other with lightning velocity.
But as Dave Itzkoff displays on this revelatory biography, Williams’s comedian brilliance masked a deep smartly of conflicting feelings and self-doubt, which he drew upon in his comedy and in celebrated motion pictures like Dead Poets Society; Good Morning, Vietnam; The Fisher King; Aladdin; and Mrs. Doubtfire, the place he showcased his infinite present for improvisation to convey to lifestyles quite a lot of characters. And in Good Will Searching he gave an extreme and regulated efficiency that exposed the real vary of his ability.
Itzkoff additionally displays how Williams struggled mightily with habit and melancholy – subjects he mentioned overtly whilst appearing and all the way through interviews – and with a debilitating situation on the finish of his lifestyles that affected him in tactics his fanatics by no means knew. Drawing on greater than 100 authentic interviews with circle of relatives, pals, and associates, in addition to in depth archival analysis, Robin is a contemporary and authentic have a look at a person whose paintings touched such a lot of lives.
An Amazon Highest E-book of Would possibly 2018: David Itzkoff’s monument of a biography is an intimate and thorough exam of Robin Williams as each guy and performer. From his years as a reclusive child enjoying up in his attic bed room, to his early days of standup, to the runaway good fortune of Mork and Mindy, to films, habit, restoration, and reputation, his want for confirmation used to be the thread that drew him ahead. He sought that confirmation by means of operating tirelessly, and Itzkoff chronicles the actor’s successes and screw ups, in addition to his shut friendships out and in of display trade, to create a deep mental portrait. Robin Williams possessed an earnestness and a yearning for honesty that made him shine brighter at the same time as it threatened to ruin him. It is a bittersweet learn, with highs and lows, however the Robin Williams who emerges is as compelling as his largest performances. — Chris Schluep
