Robin McLaurim Williams was born July 21, 1951 or 1952. He is an Academy Award-, six-time Golden Globe-, two-time Screen Actors Guild Award- and Grammy Award-winning American actor and comedian who has done television, stage and film work. In part, his big break was from playing Mork from Ork, which was highlighted on Mork & Mindy. Soon afterward he became a film star who is still active as an actor and headlining comic. He was voted 13th on Comedy Central's list of "100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time".His first marriage was to Valerie Velardi on June 4, 1978, with whom he has one child, Zachary Pym (Zak) was born April 11, 1983. The marriage ended in 1988. During Williams' first marriage, he was involved in an extramarital relationship with Michelle Tish Carter, a cocktail waitress whom he met in 1984. She sued him in 1986, claiming he gave her herpes without notifying her. The case was settled out of court.
On April 30, 1989, he married Marsha Garces, his son's babysitter. They have two children, Zelda Rae was born July 31, 1989 and Cody Alan was born November 25, 1991. Williams currently resides in a large house in the upper-income Sea Cliff neighborhood of San Francisco. However, in March 2008, Garces filed for divorce from Williams, citing irreconcilable differences. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Williams had a serious addiction to cocaine; he has since quit. Williams was a close friend and frequent partier alongside John Belushi. He says the death of his friend and the birth of his son prompted him to quit drugs: "Was it a wake-up call? Oh yeah, on a huge level. The grand jury helped too".
He was also quoted as saying, "Cocaine is God's way of telling you, you're making too much money." On August 9, 2006, Williams entered himself into a rehabilitation center for alcoholism. His publicist delivered the announcement: "After 20 years of sobriety, Robin Williams found himself drinking again and has decided to take proactive measures to deal with this for his own well-being and the well-being of his family. He asks that you respect his and his family's privacy during this time. He looks forward to returning to work this fall to support his upcoming film releases." On August 20, 2007, Williams' elder brother, Robert Todd Williams, died of complications from heart surgery performed in July. Robin Williams gave a speech at his memorial service.
