--- title: Robin Williams Dead: 8 Surprising Facts About the Actor description: The "Mork & Mindy" star had quirky interests the public didn't necessarily know about. canonical: https://time.com/3103423/robin-williams-dead-surprising-facts/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-12T15:16:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:41.811Z og:title: 8 Robin Williams Facts You Maybe Didn't Know og:description: The "Mork & Mindy" star had quirky interests the public didn't necessarily know about. og:url: https://time.com/3103423/robin-williams-dead-surprising-facts/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39424ac56e75af48/69869f2fe53aba83cd4d3f70/robin-williams-christopher-reeves.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: robin-williams-christopher-reeves og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 8 Robin Williams Facts You Maybe Didn't Know twitter:description: The "Mork & Mindy" star had quirky interests the public didn't necessarily know about. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39424ac56e75af48/69869f2fe53aba83cd4d3f70/robin-williams-christopher-reeves.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 8 Facts You Might Not Have Known About Robin Williams > Sponsored content. 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Waxman Staff Writer Aug 12, 2014 3:16 PM UTC  Robin Williams, left, and Christopher Reeve, attempt to hail a taxicab in New York City on Feb. 9, 1981\. Williams went to see Reeve, who is appearing in the play "The Fifth of July", backstage after his performance Friday night. Robin Williams, left, and Christopher Reeve, attempt to hail a taxicab in New York City on Feb. 9, 1981\. Williams went to see Reeve, who is appearing in the play "The Fifth of July", backstage after his performance Friday night. Steve Sands – AP  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Aug 12, 2014 3:16 PM UTC In light of the death of Academy Award–winning actor Robin Williams at age 63, NewsFeed rounds up some fun tidbits you might not have known about the comedic genius. • He was a gamer. During a Reddit AMA in September 2013, a Redditor [asked](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1n41x1/robin%5Fwilliams%5Fits%5Ftime%5Ffor%5Fa%5Fconvoluted%5Fstream/ccf6tx1) him if he named his daughter Zelda after the video game _The Legend of Zelda._ Williams said, “It wasn’t actually me, it was my son Zachary who came up with the idea. But once Marsha \[his ex-wife\] and I heard it, we said it was great.” Williams also said he’s been playing [_Call of Duty_](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1n41x1/robin%5Fwilliams%5Fits%5Ftime%5Ffor%5Fa%5Fconvoluted%5Fstream/ccf6qk3), _The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time_, [_Portal_](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1n41x1/robin%5Fwilliams%5Fits%5Ftime%5Ffor%5Fa%5Fconvoluted%5Fstream/ccf7hz5)and [_Battlestations Pacific_](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1n41x1/robin%5Fwilliams%5Fits%5Ftime%5Ffor%5Fa%5Fconvoluted%5Fstream/ccf700d). • During [that same discussion](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1n41x1/robin%5Fwilliams%5Fits%5Ftime%5Ffor%5Fa%5Fconvoluted%5Fstream/ccf73a2), Williams said his favorite celebrity to impersonate is Jack Nicholson, while Dana Carvey did his favorite celebrity impersonation of himself. • Williams’ [favorite book](http://www.reddit.com/comments/1n41x1) growing up was _The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe_ by C.S. Lewis. • Christopher Reeve was Williams’ roommate and best friend at Juilliard. The comedian was the first person who made the _Superman_ actor laugh a few days after he was paralyzed in a riding accident. ”He announced that he was a proctologist and had to examine me immediately,” Reeve wrote in his memoir _Still Me_, according to a [New York _Times_ review.](http://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/30/books/life-with-before-after-for-christopher-reeve-it-isn-t-simple-superman-victim.html) “And for the first time since the accident I laughed.” • Williams got angry with Disney for using his voice as the Genie in _Aladdin_ to sell merchandise for the movie because “I don’t want to sell stuff. It’s the one thing I won’t do,” he told [_New York m_ _agazine_](http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=axsAAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA40&ots=wHvyP80-FT&dq=robin%20williams%20picasso%20van%20gogh&pg=PA40#v=onepage&q=robin%20williams%20picasso%20van%20gogh&f=false)_._ Disney attempted to make up for it by sending him a Picasso painting, believed to be worth $1 million, in which the artist imagined himself as Vincent van Gogh. • When Williams was first starting out, he performed as a mime outside New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to make money. • Williams owned a vineyard in California, which, he [joked](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2065243,00.html) in a TIME “10 Questions” interview, is “weird,” like “Gandhi owning a delicatessen.” • In a [1979 TIME cover](http://time.com/3102046/robin-williams-dead-hollywood-television-movies/) on his rise to fame as Mork in ABC’s _Mork & Mindy_, Williams said he was going to stick to driving his 1966 Land Rover as opposed to a flashier car like a Mercedes or a Rolls-Royce because “I can’t deal with new cars. I like a car that’s like me — you never know what’s going to happen next.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3103423/robin-williams-dead-surprising-facts/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3103423/robin-williams-dead-surprising-facts/"},"headline":"8 Facts You Might Not Have Known About Robin Williams","datePublished":"2014-08-12T15:16:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:48:41.811Z","description":"From his favorite video games to the story behind his Picasso painting","url":"https://time.com/3103423/robin-williams-dead-surprising-facts/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrity","robin williams"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39424ac56e75af48/69869f2fe53aba83cd4d3f70/robin-williams-christopher-reeves.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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