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He was a comic genius who had only one speed - full throttle. From the moment he burst into our lives as an alien on Happy Days, he amazed us with a range of talent that left us breathless. Yet, behind the manic shtick of Robin Williams was a man who was deeply plagued by depression. He had other demons, such as alcohol and cocaine. Still he kept us entertained to the very end, which made it all the more unfathomable to his legion of fans and admirers when he took his life, at the age of 63. In today's Biographics, we get to the essence of the real Robin Williams.
他是个全力以赴的喜剧天才。从他在《欢乐时光》中扮演的外星人闯入我们生活的那天起，他的才华就惊艳了我们。然而，在这种狂热的表演风格背后却藏着一个深陷抑郁症的罗宾·威廉姆斯。他的体内还有其他的恶魔，比如酗酒和吸食可卡因。但他依然给我们带来了欢笑，直到生命的最后一刻，他在63岁时自杀身亡，这让他的粉丝和崇拜者难以理解。在今天的传记中，我们带你了解真实的罗宾·威廉姆斯。
Early Life
早年生活
Robin McLaurin Williams came into the world on July 21st, 1951. Born at St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago, Illinois he was the only child of Laurie and Robert Williams. The family was wealthy, with Robert being a senior executive at the Ford Motor Company. Laurie was a former model and part-time actress. Much of Robin's formative years were spent alone in the huge mansion that was his home. In order to cope with his loneliness he created characters and conversations in his head. He was an overweight child, which led to bullying at school. The sixth grade, he later recalled, was the most difficult year of his life. Many days he went home crying, after constant name calling and physical harassment. Each day was a torment for him, with the only friends the ones he created in his imagination.
罗宾·麦罗林·威廉姆斯出生于1951年7月21日。他出生于伊利诺伊州芝加哥的圣卢克医院，是罗瑞和罗伯特·威廉姆斯唯一的孩子。他的家里很富裕，罗伯特是福特汽车公司的高管。罗瑞以前是模特和兼职演员。在罗宾性格成型阶段的大部分时间里，他都是独自待在自己家的豪宅。为了消除孤独感，他在脑海里创造了许多人物和对话。他是个肥胖的孩子，因此他在学校会受到欺负。他后来回忆道，六年级是他人生中最艰难的一年。在很多天的时间里，他在学校一直受到辱骂和身体骚扰，然后回到家就哭了起来。对他来说，每一天都是折磨，他唯一的几个朋友就是他用想象创造出来的形象。
The hardship of these early years brought on a deep seated state of depression that Robin was to grapple with for the rest of his life. Robin began to use comedy as a defense mechanism. It started with his mother. Laurie had a very sharp wit and would often use humor, laced with sarcasm, to communicate with her son. In order to connect with her, Robin had to make his mother laugh. It wasn't good enough to be Robin; he had to be funny Robin.
早年的艰难时光将抑郁的情绪深深根植在了罗宾的身体里，接下来的岁月里他一直在与这种情绪进行斗争。罗宾开始用喜剧作为自己的防御机制，这源自他的母亲。罗瑞非常机智，而且在和儿子讲话时很幽默，还带有一丝讽刺。为了和妈妈说得上话，罗宾必须让她笑出声来。光做自己是不够的，罗宾必须要变得搞笑起来。
By the time he was 16, the family had relocated to Tiburon, California where Robin attended Redwood High School. It was the late sixties, and the straight-laced Robin found himself in the middle of a counterculture that revolved around drugs and sex. He was able to loosen up and, after dabbling with marijuana, found himself fitting in for the first time. It was at Redwood High that Robin stumbled upon the drama department. He had already perfected his comedic veneer, quickly establishing a reputation as the class clown. He fell in love with the idea of improv performance, his comedic personality slowly emerging through drama classes. At the same time, Robin got involved in wrestling and soccer, proving to be an accomplished athlete. Yet, by the time he graduated college in 1969, he was voted by his classmates as the 'least likely to succeed.' Not surprisingly he was also voted 'funniest student.'
在他16岁时，他们家搬到了加州蒂伯龙，罗宾在那里的红木高中读书。当时是60年代末，古板的罗宾发现自己身处于反主流文化之中，到处都是毒品和性。他本想放松一下，但在尝试大麻之后，他第一次发现自己融入集体了。罗宾在红木高中偶然发现了剧团。他的喜剧外壳已经很完美了，因此他不久就成了公认的班级活宝。他爱上了即兴表演，通过戏剧课程，他的喜剧性格慢慢地显现出来。同时，罗宾还参加了摔跤和足球，以此证明自己是个很好的运动员。然而，在他1969年大学毕业时，他被同学投票选为“最不可能成功”的人。他还被投票选为“最有趣的学生”，这一点毫不意外。
After graduation, Robin attended Claremont Men's College, his sights set on a career in political science. Before long, however, he was spending more time in the college theater than in lecture rooms. He won the coveted role of Fagin in the College's production of Oliver, turning in a stellar performance that made it clear that he was destined for the limelight. Leaving behind his diplomatic ambitions, Robin enrolled in a community college theater program. During classes he would often improvise, leaving his classmates and teachers in fits of laughter. After three years of honing his craft, he was offered the opportunity of a lifetime - a full scholarship to the Juilliard School of Performing Arts in New York City.
罗宾毕业之后在克莱尔蒙特男子学院就读，他想找政治学方面的工作。然而，不久以后，他就把更多的时间都花在了学校里的剧院而不是教室。他饰演了学校自制的《雾都孤儿》中教唆犯一角，这是个令众人垂涎的角色，表演十分出色，显而易见的是，他注定要闪耀在聚光灯下。罗宾把自己要在外交圈施展抱负的野心抛在脑后，转而报名参加了社区大学的戏剧项目。在课堂上，他经常即兴创作，给同学和老师带来了许多欢笑。在磨练了3年演技之后，他获得了一生中最棒的一次机会——纽约茱莉亚学院表演艺术专业的全额奖学金。
Williams was one of only two students accepted into the 1973 advance program at Juilliard. The other was future superman actor, Christopher Reeve. Reeve, who would become a close friend, recalled his first impressions upon meeting Williams: He wore tie-dyed shirts with tracksuit bottoms and talked a mile a minute. I'd never seen so much energy contained in one person. He was like an untied balloon that had been inflated and immediately released. I watched in awe as he virtually caromed off the walls of the class and hallways. To say that he was 'on' would be a major understatement.
1973年，茱莉亚学院只收了两名学生参加进阶课程，其中一个就是威廉姆斯。另一个就是未来的超人扮演者克里斯托弗·里夫。后来二人成了密友，里夫回忆道自己第一次见到威廉姆斯的场景：他穿了一件扎染T恤和一条运动裤，还和我聊了一会儿。我从未见过这么有活力的人。他就像是一个没有打结的气球，充满了气之后迅速被放掉。我惊讶地目睹了他撞到班级和走廊的墙上然后又弹开的过程。说他被“点燃了”绝对是轻描淡写。
At Juilliard, Robin astounded his teachers and fellow students alike. He was able to take on the persona of characters with ease, trading out one accent or dialect for another like he was born to do it. However, Robin was frustrated at Juilliard. He just didn't fit in. After two years, his teachers told him that there was nothing more that they could teach him. One of his instructors considered Robin to be a genius who was not being properly served by the school's conservative and classical training style. He left Juilliard in 1976, ready to launch himself on the world. His first stop was the stand up circuit on the West Coast.
在茱莉亚学院，罗宾经常让老师和同学感到十分震惊。他可以轻而易举地刻画出一个角色，还能转换口音或方言，好像天生就会似的。然而，罗宾在茱莉亚学院感到很沮丧。他无法融入进去。2年后，他的老师们跟他说，他们没有什么能教给他的了。罗宾的一个老师觉得他是个天才，认为他不适合学校保守传统的教学风格。1976年，他离开了茱莉亚学院，准备向全世界展示自己。他的第一站就是西海岸脱口秀巡回表演。
Comic
喜剧演员生涯
Robin's first break into the realms of comedy came at a club in the San Francisco Bay Area. His first gig was at the Holy City Zoo, where he also spent time tending bar. These early sets were frenetic, bordering on psychotic. No one had ever seen anything quite like Robin Williams. He played a collection of edgy characters including Reverend Oral Satisfaction. His early stand-up was influenced by the likes of Lenny Bruce, Peter Sellers and Jonathan Winters. His manic edge, quick fire ad-lib routines and off-the-wall physical comedy proved a hit and he soon established a loyal following. Robin loved the immediate feedback that came from stand-up, and it was something that he would continue to do right through his career. Despite the apparent ease of his performances, he actually found stand-up very stressful. Underneath the cloak of his act, he was an intensely shy man. He once said that he started using drugs and alcohol as a crutch to combat his stage nerves.
在旧金山湾区的一个俱乐部里，罗宾首次踏进喜剧领域。他的首次表演是在一个名叫“圣城动物园”的俱乐部，他还在那里的吧台打工。起初，他的表演风格是近乎神经质的疯狂。没有人看过像罗宾·威廉姆斯这样的表演。他表演的角色都很新潮，比如Reverend Oral Satisfaction。他早期脱口秀的风格受到了兰尼·布鲁斯、彼得·塞勒斯和乔纳森·温特斯等人的影响。他的疯狂表演、即兴的快问快答和疯癫的肢体喜剧大受欢迎，并迅速收获了一批忠实粉丝。罗宾喜欢脱口秀带来的即时反馈，这种表演形式也一直贯穿于他的职业生涯中。虽然他的表演从表面上看很轻松，但他其实觉得说脱口秀是很有压力的。隐藏在他表演背后的是一个非常害羞的人。他曾说自己会使用毒品和酒精来消除在舞台上的恐惧。
In 1977, Williams moved to Los Angeles where he began performing at the Comedy Club. It was here that he was discovered by TV producer George Schlatter who offered him a spot on a revival of the old 60's show Laugh In. The show didn't survive, but for Williams it established a foothold into a career in television. He became a semi-regular cast member on The Richard Pryor Show, while also continuing to perform stand-up. It was an appearance on The Richard Pryor Show that brought Williams to the attention of Gary Marshall, the producer of the hit sit-com Happy Days. After five seasons, the scriptwriters were seriously running out of ideas (though they hadn't yet 'jumped the shark'). They decided to do an episode taking off the 1960's sci-fi comedy My Favorite Martian. The episode was called My Favorite Orkan and called for the casting of an actor to play an alien from the land of Ork. Marshall though that Williams might be the man for the job. In what has gone down as possibly the most brilliant audition in TV history, Robin entered the room and immediately sat in the chair on his head. He proceeded to do his lines, and then broke into an inspired ad-lib. Marshall cast him on the spot, later commenting that Williams was the only alien who turned up for the part. The episode of Happy Days was originally shot as a dream sequence on the part of Richie Cunningham. However, the character played by Williams, Mork from Ork, was such a hit with the TV watching audience after an initial broadcast, that the ending was re-filmed so that Mork was a real character.
1977年，威廉姆斯搬到了洛杉矶，他在那里的喜剧俱乐部开始表演。电视制片人乔治·施拉特正是在那里发掘了他，为他在重演的60年代老节目Laugh In上留了一个位置。这档节目并未延续下去，但对于威廉姆斯来说，这建立了进军电视业的稳固地位。他成了理查德·普赖尔秀的半常驻嘉宾，而且仍在表演脱口秀。威廉姆斯在理查德·普赖尔秀上的表现吸引了热播情景喜剧《欢乐时光》制片人加里·马歇尔的注意。5季播完后，编剧们没灵感了（虽然他们还没有“走下坡路”）。他们决定做一集来模仿60年代的科幻喜剧《火星叔叔马丁》。这一集的名字叫“我最喜欢的奥坎”，他们想让一个演员来扮演来自欧克的外星人。马歇尔觉得威廉姆斯可能是合适的人选。罗宾走进房间后，立即头倒立在椅子上，这可能是电视史上最棒的试镜。他开始说他的台词，然后突然有了灵感，开始即兴表演。马歇尔让他出演了该角色，后来他说，威廉姆斯是这部分里出现的唯一一个外星人。《欢乐时光》原本拍摄里奇·坎宁安的部分是一段插入主线之中的梦境。然而，由威廉姆斯饰演的来自欧克的莫克太受观众欢迎了，以至于在首播之后，他们还重新拍摄了一个结局，这样莫克就是一个真实存在的人物了。
Much of Robin's work on the Happy Days episode was improvised and augmented with physical comedy. Audiences couldn't get enough of the zany alien and demanded more. This led to the creation of the spin-off series Mork and Mindy, which ran from 1978 to 1982. The show catapulted Williams to super stardom literally overnight. After just two weeks on the air, it had zoomed to the top 10 of the Nielsen ratings. The producers of the show kept the script loose enough to give Robin plenty of room to do as he pleased - and the results were unpredictable, over-the-top and hilarious. While the critics weren't overly enthused with the show, they were falling over themselves to lavish praise upon its star.
罗宾在《欢乐时光》里的大部分出演都是即兴创作的，并加入了一些肢体喜剧。观众们没看够搞笑外星人的表演。因此，他们推出了续集《默克与明蒂》，并于1978年至1982年播出。这部电视剧让威廉姆斯一夜成名。在刚刚播出2周时，该剧就飙升至尼尔森收视率排行榜前10名。该剧制片人让剧本结构十分松散，这是为了给罗宾留有创作空间——结局真是难以预料的夸张而有趣。虽然评论家们并未感到过度地振奋，但他们还是对这位明星大加赞赏。
