Lynn Feirn
English 101.E005
March 6, 2013
Laughter is the Best Medicine
Some people have to work to make people laugh while others are born with a natural ability to tickle your funny bone. One of these natural comedians is Robin Williams, who has the innate ability to elevate the normal to the hilarious. Even though as a child, he was considered quiet and shy, he quickly learned that he could make people laugh. Throughout his life, this extraordinary ability has brought him out of his shell and brought laughter to many people through stand-up routines, television and movies.
Robin McLaurin Williams was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 21, 1951 to afluent parents, Robert Fitzgerald and Laurie Williams. His father was of English, Irish and Welsh descent and was a senior executive at Ford Motor Company. His mother was of French descent and was a former model from Mississippi. He spent the majority of his youth in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan where he attended a private school by the name of Detroit Country Day School. He was bullied as a child because he was chubby and shy, which caused him to spend many solitary hours developing his imagination at home. It was this imagination that enabled him to perfectly mimic his grandmother’s voice, whom he had only met on the telephone, never in person. When Williams was 16, his father took an early retirement and they relocated to Marin County, California where he entered Redwood High School in Larkspur. It was during high school that he conquered his weight problem by joining track and wrestling. He also joined the theater group and was voted “most funny but least likely to succeed” (yahoo.com).
After graduation in 1969, Williams enrolled in Claremont Men’s College where he studied political science for a time before transferring to Marin College to study acting. His acting ability was quickly recognized and won him a full three year scholarship, “(only 20 students were let in that year)” to Julliard in New York...