Robin Williams

Robin Williams will be Letterman’s first guest

A-list star may quickly draw distinction between ‘Late Show’ and rivals

Robin Williams will be David Letterman’s first guest upon the return of his “Late Show” on CBS Wednesday, while NBC’s writer-less “Tonight” show welcomes GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.

The appearance of a Hollywood A-lister who can talk a mile a minute may be Letterman’s way of quickly trying to draw a distinction between his show and his late-night rivals, who are working without striking writers and may also have trouble booking major entertainers.

The most closely watched late-night duel will be between NBC’s Jay Leno and Letterman.

Letterman’s production company, Worldwide Pants, reached an agreement Friday to have his show return with writers despite the ongoing writers strike, which began Nov. 5.

Leno, along with Jimmy Kimmel and Conan O’Brien, return Wednesday under an air of mystery. They won’t have writers and are restricted under union strike rules from performing many familiar comic bits, including traditional monologues.

Meanwhile, Letterman’s signature “top 10” list arrives intact.

Hollywood’s major actors’ union has put out signals encouraging its members to visit Letterman and fellow CBS host Craig Ferguson. Ferguson’s show is also owned by Worldwide Pants and is covered by the same special deal with writers.

“Screen Actors Guild members will be happy to appear on the ‘Late Show’ with David Letterman and the ‘Late Late Show’ with Craig Ferguson with union writers at work and without having to cross picket lines,” said Alan Rosenberg, Screen Actors Guild president.

The Los Angeles-based union represents nearly 120,000 actors.

Until the Huckabee announcement, neither Leno nor late-night shows hosted by Kimmel and O’Brien had said anything about who they will book.
There’s no word on whether Huckabee will bring along his electric guitar. Leno’s return after two months of strike-related reruns couldn’t come at a better time for the politician, the night before the Iowa caucuses and six days before the New Hampshire primary.

Donald Trump, previously booked for Letterman on Wednesday, has been bumped to Friday.

Comedy Central’s topical nightly comedies, “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart and “The Colbert Report,” are set to return on Jan. 7 without striking writers.

about Robin Williams
(born July 21, 1951)[1] is an Academy Award-winning American actor and comedian who has done television, stage, and film work.

Biography
Robin Williams was born in Chicago, Illinois. His mother, Laura McLaurin (née Smith; 1922 - 2001), was a former model from Jackson, Mississippi. His father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams (September 10, 1906 - October 18, 1987) was a senior executive at Ford in charge of the Midwest area. Williams was raised in the Episcopal church, though his mother practiced Christian Science[3][4] and grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and Marin County, California. He has two half-siblings: McLaurin, on his mother's side, and the late Todd (deceased 8/14/07) on his father's side. While in California, Williams attended Redwood High School in Larkspur and grew up in the Marin County suburb of Tiburon. In Michigan, he attended Detroit Country Day School, an exclusive college-preparatory school which boasts other famous alumni, including Steve Ballmer from Microsoft and Courtney Vance from Law and Order: Criminal Intent. In an interview with Michael Parkinson, Williams stated that when he saw Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb he was immediately inspired to become an actor.

Williams has described himself as a quiet child whose first imitation was of his grandmother to his mom. He did not overcome his shyness until he became involved with his high school drama department.[5] In high school, he won an award for "Most Likely To Not Succeed".[6]

Every year, two thousand students audition for twenty places in the freshman class at Juilliard. Only two or three are accepted into the Advanced Program. Williams and Christopher Reeve were the only students accepted by John Houseman into the Advanced Program in 1973. Reeve and Williams had several classes together in which they were the only two students. In their dialects class, Williams had no trouble mastering all dialects naturally, whereas Reeve was more meticulous about it. Williams' manic comedy did not impress all of his teachers, but his dramatic performances impressed everyone. Williams and Reeve developed a close friendship, and they remained good friends for the remainder of Reeve's life. Williams visited Reeve after the horseback riding accident that paralyzed him from the neck down and cheered him up by arriving as an eccentric Russian doctor (similar to his role in Nine Months). Williams claimed that he was there to perform a colonoscopy. Reeve stated that he laughed for the first time since the accident and knew that life was going to be okay.[7]

Williams first achieved notice for his stand-up routines, performing for tips, and working clubs like The Purple Onion in San Francisco. After appearing in the cast of the short-lived The Richard Pryor Show on NBC, he was cast by Garry Marshall as the alien Mork in a guest role in the TV series Happy Days.

As Mork, Williams improvised much of his dialogue and devised plenty of rapid-fire verbal and physical comedy, speaking in a high, nasal voice. Mork's appearance was so popular with viewers that it led to a spin-off hit television sitcom, Mork and Mindy, which ran from 1978 to 1982. Williams became an overnight sensation, and Mork was featured on posters, coloring books, lunchboxes, and other merchandise. His nonsensical catch phrases, including the greeting "Nanu, Nanu!" and the expletive "Shazbot!", were widely known.

Starting in the late '70s and throughout the '80s, Williams began to reach a wider audience with his standup comedy, including three HBO comedy specials, Off The Wall (1978), An Evening with Robin Williams (1982) and Robin Williams: Live at the Met (1986). His standup work has been a consistent thread through his career, as is seen by the success of his one-man show (and subsequent DVD) Robin Williams Live on Broadway (2002). He was voted 13th on Comedy Central's list "100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time".[8]

After some encouragement from his friend Whoopi Goldberg, he was set to make a guest appearance in the 1991 Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "A Matter of Time", but he had to cancel due to a scheduling conflict; Matt Frewer took his place as a time-traveling con man, Professor Berlingoff Rasmussen.

Williams also appeared on an episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway? (Season 3, Episode 9: November 16, 2000). During a game of "Scenes from a Hat," the scene "What Robin Williams is thinking right now" was drawn, and Williams stated "I have a career. What the hell am I doing here?"