Jamille’s Rating    

Robin Williams captured the hearts of everyone who was lucky to see his work or got to be in his presence.  He was a wonderful light that was taken from us too soon.  In this biography it strips away all the romanticism surrounding him to the real struggles he faced, the torments, the hardships all the way through his life through the end.  Even though it shows you what was going on behind the curtain with misdiagnosis and how his family dealt with watching everything about him fall into a delusional state from the Lewy Body Dementia. It also showcase the kind and wonderful soul he really as it tells wonderful stories of how he became the star we all know and loved.

From New York Times culture reporter Dave Itzkoff, the definitive biography of Robin Williams - a compelling portrait of one of America's most beloved and misunderstood entertainers.

From his rapid-fire stand-up comedy riffs to his breakout role in Mork & Mindy and his Academy Award-winning performance in Good Will Hunting, Robin Williams was a singularly innovative and beloved entertainer. He often came across as a man possessed, holding forth on culture and politics while mixing in personal revelations - all with mercurial, tongue-twisting intensity as he inhabited and shed one character after another with lightning speed.

But as Dave Itzkoff shows in this revelatory biography, Williams's comic brilliance masked a deep well of conflicting emotions and self-doubt, which he drew upon in his comedy and in celebrated films like Dead Poets Society; Good Morning, Vietnam; The Fisher King; Aladdin; and Mrs. Doubtfire, where he showcased his limitless gift for improvisation to bring to life a wide range of characters. And in Good Will Hunting he gave an intense and controlled performance that revealed the true range of his talent.

Itzkoff also shows how Williams struggled mightily with addiction and depression - topics he discussed openly while performing and during interviews - and with a debilitating condition at the end of his life that affected him in ways his fans never knew. Drawing on more than a hundred original interviews with family, friends, and colleagues, as well as extensive archival research, Robin is a fresh and original look at a man whose work touched so many lives.

Dave Itzkoff is a culture reporter at "The New York Times", where he writes regularly about film, television, theater, music, and popular culture. He has previously worked at "Spin", "Maxim", and "Details", and his work has appeared in "GQ", "Vanity Fair", "Wired", and other publications. He is the author of two previous books, "Cocaine s Son" and "Lads". He lives in New York City.