(Image source from: Lesser known facts about Robin William})

Today, Hollywood lost one of it's beloved entertainers, Robin Williams. The 63-year-old funnyman, who was battling severe depression, was found dead on Monday. Williams will always remembered as a singular talent who skyrocketed to popularity as the oddball alien in “Mork & Mindy”. Following that, he spent the next 35-plus years winning millions of hearts. The actor is survived by his wife Susan Schneider and children Zachary Pym, 31; Zelda Rae, 25; and Cody Alan, 19.

Robin Williams improvised the role of Genie in "Aladdin"

Did you know that Academy Awards had shot down the bid for "Aladdin" in the Best Adapted Screenplay category as much of Williams role was not adapted but improvised? Producer-director John Musker revealed that Williams ended up improvising over 70 impressions in the film. Later, in a Reddit AMA, Williams explained:

Initially they came in and I was just doing the scripted lines and I asked 'Do you mind if I try something?' and then 18 hours of recording later, they had the genie. I just started playing, and they said "just go with it, go with it, go with it." So I improvised the character. I think that in the end, there were something like 40 different voices that I did for that role.

Robin Williams disguised in scrubs and surprised his friend Christopher Reeve in the hospital following his career-ending accident.

Reeve and Williams were thick friends since their The Juilliard School days. Williams claimed at the time that Reeve was "literally feeding me because I don't think I literally had money for food or my student loan hadn't come in yet, and he would share his food with me." In his book, "Still Me," Reeve wrote about Williams visiting him in the hospital:

“Then, at an especially bleak moment, the door flew open and in hurried a squat fellow with a blue scrub hat and a yellow surgical gown and glasses, speaking in a Russian accent. He announced that he was my proctologist, and that he had to examine me immediately...it was Robin Williams...for the first time since the accident, I laughed. My old friend had helped me know that somehow I was going to be okay.”

Williams had also surprised Sharon Osbourne in a similar way when she was battling cancer.

During the filming of "Schindler's List," Robin Williams used to call Steven Spielberg and entertain him with jokes.

Spielberg called these "comic care packages over the telephone."

In his Reddit AMA, Williams explained:

“I think I only called him once, maybe twice. I called him when I was representing People for the Valdheimers Association. A society devoted to helping raise money to help older Germans who had forgotten everything before 1945. I remember him laughing and going 'thank you.'”

In high school, Robin Williams was voted by his classmates as the "Least Likely To Succeed."

Williams attended Redwood High School in California where, during his senior year, he was voted both "the funniest and least likely to succeed." Later in life, Williams proved all wrong by winning five Grammys, two Emmys and an Academy Award.

Robin Williams favorite book was "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe"

“Growing up, it was The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - I would read the whole C.S. Lewis series out loud to my kids. I was once reading to Zelda, and she said "don't do any voices. Just read it as yourself." So I did, I just read it straight, and she said 'that's better.'”

AW: Suchorita Choudhury