50 free Robin Williams trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
42 free Robin Williams trivia questions with answers. Robin Williams went from a San Francisco comedy club called the Holy City Zoo to an alien on Happy Days, and from there to an Oscar, five Grammys and some of the most-loved films of the 1990s. He improvised roughly 30 hours of tape as the Genie, took scale pay to do it, and got a Picasso he hated as an apology when Disney broke the deal. This quiz covers 50 questions across his whole career: the early stand-up and Mork & Mindy, the breakthrough of Good Morning, Vietnam, Dead Poets Society, Awakenings, The Fisher King, Hook, Aladdin, Mrs. Doubtfire, Jumanji, The Birdcage, Good Will Hunting, the dark turn of One Hour Photo and Insomnia, Night at the Museum, and the charity work with Comic Relief and the USO. Easy questions ask which film won him the Academy Award; hard ones ask which classmate shared his Juilliard programme and where he had his heart surgery. Every answer has been checked against an encyclopaedia entry on the film or the man, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which city was Robin Williams born on July 21, 1951?
Chicago
He was born at St. Luke's Hospital; the family later moved to Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and then Tiburon, California.
Q 02Williams's father, Robert, was a senior executive at which car company?
Ford
He worked in the Lincoln-Mercury Division, and the family lived in a 40-room farmhouse in Bloomfield Hills when Robin was 12.
Q 03Which future Superman actor was admitted to Juilliard's Advanced Program alongside Robin Williams by John Houseman?
Christopher Reeve
Williams left Juilliard in his junior year in 1976 after Houseman suggested the school had nothing more to teach him.
Q 04Williams's first stand-up performance, in 1976, was at a comedy club in which city?
San Francisco
The club was the Holy City Zoo; he later moved to Los Angeles and worked rooms including the Comedy Store.
Q 05Williams was cast as the alien Mork in a 1978 episode of which sitcom, before getting his own spin-off?
Happy Days
Garry Marshall cast him in the episode 'My Favorite Orkan'.
Q 06Mork & Mindy is set in which Colorado city?
Boulder
Mork arrives on Earth in an egg-shaped spacecraft; Pam Dawber played Mindy, and the show ran on ABC from 1978 to 1982.
Q 07Which veteran comedian joined Mork & Mindy's final season as Mearth, the couple's child born looking elderly?
Jonathan Winters
Winters was Williams's comedy idol, and Orkan biology explained why the baby aged backwards.
Q 08Williams's first starring film role was as which comic-strip character, in a 1980 Robert Altman musical?
Popeye
The Sweethaven set built in Malta is still standing as a tourist attraction, and Shelley Duvall played Olive Oyl.
Q 09The Sweethaven set from Williams's 1980 musical still stands on which island?
Malta
The site is now known as Popeye Village, and Harry Nilsson wrote the film's songs.
Q 10Williams earned his first Oscar nomination as a real-life Armed Forces Radio DJ in which 1987 film?
Good Morning, Vietnam
Barry Levinson directed, and most of the radio-broadcast scenes were improvised.
Q 11Which real Saigon DJ's experiences loosely inspired Williams's 1987 breakthrough film?
Adrian Cronauer
The film is set in 1965 and was shot entirely in Thailand, in temperatures over 104°F.
Q 12In Dead Poets Society (1989), John Keating's fictional academy is in which state?
Vermont
Peter Weir directed, Tom Schulman won the Oscar for the screenplay, and the story is set in 1959 at Welton Academy.
Q 13In Awakenings (1990), Williams's Dr Malcolm Sayer is modelled on which neurologist and author?
Oliver Sacks
Penny Marshall directed, and Robert De Niro was Oscar-nominated as Leonard Lowe, a patient revived by the drug L-DOPA.
Q 21In Jumanji (1995), Alan Parrish is trapped inside the board game for how many years?
26
The film, directed by Joe Johnston, is set in the fictional town of Brantford, New Hampshire, and based on Chris Van Allsburg's 1981 picture book.
Q 22The Birdcage (1996) is an American remake of which French-Italian film?
La Cage aux Folles
Mike Nichols directed, Nathan Lane played his partner Albert, and the cast won the Screen Actors Guild ensemble award.
Q 23Williams won his only Oscar for playing therapist Sean Maguire in which film?
Good Will Hunting
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck won Best Original Screenplay the same night; Gus Van Sant directed.
Q 14Which Monty Python member directed The Fisher King (1991), with Robin Williams as homeless Parry?
Terry Gilliam
Jeff Bridges played the shock jock Jack Lucas, and Mercedes Ruehl won Best Supporting Actress.
Q 15In Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991), Williams plays a grown-up Peter Pan who has become what?
A lawyer
Dustin Hoffman played Hook, Julia Roberts was Tinker Bell and Maggie Smith played the elderly Wendy.
Q 16Williams voiced Aladdin's Genie for about $75,000 instead of his usual fee of roughly how much?
$8 million
His condition was that his name and image not be used to sell merchandise, a deal Disney then broke.
Q 17To apologise over Aladdin marketing, Disney sent Williams a painting by which artist?
Pablo Picasso
It was a self-portrait of the artist as Van Gogh, and it reportedly clashed with the Williams family's décor; he still refused to do the direct-to-video sequel.
Q 18Roughly how many hours of tape did Williams record improvising as the Genie?
30
The Golden Globes gave him a Special Achievement Award for the performance, since animated voice work had no category.
Q 19Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), in which Williams's divorced father poses as a nanny, is set in which city?
San Francisco
The house at 2640 Steiner Street became a landmark; the film won the Oscar for Best Makeup and grossed $441 million.
Q 20Mrs. Doubtfire was based on a 1987 novel by which British children's author?
Anne Fine
Chris Columbus directed and Sally Field played the ex-wife, Miranda.
Q 24In the film that won Williams his Oscar, his character teaches psychology at which institution?
Bunker Hill Community College
The famous bench scene between Sean and Will was filmed in the Boston Public Garden.
Q 25In which 1998 film does Williams play a real-life doctor who treats patients with humour and compassion?
Patch Adams
The same year he starred in What Dreams May Come, a fantasy about the afterlife.
Q 26Bicentennial Man (1999) is based on a story by which science-fiction author?
Isaac Asimov
Chris Columbus directed, and Greg Cannom's makeup was Oscar-nominated.
Q 27In Insomnia (2002), Williams's murderer is pursued through Alaska by a sleep-deprived detective played by whom?
Al Pacino
The same year he played a disturbed photo technician in One Hour Photo, completing a dark double bill.
Q 28In One Hour Photo (2002), Williams's Sy Parrish works the photo counter of which fictional big-box store?
SavMart
Mark Romanek wrote and directed, and Williams won the Saturn Award for Best Actor.
Q 29In the Night at the Museum films, Williams plays a wax figure of which US president?
Theodore Roosevelt
The figure wears a Rough Rider uniform; Ben Stiller plays night guard Larry Daley at the American Museum of Natural History.
Q 30In 1986 Williams co-founded Comic Relief USA with Whoopi Goldberg and which other comedian?
Billy Crystal
The HBO benefit for the homeless had raised $80 million by 2014, and the two friends also made an unscripted cameo together on Friends in 1997.