The date was January 10, 1991 and 39-year-old Robin Williams was a guest on “The Tonight Show”.
It was during the era when an appearance on Johnny Carson could make a person’s career. The topic of the interview turned to Shakespeare given that actor Mel Gibson had recently made a big screen version of “Hamlet” which was well received by critics despite performing poorly at the box office.
Williams said he thought Gibson’s performance was good. He admitted that earlier in his acting career he too had done Shakespeare and “Waiting for Godot” (which wasn’t by Shakespeare it was by Samuel Beckett). It was then he said that Shakespeare might not like people using his work and taking credit for it.
He proceeded to imitate Shakespeare wandering about Stratford, Connecticut, after having a couple of brews. He spoke in Shakespeare’s parlance, but with a North East accent to the laughter of the audience. He then said others Hollywood actors might be able to do a good Shakespeare role including Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Again, the audience laughed out loud as he cited common phrases from Shakespeare plays using the beefy actor’s Swiss accent. He also threw in a little bit of Terminator lingo. Williams then said actor Jack Nicholson could also do a good Shakespeare and spoke with the same old English parlance using Nicholson’s easy going cool manner of speech.
Even Carson was laughing so much as to wipe the tears out of his eyes repeatedly. All this was done impromptu and illustrated the natural talent Williams possessed.