‘Madcap’ Robin never stopped groping me says Mork & Mindy TV co-star Pam
ROBIN Williams used to grope his Mork & Mindy co-star Pam Dawber as his madcap sense of humour crossed the line into sexual harassment, it has been claimed.
In a new biography of the comedian Ms Dawber says that Williams repeatedly grabbed her bottom and breasts and flashed at her.
But Ms Dawber, now 66, adds that she never took offence as Williams was so playful and puppy-like it was impossible to be angry at him.
The actress, who played Mindy in the US comedy opposite Williams as bumbling alien Mork, says: “I had the grossest things done to me by him.
“I mean I was flashed, humped, bumped, grabbed. But it was so much fun. It was the Seventies, after all.”
Ms Dawber also describes how Williams used to wrestle her to the ground, break wind on her and even “goosed” an elderly actress playing her grandmother by putting a cane between her buttocks.
The revelations about the star, who hanged himself aged 63 in 2014 after battling depression and being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, may upset his millions of fans.
They come against the background of the MeToo campaign against sexual harassment and could cause consternation, despite Ms Dawber’s insistence she never felt offended.
She spoke out in an interview with New York Times journalist Dave Itzkoff to promote her book Robin, which is out later this year.
Ms Dawber told Itzkoff that Williams was “such a nice person” and had a “gigantic heart”.
They became close and she became the big sister that he never had. She said: “I really loved Robin and Robin really loved me. We just clicked.”
But once on the set Williams’ behaviour frequently turned crass.
Ms Dawber recalled: “If you put it on paper you would be appalled. But somehow he had this guileless little thing that he would do – those sparkly eyes. He’d look at you, really playful, like a puppy, all of a sudden. And then he’d grab your **** and run away.”
Mork & Mindy director Howard Storm says in the book: “He would just turn and grab her *** or grab a breast.
“I’d say, ‘Robin, there’s nothing in the script that says you grab Pam’s ***’. There was nothing lascivious about it, in his mind. It was just Robin being Robin.”
Producer Garry Marshall adds: “He would take all his clothes off, he would be standing there totally naked and she was trying to act. His aim in life was to make Pam Dawber blush.”
Williams also caused chaos on set with constant improvisations which led some to think there was no script, a myth he perpetuated.
But Mork & Mindy, which was a spin-off of the earlier sitcom Happy Days, made a star of Williams and launched his brilliant Hollywood career.
He starred Good Morning Vietnam, Dead Poets Society, Mrs Doubtfire and Good Will Hunting as well as being one of the world’s most famous comics.