He groped and flashed me, but it was ‘fun’
Apparently there was a time when you could get away with sexual harassment in Hollywood — but only if you were manic and funny and “playful.”
Actress Pam Dawber claims she was repeatedly sexually harassed by the late Robin Williams when they were working on the sitcom “Mork & Mindy” in the late 1970s-early ’80s. But she was cool with it.
“I had the grossest things done to me by him,” Dawber told New York Times writer David Itzkoff (via the Guardian). “And I never took offense. I mean I was flashed, humped, bumped, grabbed. I think he probably did it to a lot of people … but it was so much fun.”
The actress reportedly spoke to Itzkoff for his upcoming biography of the comedian, “Robin,” which is due out in May. Dawber, 66, said Williams was able to get away with the questionable behavior — which also included walking on set naked and breaking wind on her — that some might consider reprehensible because he was being playful.
“If you put it on paper, you would be appalled,” she said. “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 (breasts) and then run away. And somehow he could get away with it. It was the ’70s, after all.”
The actress apparently wasn’t the only person who put up with Williams’ shenanigans.
Howard Storm, who directed over half the show’s 1978-82 run, told Itzkoff it was just “Robin being Robin” and that the groping often occurred because the comedian was “bored.”
The show ran from 1978 to 1982, and starred Williams as a curious alien who lodged with Dawber’s Mindy in Boulder, Colorado. Later episodes also starred Jonathan Winters, one of Williams’ idols.
Williams used the show as a springboard to movies, eventually starring in a number of hit films including “Good Morning Vietnam,” “Dead Poet’s Society” and “Good Will Hunting,” the last one garnering him a best supporting actor Oscar for his work.
Williams committed suicide in 2014 after a decades-long battle with depression. He was 63.