He achieved a critical coup that year as well, winning his first Academy Award—for Best Supporting Actor—for his restrained performance in Good Will Hunting, costarring Matt Damon, Minnie Driver, and Ben Affleck.

Though his most recent efforts—including What Dreams May Come (1998), Patch Adams (1998), Jakob the Liar (1999), and Bicentennial Man (1999)—have met with a relatively disappointing critical and commercial reception, Williams remains an unusual commodity in Hollywood: a talented comedic actor who can also deliver sincere, affecting dramatic performances. Upcoming projects include The Interpreter (2000), directed by Mrs. Doubtfire’s Columbus.

Williams has made his share of headlines for his personal life, beginning early in his career, when he was reputed to have had a cocaine habit, and to have snorted cocaine with comic John Belushi just before the latter’s death of an overdose in 1982. In 1986, Williams was sued for $6.2 million by a former girlfriend who alleged he had given her herpes. He countersued for extortion. The case was later settled out of court, and the terms were undisclosed. Williams and his first wife, Valerie Velardi, divorced in 1988 after a decade of marriage; he subsequently married Marcia Garces, who had worked as a nanny for his son Zachary. He and Garces have two children, Zelda and Cody. Garces is also Williams' partner in a production company, Blue Wolf Productions. .