JULY 1 2007
AMERICANWAY 47
Francisco of the 1960s, he was inspired by
a showingof
2001:ASpaceOdyssey
,which
he sawwith his parents at a San Francisco
theater. “I was just, ‘This is amazing!’” he
says. He began acting at Redwood High
School in Larkspur, where he was voted
“most funny” and “least likely to succeed.”
After college and a stint in Manhattan at
the Juilliard School, he returned to San
Francisco comedy clubs,wherehe so slayed
audiences with his stand-up routine that
he was soon heading south to Los Angeles
—first to star in televisionand then to take
onfilms.
This month, Williams is back, playing a
typically Robinesque character in
License
to Wed
: Reverend Frank is a spunky man
of the clothwhowon’t bless a couple’smar-
riageuntil theypasshispatented, foolproof
marriage-prep course, which consists of
outrageous classes, outlandish homework
assignments, and someoutright invasionof
privacy.
But despitehis success, hehas never for-
gottenor forsakenhis cityby thebay.
“Noooooo!” he says emphaticallywhen I
ask him if he would ever leave. “Youmean
leaving— living someplaceelse?Withglob-
al warming, I think I’ll stay as long as pos-
sible. It’ll be the glass-bottomed tour of the
marina, but it’ll still be interesting.”
Here’s a rare glimpse of the funnyman at
bay.
Tell us about yourfirst glimpse of the city.
I was 16 years old. My father and mother
[
and I
]
haddrivenacross thecountry.Aswe
drove across theGoldenGateBridge, there
was actually fog pouring in. I’d never seen
fog inmy life.
Is that poison gas?
No. The
way it pours over the hills inMarinCounty
and comes over the Gate — it’s quite im-
pressive. That was my first impression
—what is this strange smoke?! But it was
quite beautiful, seeing the bridge. In De-
troit, there aren’tmany things that are that
big. Iwas also struck that quite close to the
city, there’s all this nature. Mount Tamal-
pais State Park. We have the whole coast-
line— extraordinarilybeautiful.
Was itwhat you expected?
I don’t know. The thing that struckmewas
how beautiful it was. It’s on hills, number
one. At that point, they hadn’t built the
largerbuildings like theTransamericaPyra-
mid,whicheveryonehated in thebeginning
and which has now turned out to be the
one distinguishing building on the skyline.
I was struck by that and the bay and the
GoldenGate Bridge, and this idea of being
that close to thewater, and the fact that it is
thisport that’scombinedwithagreatopen-
ness, bothemotionallyandphysically.Once
you walk across the Golden Gate Bridge,
it’s an extraordinary experience to lookout.
It’s thegateway toAmerica fromAsia, from
thePacific. And there aredayswhen it is so
beautiful that you’re just struckby it.
Wheredidyou livewhenyoufirst arrived?
We lived in Tiburon, in this little house.
There’s agreat restaurant inTiburon called
Sam’sAnchorCafe,which is still there. It’sa
seafood restaurant thatmy father liked be-
causeyoucan sitoutside, on thewarmdays,
or inside. It’s just an old-school seafood-
and-hamburger place, andmy father loved
thehamburgers.
When friends come to town, where do you
suggest they stay?
There’s the Fairmont and the Mark Hop-
kins and the St. Francis. Those are three of
theold-school hotels.
Wherewouldyou start your day inSanFran-
cisco?
If you head north, there are the old coffee-
houses, likeVesuvio. It’s trulyanold Italian
neighborhood. In the morning, you would
see the old Italian guys having a double
espresso. Imean, they were doing cappuc-
cinowhen there were people coming look-
ing for gold.
[
He continues in a gruff gold
miner’s voice.
]
“What is that?” “Steamed
milk!”Vesuviowas thefirst place I ever saw
a foosball machine. Then, later on, those
became hip, but itwas like, “What is that?”
“Foosball!” With real guys hanging off a
pole.
Ifyouweretokeepwalkingdown fromNorth
Beach, you could seeAlcatraz Island, right?
Yes. I went there with Richard Pryor be-
cause he had a weird request. Before he
died, hiswife said, “Richard reallywants to
go there and seeAlcatraz.” I said, “All right.
We’ll set it up.”HisMSwasprettypowerful
at that point.Wegot aplaneandabus, and
we hooked up with the ferry so they could
give him special wheelchair access. The
TheWestin
St. Francis
