Robin Williams' Friends Remember the Comedy Legend 10 Years After His Death: 'He Was an Experience' (Exclusive)

"He intellectually was more informed, had more history, more knowledge, more vocabulary than anybody," his friend George Schlatter tells PEOPLE

Robin Williams's friends and collaborators are remembering the legendary comedian 10 years after his death.

The Oscar-winning actor, who starred in movies like Good Will Hunting, Aladdin and Dead Poets Society, died by suicide at 63 on Aug. 11, 2014, leaving the world stunned and saddened.

"I had fun with Robin Williams because he intellectually was more informed, had more history, more knowledge, more vocabulary than anybody," producer George Schlatter tells PEOPLE. Schlatter was one of the first people to put Williams on television, booking him for the show Laugh In during the series' revival on NBC in 1977.

"A discussion with Robin was exciting because you never knew where it was gonna go because he had so much information. That brain was so full of information," Schlatter adds. "He was more than a performer. He was an experience."

As the 94-year-old producer says, every performer they paired Williams with on camera "held Robin in awe" due to his incredible wit and vast intelligence.

Related: Aladdin Star Scott Weinger Remembers First Time He Met Robin Williams: 'I'll Be Your Genie' (Exclusive)

"Frankly, I'm not too sure there was ever an off-stage Robin," Schlatter says when asked what Williams was like when he was not performing. "That mind was working all the time."

Comedian and actor Pauly Shore also knew Williams from his earliest days performing at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles, which Shore's parents co-founded in 1972. "The guy was special," Shore, 56, tells PEOPLE, as he recalled watching Williams perform during his childhood. "They definitely broke the mold when they made him. Just look at old footage — even anyone can testify to that he was just unique, and his improv skills mixed in with the standup was just another level." 

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Williams' career took off in the 1980s when he costarred in the ABC sitcom Mork & Mindy as an alien from the planet Ork. He made his film debut in 1980's Popeye, which led him toward an acting career that saw him take on 100 onscreen roles over the next three decades until his death. Williams also starred in beloved films like Mrs. Doubtfire, The Birdcage, Hook and the Night at the Museum films, among others.

Scott Weinger, the actor who voiced the title character in Disney's 1992 animated classic Aladdin, tells PEOPLE that he revered Williams' work for years before the pair first met, when he was 15, to begin work on the movie.

Related: Pauly Shore Recalls Robin Williams' Early Stand-Up Days at The Comedy Store: He Was 'Just Another Level' (Exclusive)

"Just being in his presence freaked me out, and I didn't know what to expect. But he was so calm and charming and disarming," Weinger, now 48, says, recalling that he at first felt surprised by how pensive Williams seemed. "We were looking at the storyboards together and talking about the script and talking with our directors, and then finally when the recording studio red light turned on, some sort of magical switch got flipped and he turned into the Robin Williams that I was expecting. He was amazing. He was incredible, both sides of him — the sort of calm and soothing side, and the manic genius side."

Williams' death shocked the entire entertainment industry in 2014. "It really was one of those celebrity deaths where it really felt that the world had changed in some fundamental way," Weinger says. But as Schlatter, the man who helped give Williams one of his first big breaks in show business, says, Williams was more than a comedian.

"Robin was not just a friend and not just an employee — he was an adventure and he was a major part of my life," Schlatter tells PEOPLE. " I cherish the times I spent with Robin Williams."

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Read the original article on People.