Assembly to consider renaming Marin tunnel after Robin Williams

The suspenders Robin Williams wore on “Mork & Mindy.” The suspenders Robin Williams wore on “Mork & Mindy.” Photo: Bob D'Amico / ABC Photo Archives/Getty Images Photo: Bob D'Amico / ABC Photo Archives/Getty Images Image 1 of / 13 Caption Close Assembly to consider renaming Marin tunnel after Robin Williams 1 / 13 Back to Gallery

Efforts to rename the Waldo Tunnel and its rainbow arches after Robin Williams will reach the state Assembly in December.

Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, said this week he will take up the cause of a Change.org petition that has garnered more than 55,000 signatures since Williams’ apparent suicide at his Tiburon home Aug. 11. Levine plans to introduce a resolution to rename the Highway 101 tunnel north of the Golden Gate Bridge after the beloved comedian and performer.

“When the petition was first circulated, I thought it sounded like a wonderful idea,” Levine said. “It was as though Robin Williams knew us. He knew how to make us all laugh, and for so many of us as fans over the decades, we have spent so much time with him. And in Marin especially, we had a very special relationship with him.”

Williams attended Redwood High School in Larkspur and studied theater at the College of Marin before he was accepted to the Juilliard School in New York, where he graduated in 1976.

Two years later, he landed a starring role in “Mork & Mindy,” a spinoff inspired by his “Happy Days” character, but he maintained strong ties to the Bay Area, eventually establishing a home in San Francisco’s Sea Cliff neighborhood that he’d open to locals on Halloween.

Williams spent his final years in Tiburon, where authorities said he killed himself at age 63, after battling addiction and depression as well as dealing with early-stage Parkinson’s disease.

The petition to rename the Waldo Tunnel after Williams was started by Belvedere resident Julie Wainwright, who had hoped to gather at least 10,000 signatures.

“He was my neighbor — I often saw him running errands, walking the dog, performing at the local theater, working at the coffee shop,” she wrote on the Change.org page. “Robin wasn’t just an international icon — he was an integral part of our community here in the Bay Area. We claim him as our own.”

The twin tubes, which carry tens of thousands of drivers through the Waldo Grade to Sausalito each day, were originally named after William Waldo, a Whig Party candidate who ran for governor in 1853.

In 1970, longtime Caltrans employee Robert Halligan persuaded the state transportation agency to paint the cheery rainbows on the tunnel, turning it into a landmark featured in “Dirty Harry” and other films.

Levine said he supported the renaming from the moment the petition began, but wanted to give Williams’ family time to grieve before he asked for their approval. He said he has since spoken to family representatives, who gave him a blessing to go forth with the proposal.

Levine said he does not foresee any difficulties in raising $6,000 in private funds necessary to rename the tunnel. He said the rainbow paint is especially fitting for a man who made his big break wearing rainbow suspenders on “Mork & Mindy.”

“As a child, I had those rainbow suspenders,” Levine laughed, “and I look back on how silly and goofy they were with a smile on my face. Rainbows bring hope and joy to people. I think going through that tunnel, under the joy and rainbow, we will always think of all the joy and laughter that Robin Williams brought to so many people.”

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo