Brian Williams on The Evening New reported he has died. Sounds like suicide. Fought substance abuse and depression his whole life. F drugs. RIP. Saw him live on the USS Harry S. Truman for a USO show. He was 63.
I especially enjoyed his less manic and more serious dramatic character acting movie roles. "The Best of Times" featuring Kurt Russell and "Insomnia" starring Al Pacino and Hilary Swank come to mind. The Link The Link Robin Williams and Christopher Reeve attended the Julliard School of dance, drama and music together. Robin's stream of consciousness live style, rapid fire delivery and his from out of the wide (or is it the wild?) blue yonder references could often be disorienting and even a little off putting to someone like me, who doesn't like to miss a thing. I could always mentally keep up with Johnathan Winters, Eddie Murphy, George Carlin, Richard Pryor and Rodney Dangerfield, but Robin Williams (when unscripted) would really take off and could leave me behind. My loss. So. I'll be watching or re-watching some of his stuff to catch up. I've never seen "Mrs. Doubtfire," "Awakenings," "What Dreams May Come" or "Jumanji," so those films are now in my NETFLIX queue. And I'll check out some of his stand up DVDs. I'll view them with subtitles on and GOOGLE standing by. RIP.
This is so, so sad, RIP Robin My favorite movies of his are: Good Morning Vietnam, Mrs. Doubtfire and Good Will Hunting. Also, if you have not seen it, you need to go to You Tube and find the Robin Williams clip on Golf - it is hysterical.
My first "blue" comedy album was Rw's "reality, what a concept". I had to hide it from my parents, but it got plenty of spins while they were at work. People forget that he was a very talented stand up comic. I still have that record, although its in too ****** shape to play on my gear. I wasnt a huge fan of his acting, but im really surprised no one on any of the sites i visit mentioned "world according to garp" as one of his best. Thats a solid movie.
Amazing talent; tragic loss. If you find the episode of Happy Days that he made his TV debut, it is worth watching. It was a dream sequence with Richie where he is visited by Mork from work. Backstory was when he auditioned everyone was so blown away they knew they had to get him in the show somehow. No one had ever seen anything like him.
Something beautiful about suicide that I ran across this morning at On Being. None of us can truly know what we mean to other people, and none of us can know what our future self will experience. History and philosophy ask us to remember these mysteries, to look around at friends, family, humanity, at the surprises life brings—the endless possibilities that living offers—and to persevere. There is love and insight to live for, bright moments to cherish, and even the possibility of happiness, and the chance of helping someone else through his or her own troubles. Know that people, through history and today, understand how much courage it takes to stay. Bear witness to the night side of being human and the bravery it entails, and wait for the sun. If we meditate on the record of human wisdom we may find there reason enough to persist and find our way back to happiness. The first step is to consider the arguments and evidence and choose to stay. After that, anything may happen. First, choose to stay.
I always thought a lot of 'The Fisher King' w/ Jeff Bridges and then the more popular 'Good Will', 'Dead Poets' for his dramatic roles.
Really a sad story - I've always gotten the impression from watching him that he had some real sadness behind a lot of what he did. One of the funniest things I've ever seen was his session on Inside the Actor's Guild. I need to see if I can find it on YouTube, but when the host asks him about improv and what goes through his mind, he stands up, look around the audience for a second, borrows someone's scarf, and goes on a five-minute rant that's absolutely hysterical. Like a lot of improv artists, he swung and missed a few times, but I kind of feel like if you can truly improv and be really funny a third of the time, you're doing OK. He was funny a lot more than that. Here's a clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z90Y9Ao_RXw
Question for any doctors out there. I know depression killed Williams, and I know and see it as a 100% physiological disease. I also know that substance abuse may lead to depression or at the very least multiplies the threat of depression. We also know that concussions and traumatic experiences (e.g. PTSD) can lead to suicidal depression. Correct me if this is incorrect, but like alcoholism...some people are genetically predisposed to depression. Can a completely well adjusted normal person who never uses drugs or abuse alcohol get suicidal medical depression like it were cancer? Or is it really like lung cancer for smokers - e.g. you have to smoke cigarettes to get the cancer that ultimately kills you. As an aside, I also believe, that many people commit suicide because of hopelessness/shame and nothing specifically medically related.
Please give your thoughts and support to the family and friends. One never quite gets past the suicide of someone in their life. I know this from personal experience. I'll miss you Mork. You filled my life with laughter.
I've learned to live with my minor, but regular, bouts of depression. I struggle between - some people are meant to fight this all their lives, or we create our own depression (similiar to creating our own luck). Rest in peace, Robin. Rest in peace......
Dionysys That was very meaningful and appropriate. Thank you for posting it. What I liked so much about Robin Williams was his humor was never cruel and he was an really kind person " off stage"
My top Williams flicks: Dead Poets Society (duh...see sig) Awakenings Aladdin Bird Cage Good Morning Vietnam
Had one of my best friends commit suicide about four years ago. The thing with her though was when she would go through her bouts of depression, which were mostly short lived, if you tried to reach out to her she would just back pedal and sink further in. And it sucked trying to help or be there for her knowing it only made it worse. I have to say that I am not sure how she or her family treated it. She did not confide a whole lot about the situation to me except for what was obvious. I just knew that when she was down she did not want to be reached out to. That was a terrible phone call to get that morning.
charlierosedotcom has a compendium of interviews w/ RW rolled into 1 hour. On both personal level and alot of short comedic stuff. Of note - On Jonathan Winters "He's trying to suck all the ugliness out of her" - As a bystander to a couple in a long kiss embrace.
Believe me if you want or not, but a friend of mine was his neighbor when he lived in San Francisco many moons ago. He said that the root of his depression was the Parkinson. Robin felt there was no hope due to the incurable disease. Truly sad. Here's a story he shared. When my friend's two younger children were young, they mistook Robin for Sean Connery. So when the kids went up to him and asked "are you Sean Connery?", Robin's impersonation would have fooled all those with closed eyes.
A chronic degenerative brain diseases like Parkinson's, ALS, Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and I'll even add schizophrenia to that list, would probably make me consider suicide. I'm not sure I would have the courage to carry it out though.
