RIP Robin Williams

RIP

RIP Robin, wish it hadn't ended this way.

The one comic part of the Maron interview, in the last 10 minutes, is exactly hiw I imagined Williams talking himself off the ledge when having deadly thoughts.

There is this scene in patch adams, when he learns the girl he loved got murder-suicided by a mentally unstable man, that traumatized me as a child and I still think about it a lot.

Don't like Aladdin. Especially now, it feels like it inspired/anticipated much of the Shrek-style obnoxiousness that came to dominate too much animation in recent years. For years, it has been my personal policy to ask anyone who claims to like the film if they've seen the 1940 The Thief of Bagdad.

― You know something? He *did* say "well, yeah" a lot. (cryptosicko), Tuesday, August 12, 2014 12:34 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

keep thinking about someone barking at a six year old "Yeah well have you seen the original Thief Of Bagdad??" and laughing.

RIP Robin Williams, you were pretty damn awesome, and the circumstances of your exit seem impossibly sad to me.

lmao

Via Deadspin: Conan O'Brien Found Out About Robin Williams's Death During His Show. Ugh.

I find this ineffably sad, kind of like when John Ritter died. Like so many kids of my generation I grew up with the TV on, and Williams was a constant presence, first on Mork & Mindy, then his first HBO special, which my friends and I watched nearly every time it was on. I wish he had avoided some of the bathetic performances his later career veered into, but that's been amply covered by everyone else. When he was on, nobody else could touch him.

Sry Buzzfeed, but wow, did not know about any of this: http://www.buzzfeed.com/lyapalater/the-lifelong-friendship-of-robin-williams-and-christopher-re#btu8zr

the thing that made me finally cry last night was reading about how RW went to visit Reeve after his accident and was the first person to make him laugh

yeah I remember during Reeve's Oscar appearance in the mid nineties that the networks mentioned the two were bros.

A (name-changed) friend just posted his Robin Williams story. I guess my friend Bob was shopping at a toy store one day when Robin Williams and his son came in. Apparently, Robin collected Todd McFarlane figures, just like my friend Bob. Robin was really approachable, really friendly and really funny. My friend reminded him of some "Alladin" promotion that he had worked on, which needed Robin's approval, and Robin politely pretended to remember. They hung in the store a while talking toys and other things. After a bit, Williams bid his adieu and off he went. A bit later, Bob went to a clothing store, like the Gap or something, and there was Robin Williams and son, checking out in front of him. Robin says goodbye to the cashier, turns around, sees Bob, gives him a big smile and just says something like "hey, Bob, how are you?" Then he leaves. The cashier turns to my friend and says "you're friends with Robin Williams?" And as my friend ended his post: "Yeah, I guess I was."

I think it's vital to bring up roles like "Garp" and "Moscow on the Hudson," really strong performances that showed he was no mere comedian turned dramatic actor late in life. He was great in those first two, but also "insomnia," "One Hour Photo," "World's Greatest Dad," "Good Will Hunting," "Dead Poet's Society," "Good Morning, Vietnam," "The Fisher King" and a bunch more, capable more than most of conveying this great empathy that probably came from a real place, given what an apparently generous guy he was, and how much time and energy he spent of various charities.

I remember hearing several months ago that he had checked himself back in rehab not because he had fallen off the wagon but because he sensed he might. Now I wonder if he or anyone knew there was more going on. Really devastating.

RIP

Grew up with him going back to Mork's first appearance on Laverne & Shirley. He was brilliant, surreal, and lovable.

He also went through a run where his roles made me cringe, and this is what makes me wonder : did he, too, cringe? And did this feed his depression ? I have my own "battles with depression" and more than my share of self-cringing, but for a performing artist like RW, the horns of the dilemma must be so much sharper: what makes them endearing must inevitably be turned into shtick at some point, and just as inevitably the cringe-worthiness blooms. And how tenderly painful is that?

I didn't really know him personally, so who knows, but this what I wonder about right now.

Rest in peace, you beautiful man.

first time i've felt emotional about a face from my childhood going. jumanji. hook. flubber. mrs. doubtfire. fuckin, TOYS. a face that made me smile. a face that made me feel safe. good night, vietnam

This has definitely been sad and sobering in a way that many celebrity deaths aren't for me, but hearing Maron break down is the thing that's finally kicking me in the gut.

man after sleeping on this for a night it is still just so sad, especially reading all these sweet stories

I listened to the Maron interview and believe his explanation of unconsciously appropriating other comedians' lines because once, in my swamp of low-level standup, *I* got caught doing that.

I kinda cringe at obit headlines that make him sound like a film actor ("Hollywood legend") pure n' simple, when most of his contributions were live or live-on-TV. I also kinda wonder how a guy with a generational talent could do so much stuff with Billy Crystal. Still as a friend of mine said about resumes w/ lots of dross, "You can only do what you're offered," and I guess he had no aspirations to write/direct/produce films.

Keyframe roundup (he has, uh, SIX movies in the can?):

http://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-robin-williams-1951-2014

was Maron interviewed today or is it the re-upped podcast we are talking about?

Maron just added some commentary to the beginning and end of the re-upped interview. He sounded like he was right on the verge of full-on sobbing. It's heartbreaking.

It's also heartbreaking, in the interview, to hear Robin Williams talk about rationalizing his way through previous thoughts of suicide. I guess that level of clarity isn't always there when you need it.

Pretty good story, this one.

http://uproxx.com/webculture/2014/08/norm-macdonald-told-a-wonderful-robin-williams-story-on-twitter-that-sums-up-everyones-loss/

so sad about this.

That Norm story is excellent.

When Rik Mayall died a couple of months ago now there was the odd question as to why he never made it in film. Then you look at Robin Williams: lots of comic energy, could hold you for shorter chunks of time on TV yet flagged when anything more dramatic was required.

That there were a few films that could frame that energy for a while is an achievement of sorts.

I think someone upthread may have mentioned it, but the episode of Homicide: Life On The Streets he appeared on is one of his better dramatic performances.

yeah, it's not like Mork and Mindy 'fit' Williams -- you just watched that crap every week to see a few minutes of RW riffing and taking over. xp

surprised at the love upthread for the Birdcage, have always assumed there was no reason to watch taht

Pfft I watched it cos I had a crush on Mindy, thanks xpost

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BuzFzIMIYAAMet_.png

I read "bangarang" as "gangbang" there and for a moment all of history changed around me.

http://c.o0bg.com/rf/image_960w/Boston/2011-2020/2014/08/12/BostonGlobe.com/Arts/Images/Bu2BWPdIgAAU6nb.jpg

ok now I am getting really sad

One of his standup lines just sounded in my head, re his Juilliard professor John Houseman: "Mistuh Williams, the theatuh needs you; I'm going off to sell Volvos."

(JH was a ubiquitous '70s TV pitchman after winning his unlikely Oscar)

Meanwhil, in Minnesota . . .

the entire front page of imgur today is RW

oh god that Norm story's going to make me cry all over again

It's striking and kinda heartwarming to see all the stories pouring out from comedians at all levels talking about encounters with Williams. Whether it was just hosting a standup night where he showed up, or having a real conversation or just taking a photo with someone. He knew how big he was, celebrity-wise, he knew what it did to people who met him, and somehow he serviced that stardom in just the right way, over and over again. All these stories of 'he didn't have to talk to me, or he didn't have to be nice to me'...like he knew the importance of those moments and without even being calculating, he was just real.

There was a great Inside Comedy with RW and Jonathan Winters last year.

I remember that John Houseman line--he must have used that a lot (it's a great line).

There's no accounting for why someone like Winters was able to negotiate his pain and illness, to live into his mid 80s, and Williams was not. I wonder if Jonathan's passing made him feel that much more alone.

I know I've mentioned before that at the Evening at the Met concert, I had to squeeze past Sean & Madonna making out in the aisle on the way out.

(btw Williams was attached to a proposed Harvey Milk biopic several years before Penn did Van Sant's)

It definitely was on in syndication when I was kid, but I don't remember much about mork & mindy, so I don't think I really appreciated until now that the guy's career breakthrough was playing a SPACE ALIEN IN A DREAM on HAPPY DAYS. The show that gave us "jump the shark" as an example of when a show went off the rails. That he was so good playing a space alien on a slice-of-life sitcom that they retconned him from being a dream character to a real character and gave him a spin-off.

I mean, that's pretty impressive.

There's no accounting for why someone like Winters was able to negotiate his pain and illness, to live into his mid 80s, and Williams was not. I wonder if Jonathan's passing made him feel that much more alone.

You know I was just thinking about this, and somehow had missed that Winters had only passed on last year. I wonder along with you, it seems like he was one of the few people Williams felt got him, profoundly (and perhaps vice versa).

I was pretty young in its heyday but in the post-Star Wars environment it was popular enough for toy makers to create a Mork doll that said "Nanu, Nanu!" when you pulled a string or something; I def remember that.

There's no accounting for why someone like Winters was able to negotiate his pain and illness, to live into his mid 80s, and Williams was not. I wonder if Jonathan's passing made him feel that much more alone.

was just thinking about this while watching this clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NqEKvk9F4I and remembered that Winters only passed just last year

I wonder if Jonathan's passing made him feel that much more alone.

I was thinking this too. They definitely had a deep connection.

if you never read RW's NY Times piece on Winters:

Jonathan Winters R.I.P.

I was pretty young in its heyday but in the post-Star Wars environment it was popular enough for toy makers to create a Mork doll that said "Nanu, Nanu!" when you pulled a string or something; I def remember that.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, August 12, 2014 12:05 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

A friend of mine had one of these:

http://www.toynerd.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/mork3.jpg

de la planète Ork

dans son ouef de l'espace

I had one of those too! I remember picking it up at a garage sale for like a dime.

I've idly thought for years about buying all of the Robin Williams action figures (Mork, Peter Pan, Genie, Jumanji dude, One Hour Photo IIRC, etc.). Because I think he might have the most.