Robin Williams, who won an Oscar in 1998 for Good Will Hunting, died Monday at age 63 of an apparent suicide, according to the Marin County Sheriff’s Department.
Around 11:55 a.m. Monday, sheriff’s officials said, a 911 call came in about a man unresponsive in his home in Tiburon. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Dubbed “the funniest man alive” by Entertainment Weekly in 1997, Williams brought audiences hours of laughter, putting his imaginative spin on characters in film and television. He was lauded for his serious roles as well, winning a best supporting actor Oscar for his performance as Sean Maguire, the therapist who counsels Matt Damon’s math genius in “Good Will Hunting”(1997), and receiving nominations for “The Fisher King” (1991), “Dead Poets Society” (1989) and “Good Morning, Vietnam” (1987).
Born in Chicago in 1951, Williams became one of only two students accepted into John Houseman’s prestigious acting program at Julliard, the other being Christopher Reeve, who became a lifelong friend.
My heart is crying.
He was one of my favorite actors. He was great in everything.
I’ll miss him. So much….
RIP
I’ve watched and loved this guy all my life. As long as I can remember. Always entertaining. Always.
Not just Mork. Or his stand-up work. Or his superbly versatile movie career. But whenever and wherever he was – interviews, talk shows, SNL, Sesame Street, Who Line Is It Anyway? – everything. It was all wonderful. Improv master. All of it.
To me, beyond the seamless cross over from drama and comedy and back again, there was this vulnerability, this person who was feeling, right before out eyes. What pops into my head a lot, generally, is the moment in Good Morning, Vietnam when they shut him off for reading the news after the explosion, and he just bats the mic away with his hand. Superb.
I love him, and I am truly upset and stunned.
Such a great actor and a remarkable loss for the world cinema. Rest in Peace.
R.I.P.
Thank you for some good laughter and entertainment all these years.
Some of my favorites re Mr. Williams’ performances: Mrs. Doubtfire, Dead Poets Society, The Fisher King, etc.
The final interrogation scene of One Hour Photo and the park bench discussion in Good Will Hunting always get me. The gauntlet of emotions he displayed in a few short minutes at the end of One Hour Photo was very impressive. The final image of a disturbed individual locked in bright white room fading to an imaginary picture of a happy family life appears almost prophetic now. Damn you, depression. You have taken another life that provided a great deal of happiness to so many others.
There goes my childhood… RIP
This is very very sad. One of the greatest. I loved him. Rest In Peace, Robin. I’m so sorry…
For the record, the above list of mine is of the top 10 Robin Williams performances, not films. If I had to make a top 10 list of the movies, I’d go:
1. The World According To Garp
2. Dead Poets Society
3. Good Will Hunting
4. Awakenings
5. Good Morning, Vietnam
6. Aladdin
7. The Fisher King
8. Deconstructing Harry
9. Popeye
10. Moscow On The Hudson
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I have been feeling very sad since I heard the news. A lot of moments on films have come to mind. Lots of Robin Williams moments. I remember in the 2004 Oscars Robin Williams went on stage with Billy Crystal. Billy was pretending to speak while we heard Robin`s voice speaking in spanish. As a native spanish speaker, to this very day I still joke with my dad quoting that Oscar moment “quién es más macho? Mel Gibson o Benicio Del Toro” he said. Also comes to mind him singing Blame Canada on year 2000. Such a great performance, but the memory that brought me to tears some minutes ago while I was taking a shower was the first Oscar Ceremony I saw. 1998. I really liked Williams and I was hoping he would win for Good Will Hunting, he was one of those actors who I always wished the best for, so if he was nominated obviously he was my favourite one for the win. Then he did won and he went up on stage being as charismatic and funny as usual. Moments later during the ceremony they presented all previous Oscar winner actors and actress together on stage. After the camera pan all of them Helen Hunt, Kim Basinger and Robin Williams joined them and were greeted by them. I found that moment incredibly touching, because for me that was the moment Robin Williams was recognised by his peers as a serious performer. An Academy Award Winner. And Williams had this child like emotion in his body language, as he usually did. Remembering that moment reduced me to tears. I will miss him so much. I am so grateful we got to know him. RIP
Jessica Chastain posted this nice tribute on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/jes_chastain/status/499020294598959104
Going to watch Mrs. Doubtfire right now. I’ve been watching all the coverage on the news but let’s go for one more “I do voices”, “What do you Mean you do voices”. “I feel like Gloria Swanson, I’m ready for my close up Mr. DeMille. “He made me very special.” “I’m sure he did.”
There is no reason why I should go see a movie except for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, The Angriest Man in Brooklyn, A Most Wanted Man, and Night at the Musuem 3: Secret of the Tomb. Those 4 movies I will make sure I see. I’ll watch Robin Williams movies forever now,
pretending that he’s alive, thinking about him up in heaven, and having a smile on my face whenever I watch his movies on my DVD Player or television. While Phillip Seymour Hoffman took dramatic roles and had tragic death. But Robin Williams was loved by me. He was one of my favorites. I loved his style and I loved that he entertained me for so many years through childhood, through my 20’s and early 30’s.
He was great as the murderer and author in that Al Pacino movie Insomnia.
I love Robin Williams. I adore him. But in the last few years I felt that his popularity is shinkring in the enviroment surround me. I began for the second reason. A lot of people here in Brazil felt ofended with his jokes about Rio de Janeiro beating Chicago as the place for 2016 Olympics – he said that Rio wins because the campaign for the city send 50 strippers and a full of blown for the comitee electtion. IMO, people are just reacting with no sense of humour – God, humankind knows the problems of violence and drugs my beloved city has.
But the mais reason is that, for a lot of people that I read and debate with, Robin Williams is too much, and a same time, too little. When he do comedy roles, he is bigger than life, exaggerates, overacts. When he did dramatic roles, is the opposite, he is too shy, too contracted, almost catatonic. And when his roles frequently mix humor and drama (Patch Adams, Worlds Greatest Dad), he alternates and mixes both feelings with too lush.
Well, a totally agree with that. But you know that? This is precisely why to me Robin Williams is a great actor. He is brillant in the most extreme ways, he brings a radical excellence in both spectrums of acting.
What Robin Williams gave to the world in Mork & Mindy, Mrs.Doubtfire and Death Too Smoochy (I know that a lot of people hate that, but that movie really makes me laugh), but also in Insomnia, One Hour Photo and Night Listener, and of course with everything in between, is let’s say, the beauty of being extremist – this a bittersweet irony, please. When is time to laugh, laugh, when is time to feel sad, feel sad. Today is a moment to feel sad.
I go back and forth between hating this world and tolerating it. No more. I will hate this world forever. It killed Robin Williams and so many more before him. The last thing I actually watched of him was an interview from the Graham Norton show when I was clicking around youtube it was a video of him talking about Michael Jackson dying by taking Propofol to sleep and he sort of made a joke about it. But everyone laughed but him. I was watching this after his recently reported trip to rehab. When his birthday came around I wanted to tweet Happy Birthday on twitter but realized I hadn’t heard anything about him and worried. I didn’t know if tweeting ‘Happy Birthday’ would be a good thing or bad thing because I didn’t know what state he was in. As if he was even paying attention to twitter. But time goes on and we get caught up in other things.
I just came home and turned the TV on and started screaming. The same exact thing happened the day I’d come home and found out about Heath Ledger and Michael Jackson. I was out for a walk, at peace with the world, walked into the house, turned the TV on, and BOOM!
Robin Williams was one of our greatest actors. I always, always point to POPEYE. I know people never take that seriously. But I always did. I thought it was one of the greatest portrayals of all time. Just perfect. But everyone else recognized his brilliance in movies that it’s easier to take seriously. If there is someone that Robin Williams never made laugh then that person was dead already and I wished they’d taken his place. He’s one of the most talented people we’ve ever known. We ain’t never had a friend like him. And we never will again.
I HATE THIS WORLD.
I hate how Heath Ledger, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Micheal Jackson and Robin Williams ended their lives. They have a lot of talent in them and so much to give, to entertain, to do their jobs and they do all these drugs and it’s painful to see them die like that. It’s painful when a person gets killed or gunned down by gang members. We are living in a bad world right now.
Isn’t in Angriest Men in Brooklyn going to be out in September and Night at the Museum 3: Secret of the Tomb going to be out in December.
My favorite Robin Williams movies
1. Mrs. Doubtfire
2. Good Will Hunting
3. Aladdin
4. Hook
5. Jumanji
6. RV
7. Good Morning Vietnam
8. Caddliac Man
9. Deads Poet Society
10, One Hour Photo
I can name them all. Most of his movies I have on DVD, VHS or on Blu-Ray. My favorite was Mrs. Doubtfire but he deserved the Oscar for Good Will Hunting.
As for television, yes Mork and Mindy was always great to watch. I watched a few episodes of the Crazy Ones. I always loved it when he presented something at the Oscars. I think so many people in the Hollywood community embraced his talent. He was well liked in the general public too. No one saw this coming. Depression and suicide is a not a good thing for anybody famous or not.
Earlier today I was talking with a friend about watching Insomnia this evening, and particularly noting how great Al Pacino and Robin Williams are together in it. Then I come home and this is the first thing I hear about on the television. Awful news and terribly sad. RIP.
When I was going through the TRULY roughest bits of my last bout with depression – it nearly drove me to kill myself on a semi-daily basis – I watched Robin Williams’ talks with Craig Ferguson on YouTube. There was one video in particular where they read the viewers’ emails together that NEVER failed to cheer me up. Even when I was at my lowest. The man literally saved my life on many occasions.
I’m in shock.
Thank you for everything, my Captain.
RIP to a Genius! So many bright lights supernova on us like that….too soon, even if they make it past their youth.
First Philip Seymour Hoffman…..now Robin Williams……and there are still four months left to 2014. *shudders*
He’s such a part of my childhood, and I can’t believe he’s gone. You know when you’ve grown up with someone like that you never really feel like they are going to go anywhere. My heart is broken.
Ughhh. So sad. So many movie moments flashing through my mind.
such terribly sad news. RIP.
My top 10 Robin Williams performances are a marvel of sheer variety. The man was versatile beyond any measure. In recent years, due to poor reaction to poor film choices, he has become one of the more undervalued performers in all of entertainment. Let the list below remind us just how good the man was:
1. Good Morning, Vietnam
2. Dead Poets Society
3. Good Will Hunting
4. Aladdin
5. Popeye
6. The Fisher King
7. Insomnia
8. The Birdcage
9. Deconstructing Harry
10. The World According To Garp
This is just so heartbreaking. I have appreciated Robin William’s work since I watched the first run episodes of Mork and Mindy.
I know he has finally found the peace he’s been searching for. RiP.
All i can imagine right now is him as Sy the photo guy, And that makes me really sad,
He was incredibly sharp, Funny and charismatic, But he also brought the most genuine sensitivity to the screen at times.
Mrs. Sellner: Oh, by the way. Do you have any special skills?
Daniel: Oh, yes, I do. I do voices.
Mrs. Sellner: What do you mean, you do voices?
Daniel: [German accent] Well, I do voices.
Daniel: [as evangelist] Yes!
Daniel: [as martian] We’ve come to this planet looking for intelligent life. Oops, we made a mistake.
Daniel: [as Russian immigrant] Happy to be in America. Don’t ask for a green card.
Daniel: [as monster] I want you in the worst way.
Daniel: [as Groucho Marx] Well this is certainly a rough meeting and it’s not going very well for me, I’ll tell you that.
[as Chico Marx]
Daniel: Hey boss, give her a chance. She’s gonna loosen up any moment.
Daniel: [as Sean Connery] Look at me right now, Moneypenny, I want to undo that bow and get to know you.
Daniel: [as a used-car salesman] I’ll be crazy to make a deal with you!
Daniel: [as Ronald Reagan] Nancy and I are still looking for the other half of my head.
Daniel: [as Walter Brennan] This is it! Yes, I’m doing it! I’m sitting on a gold mine!
Daniel: [as Humphrey Bogart] Don’t make me smack you, sweetheart. I’ll do it.
Daniel: [as Pudgie] Figaro!
Daniel: [normal voice] I do a great impression of a hot dog.
[leans back straight, trying to keep a straight face]
Mrs. Sellner: Mr. Hillard, do you consider yourself humorous?
Daniel: I used to. There was a time when I found myself funny, but today you have proven me wrong. Thank you.
Nooo, Captain!
R.I.P.
Horrible, horrible news. He was one of the all time great comedians, and could be even better when striving for drama. He will be missed terribly
Best wishes to his family and friends.
If reports are correct, it is incredibly sad that such a good soul who was able to make us laugh so hard was in so much pain.
Nothing ever compared to his live shows.
Omg a suicide, oh it’s so awful. Such a talent, so funny, I just can’t believe it
Eladola, please don’t.
I wanna die…
What a funny, funny man. His energy, his wit. What a loss.