None of us really knows the people we see on television; movie stars are supposed to become their characters, and to make us love (or hate) them without ever thinking of the person ‘playing’ them.
Robin Williams was great at that. It was his job to make people laugh, and he did so beautifully. It’s a shame that he wasn’t laughing along with us.
A clip from one of my all-time favorite movies :
The Birdcage
I always enjoyed his performances of all calibers and I thought he was aging very well in spite of his personal anguish. It’s sad that he apparently had completed a rehab stint just a few weeks ago.
It’s also so sad and cynical that literally seconds after one of the death notices was posted on Facebook some people thought it was a hoax. Because there are idiots actually playing some “jokes” like that pertaining to public figures of all genres.
It’s a damn shame.
I was around during the Mork and Mindy years, and I’ve seen a lot of his movies, but one of my favorite Robin Williams movies is “Good Will Hunting”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM-gZintWDc
He seemed to have so much depth (for lack of a less Hollywoodish word) in the range of characters he could play. From the serious to the lighthearted. A lot of actors I’ve seen in movies can’t pull that off…
When I saw his name in the news in connection with rehab, it seemed really strange. When someone takes their life, human nature is to go back and wonder if we saw signs beforehand (and could anything have been done to prevent it?). I don’t know why with him it feels like it wasn’t so much a surprise after the fact. That must be difficult for the people closest to him, to feel like there’s something they might have done to help.
BT,
I can’t imagine how someone as beloved as Robin Williams could’ve felt alone, but I’ve never had to deal with that type of depression. There’s no telling where the mind can take someone whose defenses are weakened.
Such a wonderful talent. You tend to think of his comedic roles first but he was an incredible dramatic actor as well. I loved so many of his movies, but “The World According to Garp” has to be my personal favorite. Sadly depression doesn’t discriminate. It doesn’t care how famous you are or how much money you have. It can and does affect people in all walks of life. It’s a difficult disease to deal with and I don’t think you can ever completely defeat it. You can only seek help to cope with it and try to get it under control, but it’s a lifelong struggle.
Jeff,
Agreed. Sadly, and understandably, not everyone wins that fight.
Jeff is correct to call depression a disease. And it’s certainly true, Ms. Kane, that not everyone wins the fight. Depression can be a deadly disease. I have suffered from depression for most of my life but didn’t know it. The diagnosis wasn’t made until I was 42. Most people don’t have lifelong depression, but instead become the victim of it at a particular time, often associated with a specific event, and usually of a relatively short duration–a few months, a year, two years, perhaps. I have been properly medicated since age 47. I would like to say to everyone who has depression, or knows someone who has it, that THERE IS A SOLUTION. You just haven’t found it yet. See a psychiatrist. Medications to treat depression are a psychiatrist’s stock-in-trade.