Link (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/robin-williams-dies-suspected-suicide-724724)

Oscar-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams has died at age 63, according to police in Marin County, Calif.

The full statement is below.

On August 11, 2014, at approximately 11:55 a.m, Marin County Communications received a 9-1-1 telephone call reporting a male adult had been located unconscious and not breathing inside his residence in unincorporated Tiburon, CA. The Sheriff’s Office, as well as the Tiburon Fire Department and Southern Marin Fire Protection District were dispatched to the incident with emergency personnel arriving on scene at 12:00 pm. The male subject, pronounced deceased at 12:02 pm has been identified as Robin McLaurin Williams, a 63-year-old resident of unincorporated Tiburon, CA.

An investigation into the cause, manner, and circumstances of the death is currently underway by the Investigations and Coroner Division s of the Sheriff’s Office. Preliminary information developed during the investigation indicates Mr. Williams was last seen alive at his residence, where he resides with his wife, at approximately 10:00 pm on August 10, 2014. Mr. Williams was located this morning shortly before the 9-1-1 call was placed to Marin County Communications. At this time, the Sheriff’s Office Coroner Division suspects the death to be a suicide due to asphyxia, but a comprehensive investigation must be completed before a final determination is made. A forensic examination is currently scheduled for August 12, 2014 with subsequent toxicology testing to be conducted.

Williams' publicist Mara Buxbaum told The Hollywood Reporter: “Robin Williams passed away this morning. He has been battling severe depression of late. This is a tragic and sudden loss. The family respectfully asks for their privacy as they grieve during this very difficult time.”

His wife, Susan Schneider, said: "This morning, I lost my husband and my best friend, while the world lost one of its most beloved artists and beautiful human beings. I am utterly heartbroken. On behalf of Robin's family, we are asking for privacy during our time of profound grief. As he is remembered, it is our hope the focus will not be on Robin's death, but on the countless moments of joy and laughter he gave to millions.”

Williams, a four-time Oscar nominee, won a supporting actor Oscar for Good Will Hunting. He most recently starred in CBS' comedy The Crazy Ones, which lasted only one season.

He recently checked into rehab in an effort to maintain his sobriety.

OMG. I'm just stunned. :(

Unbelievable. I just heard about this on twitter and checked several other news sites because I couldn't believe it. R.I.P. Robin Williams. :(

I was just going post about this my heart is broken right now speechless

this is just so unbelievable, completely shocking and so sad :(

R.I.P. Robin Williams :rip:

So sad about this. The word "genius" is thrown about a lot, but Robin Williams had such a unique talent for comedy and dramatic roles, that I do consider him a genius.

Praying he's up there right now having a great reunion with John Belushi and Christopher Reeves.

RIP.

This was not news I was expecting. :(

A great, great loss -- so sorry for all of his fans. This is probably the biggest shock among sitcom stars since we lost John Ritter. Unbelievable.

Metv is airing the Happy days episde where Robin wiliams guest on Happy days as Mork.

I was in the car and heard on the radio the news of this tragic loss. Everyone in the car shouted out "OMG WHAT?" I can't believe it. Robin's poor family and friends must be devastated.

RIP Robin.

A great, great loss -- so sorry for all of his fans. This is probably the biggest shock among sitcom stars since we lost John Ritter. Unbelievable.

I thought that too. Both of these men were so "boyish" --I know there's a better word out there--that it seem impossible for them both to be gone so very early.

Wow this news certainly is a shocker, I didn't see that one coming. He loved to perform, wasn't getting the movie role offers anymore like he used to, and The Crazy Ones was cancelled after a season. Maybe he thought he wasn't being funny anymore, perhaps that was part of his depression problem. Whatever the reason, it's a tragedy, very sad, and you just never know what demons a person is battling. They can appear fine on the outside, but be miserable on the inside. R.I.P. Mr. Williams.

I was in the car and heard on the radio the news of this tragic loss. Everyone in the car shouted out "OMG WHAT?" I can't believe it. Robin's poor family and friends must be devastated.

RIP Robin.
Shazbot!

I was in my car, driving home from work, when I first saw a posting about his passing on Facebook from my smartphone. Haven't had a public death like this since John Ritter. Anyways, RIP.

Metv is airing the Happy days episde where Robin wiliams guest on Happy days as Mork.
I believe there were two of those.

I read that it was an "apparent suicide." If it's true, I suppose the failure of "The Crazy Ones" did him in.

WOW!!! I am still in shock! I heard about Robin's passing around 6:00! I was just home from work and put the news on . I couldn't believe it! It's 11:30 now and I'm still in shock! Very sad, depression is a terrible thing! Somebody else posted here how a person can be so depressed and seem happy on the outside. You never know. I'm wondering now, if perhaps it was an accidental overdose or something? I hate to think he took his own life. That he was that sad, and gave up on himself! My prayers to his wife. I know she is really upset!

I was also thinking of Pam Dawber, his Mork and Mindy co-star. Rebecca Schaeffer who played her younger sister in My sister Sam was murdered by an obsessed fan, that was so awful and shocking! And now another person she starred on a TV show with had a tragic death as well!

The last role I saw Robin play was Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Butler! It was just a small part, but he did a good job I thought. I wasn't born yet when he was president, but from what I heard from older people he played him pretty well! RIP Robin, you were loved and will be missed!:(

Metv is airing the Happy days episde where Robin wiliams guest on Happy days as Mork.

Henry Winkler recalls Williams’ “Happy Days” debut (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/henry-winkler-recalls-robin-williams-724774)

So sad about this. The word "genius" is thrown about a lot, but Robin Williams had such a unique talent for comedy and dramatic roles, that I do consider him a genius.

Praying he's up there right now having a great reunion with John Belushi and Christopher Reeves.

Williams changed TV forever (http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Robin-Williams-dead-in-suspected-suicide-5682190.php): "I have always believed that television didn't create Robin Williams (http://time.com/3102128/robin-williams-dead-mork-remembrance/?) as much as Williams recreated television comedy"

Wow this news certainly is a shocker, I didn't see that one coming. He loved to perform, wasn't getting the movie role offers anymore like he used to, and The Crazy Ones was cancelled after a season. Maybe he thought he wasn't being funny anymore, perhaps that was part of his depression problem. Whatever the reason, it's a tragedy, very sad, and you just never know what demons a person is battling. They can appear fine on the outside, but be miserable on the inside. R.I.P. Mr. Williams.

I immediately thought about this too. I know that this is likely oversimplifying the matter but I also wouldn't be surprised if it was at least a marginal contributing factor. The Crazy Ones was supposed to be Robin Williams' "big comeback" so to speak, since it was his first time starring on a TV show since 1982. From my understanding, Robin was also going through some financial issues stemming from his last divorce (which further pushed him back into doing weekly, episodic television).

Williams changed TV forever (http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Robin-Williams-dead-in-suspected-suicide-5682190.php): "I have always believed that television didn't create Robin Williams (http://time.com/3102128/robin-williams-dead-mork-remembrance/?) as much as Williams recreated television comedy"

Memories of Mork: Robin Williams, RIP

James Poniewozik @poniewozik

Aug. 11, 2014
Robin Williams 1978 ABC/AP
To the kids who watched him in his first defining role, Williams proved that weirdness wasn't just O.K. — it was amazing

by Taboola

Robin Williams, of course, didn’t belong to me alone. At the peak of Mork & Mindy’s success — when he made the cover of TIME his first season — over 60 million people watched it every week. (A No. 1 show today is lucky to get a third that many viewers.)


But when I was a kid, raised on a steady diet of ABC sitcoms, he was the first TV star who felt like mine — the first one who amazed me, who connected with me, who I genuinely liked, rather than simply liked to laugh at. Williams, who died Monday at age 63, had that gift, the ability to be staggeringly gifted yet connect on your level, to do things it seemed no human comic could do, and yet feel as if he were doing them for you.

Again: I was nothing special in that respect. Kids loved Mork, the crazy alien on Boulder, Colo., and loved Williams as Mork. He was a man and a kid, buoyant, rubber-faced, an endless gusher of playful invention. That superhuman ability to riff and improvise was what led Garry Marshall to first cast him in an episode of Happy Days, home of Fonzie, whose 1950s characters and catchphrases were already enshrined on our lunchboxes. (Aaaaaaayyyy!) Soon enough Marshall had the sense to give Williams his own spinoff — time-jumped to present-day 1978 — to crank him up and let him run with his improvisations.

Like any American child, I loved the Fonz. But the Fonz was a grownup, with his motorcycles and dates with triplets. Mork, who soon got his spinoff in 1978, was something else: an adult, and a kid, and a magical being. He was a grown man who looked at our world with the delighted surprise of a baby. (He was also, of course, channeling ideas from the adult comedic counterculture at the time, but all my classmates and I heard then was the funny voices.)

The Fonz was cool. Mork was weird — popping-out-of-an-egg, rainbow-suspenders, scat-riffing-about-the-Shah-of-Iran weird. And he communicated an idea that I hadn’t seen in noncartoon pop culture before then: that weirdness was O.K. No, it was great. It was energy. It opened up worlds.

This being the ’70s, Mork had his own catchphrase — Nanu nanu! — but what was captivating about Williams was that you didn’t know what would come out of his mouth. In the classic episode, “Mork’s Mixed Emotions,” he begins by describing a dream he had to Pam Dawber’s Mindy, his roommate and later his love: he becomes a one-man comedy troupe, lurching from confusion to anger to jealousy, arguing with himself in multiple voices and slapping himself in the face, finally becoming Mindy herself. In that first season, Williams was making a rich-for-the-time $15,000 an episode, but it was a bargain: his producers were getting a package deal.

One of the premises set early on in Mork & Mindy was that Mork had no emotions. He didn’t fool any of us for a second. His clipped alien-speak notwithstanding, Williams played him as all emotion: delight, confusion, warmth, amazement, glee. His emotions cascaded over him, and he struggled to wrestle and understand them — which, of course, was another thing kids identified with in him. When Mork began to fall in love with Mindy, he was the only one surprised that he had it in him. As he would eventually report back to his alien mentor Orson, “Love doesn’t make sense. That’s why Earthlings think it’s so wonderful.”

I am, I realize, sketching only a tiny corner of the career that Williams made for himself. But it was that performance as space-alien Mork — more human than any of us, Orkan though he was — that made me, and millions of others, feel like he belonged to us, even as he belonged to the universe. RIP.

Memories of Mork: Robin Williams, RIP

James Poniewozik @poniewozik

Aug. 11, 2014
Robin Williams 1978 ABC/AP
To the kids who watched him in his first defining role, Williams proved that weirdness wasn't just O.K. — it was amazing

by Taboola

Robin Williams, of course, didn’t belong to me alone. At the peak of Mork & Mindy’s success — when he made the cover of TIME his first season — over 60 million people watched it every week. (A No. 1 show today is lucky to get a third that many viewers.)


But when I was a kid, raised on a steady diet of ABC sitcoms, he was the first TV star who felt like mine — the first one who amazed me, who connected with me, who I genuinely liked, rather than simply liked to laugh at. Williams, who died Monday at age 63, had that gift, the ability to be staggeringly gifted yet connect on your level, to do things it seemed no human comic could do, and yet feel as if he were doing them for you.

Again: I was nothing special in that respect. Kids loved Mork, the crazy alien on Boulder, Colo., and loved Williams as Mork. He was a man and a kid, buoyant, rubber-faced, an endless gusher of playful invention. That superhuman ability to riff and improvise was what led Garry Marshall to first cast him in an episode of Happy Days, home of Fonzie, whose 1950s characters and catchphrases were already enshrined on our lunchboxes. (Aaaaaaayyyy!) Soon enough Marshall had the sense to give Williams his own spinoff — time-jumped to present-day 1978 — to crank him up and let him run with his improvisations.

Like any American child, I loved the Fonz. But the Fonz was a grownup, with his motorcycles and dates with triplets. Mork, who soon got his spinoff in 1978, was something else: an adult, and a kid, and a magical being. He was a grown man who looked at our world with the delighted surprise of a baby. (He was also, of course, channeling ideas from the adult comedic counterculture at the time, but all my classmates and I heard then was the funny voices.)

The Fonz was cool. Mork was weird — popping-out-of-an-egg, rainbow-suspenders, scat-riffing-about-the-Shah-of-Iran weird. And he communicated an idea that I hadn’t seen in noncartoon pop culture before then: that weirdness was O.K. No, it was great. It was energy. It opened up worlds.

This being the ’70s, Mork had his own catchphrase — Nanu nanu! — but what was captivating about Williams was that you didn’t know what would come out of his mouth. In the classic episode, “Mork’s Mixed Emotions,” he begins by describing a dream he had to Pam Dawber’s Mindy, his roommate and later his love: he becomes a one-man comedy troupe, lurching from confusion to anger to jealousy, arguing with himself in multiple voices and slapping himself in the face, finally becoming Mindy herself. In that first season, Williams was making a rich-for-the-time $15,000 an episode, but it was a bargain: his producers were getting a package deal.

One of the premises set early on in Mork & Mindy was that Mork had no emotions. He didn’t fool any of us for a second. His clipped alien-speak notwithstanding, Williams played him as all emotion: delight, confusion, warmth, amazement, glee. His emotions cascaded over him, and he struggled to wrestle and understand them — which, of course, was another thing kids identified with in him. When Mork began to fall in love with Mindy, he was the only one surprised that he had it in him. As he would eventually report back to his alien mentor Orson, “Love doesn’t make sense. That’s why Earthlings think it’s so wonderful.”

I am, I realize, sketching only a tiny corner of the career that Williams made for himself. But it was that performance as space-alien Mork — more human than any of us, Orkan though he was — that made me, and millions of others, feel like he belonged to us, even as he belonged to the universe. RIP.
It is sometimes the characteristic of a genius that the individual feels they have to live up that reputation and produce similar performances at periodic intervals. How hard it is to make people laugh only the comic really knows. I recall three personalities from my own experience here in England: Eric Morecambe,Tony Hancock and Kenneth Williams(and I'm sure there are many others) who found it difficult to switch off in real life and paid the ultimate price of untimely death. Of course the reasons which drive one to suicide may be complex and diverse,but it may be no coincidence that this felo de se occurred on a Monday morning as capitalism woke up again from its weekend slumber with socio-economic issues foremost in Williams' mind.

I immediately thought about this too. I know that this is likely oversimplifying the matter but I also wouldn't be surprised if it was at least a marginal contributing factor. The Crazy Ones was supposed to be Robin Williams' "big comeback" so to speak, since it was his first time starring on a TV show since 1982. From my understanding, Robin was also going through some financial issues stemming from his last divorce (which further pushed him back into doing weekly, episodic television).

He had a complex mind, could be a number of things which caused him to end his life. The Crazy Ones cancellation might have been a factor. He had sobriety issues as well.

My co-worker just told me the cause of death was hanging! I didn't know that, I wasn't aware of all the facts! I thought he was found dead, and they were just assuming suicide! Wow, so sad, horrible way to end your life by hanging yourself. I guess I was in denial, I didn't want to think he did that!

He will be greatly missed, may he rest in peace.

:rip:

http://www.newyorker.com/culture-desk/sarah-larson/robin-williams-best-weirdo



Robin Williams: The Best Weirdo
By Sarah Larson



On Sunday night, I was startled to hear Robin Williams’s voice, warm and beseeching, playing like a theme song over an ad on my TV. “We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race,” he said. “And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love—these are what we stay alive for.” I hadn’t heard this speech since 1989, but I’d know it anywhere. It’s a soliloquy of sorts from “Dead Poets Society,” the carpe-diem boarding-school movie, which, to a tenth-grader in the late eighties, felt like pure emotion, pure beauty—full of idealistic, beautiful teen-age boys running around in the woods, playing Puck in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” despite their stern fathers’ wishes, spurred on by a maverick teacher, the warmhearted, riffing Williams, in one of his heartfelt-inspirer roles. My mom found it mawkish, but she was kind to my tearful friend and me as we bravely made our way to the car afterward. On Sunday night, when the ad was over, I rewound it and listened to the speech again.

Robin Williams, who died yesterday at the age of sixty-three, seemed to be taking the world by storm for much of my childhood, and into my adolescence—and that was just fine with us. When I was little, I loved his humanoid alien-meets-cool-chick sitcom “Mork & Mindy.” (That it was a spinoff of “Happy Days” was a mark of quality, as far as I was concerned.) I spent many hours coloring in a “Mork & Mindy” coloring book during otherwise dull afternoons at my stepfather’s jewelry store, carefully filling in Mork’s rainbow suspenders and the egg-shaped spaceship that had sent Mork to our planet. I loved the romance between the ponytailed, no-nonsense Mindy and the bonkers, alien Mork; the show, set in groovy Boulder, Colorado, felt modern in its confident silliness, and because it was a vehicle for Williams, whom we could just marvel at as he spun along. When Mork would say “Mork calling Orson—come in, Orson,” hailing his alien overlord at the end of each episode, I appreciated his thoughtful reflections about the lessons he’d worked out that week on Earth. Williams had a way of making insane goings-on feel all right for his audience, because he had such sensitivity and gentleness when he was calm. He wasn’t a terrifying lunatic—he was an id run wild, or a child, or ourselves at our craziest. Mork would sit on the couch by standing on his head, and he did somersaults and said “Shazbot”; he made being a weirdo delightful and appealing. He was comfortable and kind, and he always returned to something like sanity.

As I grew up, I was amazed at the role Williams had in pop culture. He seemed to occupy the same smart countercultural territory as “Doonesbury” or rock and roll—your cool young parents could like him and you could like him, too—and he was somehow able to be, all at once, Mork from Ork, a totally unhinged standup, the growly weirdo lead in “Popeye,” and a serious actor in movies like “The World According to Garp” and “Moscow on the Hudson.” When I saw him on a “Comic Relief” special in the eighties, I remember thinking that he seemed antic, a little too nuts in a way that was more exhausting than fun, and later I heard rumors that he was into cocaine. “Good Morning Vietnam” was a vehicle for this manic multi-character stuff—he took the idea of the beloved real-life d.j. Adrian Cronauer and made him a lot like Robin Williams, doing his campy gay-character voice, his Elvis (“Viva Da Nang! Oh, Viva Da Nang!”), his Cronkite, his all-purpose Robin Williams motormouth. If you bought the cassette of the soundtrack, you got Williams along with your Martha and the Vandellas, and bits of these routines lodged in your head forever. “Good Morning Vietnam” struck me then as smart, funny, a little edgy, subversive in its attitude about Vietnam in the way my parents’ whole generation was. But I also knew, at fourteen, as I watched the marsh grasses sway with the helicopter-blade wind at the end of the movie, set to the ironic strains of “What a Wonderful World,” that it was a little too much—a little too pleased with itself, and that somehow Williams, a natural for these roles in these films, was complicit in this kind of sentimentality.

Yet sentiment, or real emotion, was also his strength. He often did roles in which he played someone very special—Garp, Cronauer—or in which he alone saw what was special in other people, as in “Dead Poets Society,” where he stirs the souls of his English students; or “Awakenings,” in which he plays the neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks, and brings catatonic patients back to consciousness and life; or “Good Will Hunting,” where he plays a psychiatrist who saves a brilliant kid from a future of Southie squalor.

His habit of doing broader movies (“Death to Smoochy”), his adrenalin-fuelled shtick (on comedy specials and talk shows, he often seemed high or manic, and he made you feel nervous), and his corniness (“Patch Adams,” “What Dreams May Come”) made him eternally unpredictable, and a figure some people felt that they’d outgrown or had tired of. A friend and I, a few years ago, joked that we wanted to have a film festival called “Robin Williams: Non-Man,” in which we’d feature all his drag (“Mrs. Doubtfire”), genie (“Aladdin”), or robot (“Bicentennial Man”) roles. But he was always capable of truly connecting, of being real. When my friends and I saw him in “Good Will Hunting,” in 1997, we loved him all over again, despite his jarring South Boston accent and despite our mature selves. I have more than one friend who has said, as a joke at various points in the past decade, “It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault,” in reference to what Williams’s character says to Matt Damon’s character in a scene that made us weep. Post-college, in 1997, we might have thought that Robin Williams couldn’t still get to us, but he could. Whatever else he did, however many brilliant, antic impressions he did or costumes he wore, he was also that bearded, loving, real person who saw what was special in people and who was special himself. And we loved him for it.

Metv is airing the Happy days episde where Robin wiliams guest on Happy days as Mork.

Right now MeTV is airing the episode where Mork returns.

http://popwatch.ew.com/2014/08/12/mork-mindy-robin-williams-boulder/?

The house located in Boulder, Colorado, was decorated today with flowers and signs in tribute to the late actor.
Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/tv-tattle#msD6GbRdSUtigQJV.99

I didn't realize he reunited with Pam Dawber on his last sitcom. They were quite fond of each other according to interviews I found on YouTube. R.I.P. Robin.

So sorry to hear about him. He will always be Mork to me, RIP.

This was quite a shock to learn the details of his passing, really don't understand all the hate towards this man. Depression is a serious and a real illness. RIP Robin :(

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/13/arts/television/on-tv-a-super-sized-performer-breaking-out-of-a-small-box.html

TV (http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/z-on-tv-blog/bal-robin-willams-elevated-tv-manic-energy-improv-20140811,0,1532581.story), says Alessandra Stanley, allowed for the looseness and spontaneity that have less of a place in movies. Television (http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/from-mork-mindy-to-the-crazy-ones-the-tv-legacy-of-the-late-great-robin-williams) was also where he shot to fame and, in recent years, it was where he returned to seek a steady mooring.”
Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/tv-tattle#P0YbxeOvaO8BgeCe.99

Link (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/13/arts/television/on-tv-a-super-sized-performer-breaking-out-of-a-small-box.html?_r=0)

In 1978, when “Saturday Night Live” still had almost all of its original cast, and prime time offered “All in The Family,” “M*A*S*H,” “WKRP in Cincinnati,” “Taxi” and “Rhoda,” there didn’t seem to be any room — or need — for something fresh and different on television.

Back then, a sitcom about a single girl and her roommate from outer space sounded regressive, a reconstituted “My Favorite Martian” or “I Dream of Jeannie.” But, of course, “Mork and Mindy” starred Robin Williams, a volcanic eruption of funny voices and manic, mumbled asides with free associations that were quite often out of character (How could a naïve alien tell Jimmy Carter jokes?), yet never completely off base.



Mr. Williams’s inspired nonsense was elastic, stretching a joke way out of shape before snapping it back neatly into place — a little like the rainbow-colored suspenders he wore on the show, which became a fad and, almost overnight, a popular Halloween costume.


Robin Williams was one of the most explosively, exhaustingly, prodigiously verbal comedians who ever lived, says film critic A. O. Scott. And the only thing faster than Williams’s mouth was his mind.
Image CreditABC, via Associated Press

Television was his cradle, and in some ways it was his true home. It allowed for the looseness and spontaneity that have less of a place in movies. Television was also where he shot to fame and, in recent years, it was where he returned to seek a steady mooring.

Mr. Williams, who was found dead at home on Monday, created the Mork character for a guest appearance on “Happy Days” that was so dazzling that it won him his own show. Long before TV got in the habit of giving great stand-up comics like Jerry Seinfeld or Louis C.K. sitcoms, ABC did that with Mr. Williams, leaving room for his flights of semantic fancy that were comedy solos thinly disguised as dialogue. “Mork and Mindy” worked because it let stand-up stay in the picture.


At the show’s peak, 60 million people watched Mr. Williams riff on his own rhythms, while other television sitcoms still worked on a steady metronome of punch line — beat — capper. (Now, seen on YouTube, much of “Mork and Mindy” seems quite tame, but that is because television comedy has sped up, while dramas have slowed down.)

He was coiled even when calm, but always lovable. He idolized and championed Jonathan Winters, but he was so much sweeter and easier to like than his hero — or Jim Carrey, a younger comedian who is sometimes likened to Mr. Williams. Mr. Carrey likewise has manic energy and a rubbery versatility, but his comic persona is a lot less charming.


Mr. Williams, who had a jagged history of drug and alcohol abuse (he was at the Chateau Marmont with John Belushi hours before that comedian died of an overdose), did not burn out or peak with “Mork and Mindy,” even though the show too quickly lost momentum and eventually its following.

He was funny again after that, particularly on “The Tonight Show” and in comedy specials. More remarkably, he also proved that he could settle down and be serious and even take chances as an actor: He was the spinach-eating title sailor in Robert Altman’s “Popeye,” and a Soviet defector in “Moscow on the Hudson.”


But oddly enough, the comedian who made his mark by being so original may be best remembered for movie roles that were adaptations rather than innovations. He was amazingly winning as a man impersonating a woman in “Mrs. Doubtfire,” but not quite as amazing as Dustin Hoffman had been in “Tootsie.” The caring therapist he portrayed in “Good Will Hunting” seemed a lot like the one Judd Hirsch played in “Ordinary People.”

There were other roles that were better showcases for his unique gifts, notably “Good Morning, Vietnam.” He played troubled lunatics in “The Fisher King” and “One Hour Photo,” but he played the caretaker to the troubled just as often, including in “Dead Poets Society,” “Awakenings” and “The World According to Garp.” Even when Mr. Williams was cast as an authority figure, he often played it as the guy who was so unorthodox that the establishment considered him bonkers.


So it makes sense that he tried to blend those two sides for his 2013 comeback, “The Crazy Ones,” a CBS sitcom created by David E. Kelley that cast him as a brilliant, unhinged ad executive, Simon Roberts, who has to be watched like a wayward child, but who is also a caretaker for his strait-laced daughter and business partner, Sydney (Sarah Michelle Gellar), and her team of eager young ad executives.

Television is no longer assisted living for retired movie stars. It’s become a far more creative and, in some ways, more challenging arena than film. Mr. Williams won an Oscar for “Good Will Hunting,” but never an Emmy for his signature role, and so he may have had some unfinished business on network television.

The role of Simon was created for him with the same loving deference that Mr. Williams showed Winters, who was cast as his son in Season 4 of “Mork and Mindy.” And like Winters then, in “The Crazy Ones” Mr. Williams seemed to be gamely but a little creakily doing an impersonation of himself.

It wasn’t a great show, and CBS canceled it after one season, but for Mr. Williams, there was no loss of face. So many comedians past their prime try to revive their careers by doing impressions of other performers. Mr. Williams, who was always a brilliant impersonator, took a chance on television and tried to play himself again.

The impression was close enough because nobody else came any closer.

Link (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/robin-williams-dies-suspected-suicide-724724)

Oscar-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams has died at age 63, according to police in Marin County, Calif.

The full statement is below.

On August 11, 2014, at approximately 11:55 a.m, Marin County Communications received a 9-1-1 telephone call reporting a male adult had been located unconscious and not breathing inside his residence in unincorporated Tiburon, CA. The Sheriff’s Office, as well as the Tiburon Fire Department and Southern Marin Fire Protection District were dispatched to the incident with emergency personnel arriving on scene at 12:00 pm. The male subject, pronounced deceased at 12:02 pm has been identified as Robin McLaurin Williams, a 63-year-old resident of unincorporated Tiburon, CA.

An investigation into the cause, manner, and circumstances of the death is currently underway by the Investigations and Coroner Division s of the Sheriff’s Office. Preliminary information developed during the investigation indicates Mr. Williams was last seen alive at his residence, where he resides with his wife, at approximately 10:00 pm on August 10, 2014. Mr. Williams was located this morning shortly before the 9-1-1 call was placed to Marin County Communications. At this time, the Sheriff’s Office Coroner Division suspects the death to be a suicide due to asphyxia, but a comprehensive investigation must be completed before a final determination is made. A forensic examination is currently scheduled for August 12, 2014 with subsequent toxicology testing to be conducted.

Williams' publicist Mara Buxbaum told The Hollywood Reporter: “Robin Williams passed away this morning. He has been battling severe depression of late. This is a tragic and sudden loss. The family respectfully asks for their privacy as they grieve during this very difficult time.”

His wife, Susan Schneider, said: "This morning, I lost my husband and my best friend, while the world lost one of its most beloved artists and beautiful human beings. I am utterly heartbroken. On behalf of Robin's family, we are asking for privacy during our time of profound grief. As he is remembered, it is our hope the focus will not be on Robin's death, but on the countless moments of joy and laughter he gave to millions.”

Williams, a four-time Oscar nominee, won a supporting actor Oscar for Good Will Hunting. He most recently starred in CBS' comedy The Crazy Ones, which lasted only one season.

He recently checked into rehab in an effort to maintain his sobriety.
I was watching the CBS shows and during the commercial the newcaster said, from Mork-Mrs. Doubtfire Robin Williams is dead and I said What? Wow!! Dam! I just couldn't beleive it. I wasn't a big big fan but I did like him and I saw some of his movies. I didn't like his Tv show he had on this year and nobody else did too that's why it was canceled. But I just couldn't believe he was that bad off to take his life. I herd there was going to be a Mrs. Doubtfire two and now there isn't because nobody could play it but Robin and I loved the first one. I watched the news at 11:00 which I don't usually do but I wanted to get more details about it. They showed Connon O'brian telling the audience what happened and I was crying knowing how sad connon was to tell everybody and the guests sitting there were sad. they will do a tribute to him at the enmmys which I knew they would. I wonder who will give it? They say death comes in 3's what with James Garner, Robin and Loren Becall and I forget this other actress who died before James. We don't need any more people dying. Besides Robin the others were old. I'm old enough to rmember Mork and Mindy. I know Pam Dawber is just broken up especially since she guest stared on his show this year and they were friends. His wife said Robin wasn't going threw money problems, who knows, maybe he really was and she just didn't want to say. he kep telling everybody to watch the Crazy Ones because he needed the money from alimony.

The cable TV channel Cloo is airing Mork & Mindy episodes today.

i've been watching the marathon - he was so great with all the quick, almost throw-away jokes

I'm surprised that no channels are showing any of his movies this weekend :(

^If you have Encore. A ton of his movies are on tomorrow.

If you have Direct TV. Go to the menu button. Choose search, and type in his name. It'll pop up everything that's playing with him in it.

Robin Williams was a true comedic genius. From his early appearances on Laugh-In to the many movies he appeared in, he was very funny. I remember seeing him in the famous Happy Days episode and to this day, it's my all-time favorite. It also led to Marshall developing Mork and Mindy. It was a very funny show and Williams was definitely the key to its success.

It's a shame he's gone. He had more funny moments left. May he rest in peace.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bVgilYncao&feature=youtube_gdata

Letterman, who once guest-starred on “Mork and Mindy,” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoQiXXP00IE) paid an emotional and heartfelt tribute to Williams, who was his guest about 50 times.
Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/tv-tattle#dUE3UF7P2tHqtkgP.99

It was my birthday the day after he died and I just couldn't bring myself to celebrate. I don't think it will ever really sink in that Robin Williams is dead- that he was in such a bad place that he chose to end his life in such a lonely, horrible way. He always seemed so joyous, yet you could see the sadness in his eyes. He had a face full of emotion. And yes, he could be subtle.

Anyone suffering from depression should have at least one person who keeps them afloat through the dark days. It's hard to imagine that a man who brought so much joy to so many people was all alone in his final hours.

RIP Mr. Williams. Your memory lives on.

I didn't even know him, but it feels like a member of my family died. He was that beloved. Like another site said, probably the most beloved celebrity of our time.

My heart breaks that he suffered so much, I hope he's found peace at last.

What a huge loss to the world-entertainment and otherwise.

http://pagesix.com/2014/08/29/garry-marshall-recalls-how-his-sister-discovered-robin-williams/

“I was looking for someone to play Mork,” he told the audience at a taping of CBS’ “The Odd Couple.” "Dom DeLuise turned down the role. So did John Byner. And Ronny told me about this funny guy, Robin, who performed on the street. People would put money in his hat.”
Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/tv-tattle#pmcJ3tSi5k4H27hf.99

Link (http://pagesix.com/2014/08/29/garry-marshall-recalls-how-his-sister-discovered-robin-williams/)

A surprise guest showed up last week at a Los Angeles studio taping of CBS’s “The Odd Couple” remake, starring Matthew Perry as slobby Oscar and “Reno 911!’s” Thomas Lennon as the fastidious Felix: Garry Marshall, who developed the original sitcom version of Neil Simon’s play, as well as television shows like “Happy Days,” “Laverne & Shirley” and “Mork & Mindy.”

Asked by an audience member what it was like discovering Robin Williams, the 79-year-old recalled that it was actually his sister Ronny who came across the young comic.

“I was looking for someone to play Mork. Dom DeLuise turned down the role. So did John Byner,” Garry said. “And Ronny told me about this funny guy, Robin, who performed on the street. People would put money in his hat.”

When Garry asked his sister why he would want to work with a guy off the street, Ronny told him, “The hat’s pretty full!”

The Post’s Shelly Ridenour also reports that Garry revealed how when he is walking down the street with his sister Penny — who he famously cast in “Laverne & Shirley” — “everyone asks her for an autograph and me for a job.”

Marshall’s next project is directing the off-Broadway show “Billy and Ray,” starring “Mad Men’s” Vincent Kartheiser as Billy Wilder.

It’s due to open Oct. 20 at the Cherry Lane Theatre.

You know, I remember that Robin had a guest appearance on Law & Order: SVU as a guy who manipulated people into committing crimes as part of a protest against the NYPD, and when they caught him getting a fast food joint manager to rape one of his employees, he tried to pass himself off as a slight Alex Jones-type. I have L&O:SVU on Netflix's streaming video service, but they're planning to remove it from there on October 1, 2014. I'd better watch it again, quick.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1015439/combined

It's on hulu plus too

I didn't realize he reunited with Pam Dawber on his last sitcom. They were quite fond of each other according to interviews I found on YouTube. R.I.P. Robin.

It must be extremely horrific for Pam Dawber to know that two of her main co-stars (Robin Williams and Rebecca Schaeffer from My Sister Sam) from her most notable acting works both died extremely tragically. Not to mention, John Ritter, whom Pam worked w/ in the movie Stay Tuned, died rather prematurely and suddenly.

Robin Williams: 5 Awesome Performances & 5 That Sucked (http://whatculture.com/film/robin-williams-5-awesome-performances-5-sucked.php)

Robin Williams: 5 Awesome Performances & 5 That Sucked (http://whatculture.com/film/robin-williams-5-awesome-performances-5-sucked.php)

Is a condolence thread really the place for this? It would probably elicit more replies in a separate thread.

Is a condolence thread really the place for this? It would probably elicit more replies in a separate thread.

We're none the less, discussing/looking back Robin Williams' career also. And plus, this ties into the recent release of his final movie, Night at the Museum 3. It isn't like Robin hasn't always done stuff that he could easily be proud off. That's not to take away otherwise the positive aspects of his career. It's not like I'm posting something that argued that Robin Williams wasn't at all funny or a great actor.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/18/robin-williams-s-suicide-to-be-recreated-by-a-porn-star-in-tasteless-tv-documentary.html

A professional Robin Williams lookalike (http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/robin-williams-channel-5-suicide-5169745), who has worked in porn, will star in Channel 5's Autopsy, a series about the shocking deaths of celebrities.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/18/robin-williams-s-suicide-to-be-recreated-by-a-porn-star-in-tasteless-tv-documentary.html

A professional Robin Williams lookalike (http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/robin-williams-channel-5-suicide-5169745), who has worked in porn, will star in Channel 5's Autopsy, a series about the shocking deaths of celebrities.
Now why does that not surprise me somehow..

When I heard the news that Robin Williams died I was extremely shocked. He was a comedic genius as well as he could throw in a great dramatic role in Dead Poet's Society and Good Will Hunting.

i was in brazil last year when news broke that he died by committing suicide. i was stunned but also was at a lost for words. but 1 year on from his death, i grieved and mourned at his lost. i was so upset it broke my heart, i shedded tears of sadness. i've been depressed before and so i can only contemplate how he was feeling.

i love most of his movies and as mork on mork and mindy. robin was one of a kind. it's unfortunate to know that someone can bring happiness and laughter to so many people around the world, but who is deep down sad and depressed on the inside. hopefully, robin is still smiling in heaven and is at peace.

it's what he truly deserves.

Ten Years Later - Remembering Robin Williams (https://www.forbes.com/sites/marcberman1/2024/08/11/ten-years-laterremembering-robin-williams/)

We remember Robin Williams (https://www.google.com/search?q=robin+williams&sca_esv=78370a10a4e1ca6f&sca_upv=1&biw=1600&bih=773&tbm=nws&sxsrf=ADLYWIJeS8eRpLWhf_M44EkeF2QPWygEdQ%3A1723451991036&ei=V8q5Zpr4AdmfkPIPqOzd-Ao&ved=0ahUKEwja_9n9hu-HAxXZD0QIHSh2F68Q4dUDCA0&uact=5&oq=robin+williams&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LW5ld3MiDnJvYmluIHdpbGxpYW1zSPYcUABYnQ5wAHgAkAEAmAEAoAEAqgEAuAEDyAEA-AEBmAIAoAIAmAMAkgcAoAcA&sclient=gws-wiz-news) 10 years (https://www.google.com/search?q=robin+williams+10+years&sca_esv=78370a10a4e1ca6f&sca_upv=1&biw=1600&bih=773&tbm=nws&sxsrf=ADLYWIJUgBUFMFGwSrssB99-19bPhVh9xQ%3A1723451999565&ei=X8q5ZoeRIpHZkPIP1v6CyQg&ved=0ahUKEwjHvOKBh--HAxWRLEQIHVa_IIkQ4dUDCA0&uact=5&oq=robin+williams+10+years&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LW5ld3MiF3JvYmluIHdpbGxpYW1zIDEwIHllYXJzMgQQABgDMgsQABiABBiGAxiKBTILEAAYgAQYhgMYigUyCxAAGIAEGIYDGIoFMgsQABiABBiGAxiKBTILEAAYgAQYhgMYigUyCBAAGIAEGKIEMggQABiABBiiBDIIEAAYgAQYogRIgidQtwJY6yNwAngAkAEAmAGKBaABuhWqAQszLjUuMC4yLjEuMbgBA8gBAPgBAZgCDqACpBfCAgsQABiABBixAxiDAcICEBAAGIAEGLEDGEMYgwEYigXCAgoQABiABBhDGIoFwgIFEAAYgATCAgsQABiABBiRAhiKBcICBhAAGBYYHsICBRAhGKABwgIFECEYqwLCAgUQIRifBZgDAIgGAZIHCTIuOC40LTMuMaAHmks&sclient=gws-wiz-news) to the day after his untimely death.

I love Robin!!!!! :(