Robin Williams RIP

In my lifetime...born in '67....there are three celebrity deaths that have shocked my world, and seemingly, the world around me.

John Lennon, Princess Diana and now Robin Williams. I remember well where I was during all three, the shock captured like an image in my mind's eye.

 

Speaking of comic actors dying suddenly, I was really shocked by the deaths of stand-up comic Sam Kinison (hit by a drunk driver) and also by comic actor Phil Hartman (murdered by his soon-to-be ex-wife). Both awful, awful tragedies. Both men should've gone on to much longer careers.

 

Very moving.

 

Article from the local paper about the continuing Robin Williams memorial under the Parrish Shoes JUMANJI sign in town:


http://www.sentinelsource.com/news/...cle_739b12fd-c266-5ea4-a4a8-9400978478dd.html

 

Doh, the tabloids are filled with more gruesome Robin Williams stories this week. I was not aware that the comedian had been dead about 12 hours when they found the body.

 

I figured that out from the reports and just mentally counted from 10:30 when his wife went to bed to about 11 AM when the Asst. found him.

 

thankfully I missed them! but, hey we can get the newz here!

after the TV media picks the bones clean the rag media will suck the marrow out...

shame.

 

I was surfing YouTube this morning, and quite by accident, I found the recent 20/20 episode on the life and death of Robin Williams, which I missed when it was originally broadcast.

As I watched it, I found myself dwelling on the many wonderful movies that Robin brought us; The World According To Garp, Dead Poet's Society, Awakenings, The Fisher King, The Birdcage, and Good Morning Vietnam among many others, movies that made me laugh, made me think, and sometimes, made me cry.

He gave us the gift of laughter, which is the single best defense against the sometimes almost unendurable pain that life can throw at us.

I can thank Robin Williams for the many, many laughs that have helped me deal with my own bouts with depression. And while I am infinitely grateful to Robin for that, I am also very sad that this gratitude, from myself, as well as from his many fans around the world, was not enough to help him deal with his own personal demons.

And now he is gone. And our world will always be a bit more grey in the future because of it.

God bless you Robin. You were a friend to so many people who never ever had the chance to meet you and tell you so...

 

Please check your local TV listing for air time....

PBS' "Pioneers of Television" Special - Robin Williams Remembered premiers on September 9

Features Robin Williams' last full-length TV interview and Pam Dawber's first on-screen TV interview after his death.

 

"In this clip from his feature chat with Jian Ghomeshi, Ethan Hawke reflects on how he was affected by Robin Williams' passing, how his early collaboration with him on Dead Poet's Society shaped his career, and how even as a young man he could sense that he was in pain."

 

Both were comic geniuses too.

 

Tonight, PBS is airing a show entitled "Robin Williams Remembered" in the Pioneers of Television series, an hour long special. I'm going to check it out (I live in North Texas, FWIW).

 

Thank you so much for the heads up on this one. It was very much worth watching...

 

I thought so as well. He was definitely struggling to keep it together .

From everything that has come out in the media about Robin, what has resonated the most with me is that this was a gentle, generous, compassionate, caring, giving person who was the best kind of friend that one could ever hope to have but whose comedy hid such a truly deep well of inner pain that finally, even the love of his family and the adulation of millions of fans was not enough to have him finally succumb to total despair.

Such a sad, sad story. And the irony is almost unendurable...

 

Has there ever been a higher profile suicide? I can't think of any. Still very shocking over a month later.

 

Absolutely. I joked for years that Phil Hartman could've had a pretty damned good career just as network VO announcer: "Toonses... the Cat that could drive a car!" MAN, that guy had a great voice. His delivery made the sketches he did on SNL.

What's unfortunate about Williams is that I think he expected to get better roles over the last 10 years, but everything was kind of tailing out, to the point where he was kind of going through the motions of his career -- taking smaller roles, getting paid less money, not asked for his input, etc. I think his films' recent lack of commercial success did not help his ego at all.

Depends on whether you include drug overdoses. Heath Ledger's would be way up there.

 

While I was a Robin Williams fanatic when I was younger I always felt later his ad libed stand up didn't age real well. And there are examples of this imo. I haven't cared for a lot of his routines in many years. But just when I thought he had kind of became boring to watch in the last 10-15 yrs I find this tonight:

The first 5 minutes is just funny as anything I've seen him do ever...



To me, this interview perfectly expresses the humor of a Robin Williams.

 

Kurt Cobian, Freddie Prinze.

 

Still can't believe he's gone.

Probably my favourite actor and/0r comedian of all time

 

Marilyn Monroe.

 

Something weird about his absence. A true void. Just something that I keep shaking my head when I see this thread and and thinking this just isn't right that he died in such a manner. He deserves more dignity than to be found that way. Death is ugly enough without killing laughter. I'm very sensitive to these things though. Depression is so very difficult. I was listening to an interview in which Robin discussed it a bit. He said something to the effect that it's as if there is a little voice inside that just says "jump". The way he said it was this combination of slyness along with a dash of the hateful from that voice. Just exactly the way it sounds. I'm sorry for him.

 

Speaking as a Nirvana fan, I would't peg Kurt's death as being higher profile than Robin's.

 

I would have to agree with it being Marilyn Monroe

 

Ernest Hemingway perhaps, at least among intentional suicides.