http://www.tickld.com/x/robin-williams-may-have-had-his-problems-but-this-is-amazing

A beautiful message on ‘Mornings 9’  reputedly from Zelda Williams, about her Dad, Robin:

“My family has always been private about our time spent together. It was our way of keeping one thing that was ours, with a man we shared with an entire world. But now that’s gone, and I feel stripped bare. My last day with him was his birthday, and I will be forever grateful that my brothers and I got to spend that time alone with him, sharing gifts and laughter. He was always warm, even in his darkest moments. While I’ll never, ever understand how he could be loved so deeply and not find it in his heart to stay, there’s minor comfort in knowing our grief and loss, in some small way, is shared with millions. It doesn’t help the pain, but at least it’s a burden countless others now know we carry, and so many have offered to help lighten the load. Thank you for that. To those he touched who are sending kind words, know that one of his favorite things in the world was to make you all laugh. As for those who are sending negativity, know that some small, giggling part of him is sending a flock of pigeons to your house to poop on your car. Right after you’ve had it washed. After all, he loved to laugh too… Dad was, is and always will be one of the kindest, most generous, gentlest souls I’ve ever known, and while there are few things I know for certain right now, one of them is that not just my world, but the entire world is forever a little darker, less colorful and less full of laughter in his absence. We’ll just have to work twice as hard to fill it back up again.” ‪#‎RIPRobinWilliams‬ ‪#‎Mornings9‬ Remember, Tributize ROBIN WILLIAMS with Wall Posters:   

Robin Williams’ Death Leaves a Legacy of Sadness — and Carries With It a Warning

TV critic remembers Robin William’s caring about his Dad, who also had Parkinson’s

RIP Robin Williams: A Look Back at the Late Actor’s Best Work

by ScreenCrush Staff

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Robin Williams’ death is shocking and heartbreaking and touches us in a way usually reserved for close friends. Maybe that’s because we’re of a generation that grew up on Robin Williams. He’s been making us laugh and cheering us up since we were kids; like a big-screen father figure. That he died suffering from severe depression, makes the news all the more tragic. As director Garry Marshall, who first cast Williams in ‘Happy Days’ and later ‘Mork and Mindy,’ said today, “He could make everybody happy but himself.”

He made everyone happy and in that spirit, we’d like to celebrate his work, and we asked a few of our writers to look back at their favorite moments of his career because maybe looking at the best Robin Williams moments will cheer us up.

‘Aladdin’

In 1992, as Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ and Dre’s “Nuthin’ But a G Thang” were single-handedly reinventing the music scene and what we think is “cool,” it was probably not very “cool” for an 8th grader to be listening to the soundtrack to a Disney musical. But, there I was wearing out the cassette tape on the ‘Aladdin’ soundtrack. Disney had a tradition of casting classically trained singers for its animated features, not superstars, and it’s Robin Williams’ performance in ‘Aladdin’ that made the film, and its soundtrack so alive. While they never reached the top of the charts like “A Whole New World,” let’s be honest: it was Williams’ work that made the movie and soundtrack memorable. Williams brought all the personality and life and humor that we come to associate with Robin Williams to his role as the animated Genie. He was one of the first A-list stars to voice an animated film in the modern era and changed the way animated movies would be developed. His voiceover work was so transcendent the Golden Globes made up an award just to recognize his work on the film. ‘Aladdin’ may never be as cool as Nirvana or ‘The Chronic’ but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t as influential, and that’s all Robin Williams. – Mike Sampson

‘Mrs. Doubtfire’

When people remember ‘Mrs. Doubtfire,’ they recall Robin Williams doing what he did best: a larger than life, chameleonic presence who was able to seamlessly switch between imitations and characters. In the film, Williams played a voice actor and father whose wife absconds with his children; in a desperate bid to spend more time with his kids, he poses as an old British nanny. It wasn’t the silliness of his falsetto and seeing him in drag as Mrs. Doubtfire that struck me, but how much Williams reminded me of my own father, who wouldn’t let anything stand in his way of providing for me and being the best father he possibly could. Like Williams’ Daniel Hillard, my dad was also flawed, but that didn’t keep him from striving to be a great dad. Throughout the course of the film, we watch as the Mrs. Doubtfire disguise enables Williams to learn how to be a better father and to realize how much and how deeply his family is hurting — and like Dustin Hoffman in ‘Tootsie’ or Mel Gibson in ‘What Women Want,’ it takes living life as a woman to teach him how to be a better man. I watched ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ with my dad countless times, wearing out our VHS copy as we chuckled and cried along with Williams, a man who was able to elicit immense empathy while making you laugh until your stomach ached. – Britt Hayes

‘Jumanji’

Every kid dreams about escaping into their playthings — it might be the most enduring childhood fantasy we have — but no one really gets to do it. Robin Williams got to do it in Joe Johnston’s ‘Jumanji,’ a film that sounds like, well, like all fun and games until the thing really gets rolling. ‘Jumanji’ works on a big number of levels, but Williams is the lynchpin that holds it all together. He was always able to tap into a wide-eyed, child-like spirit before zinging into far more adult and dramatic shades, but Williams’ role as Alan Parrish is probably the best combination of those talents (it’s probably even better than ‘Jack,’ a film designed to portray such duality in the most obvious way possible). He’s an actual man-child, a full-grown adult trapped in the mind of a terrified kid. The film is funny and silly (and packed with insane animals and still weirder villains), but it’s also wrenchingly sad, a tough combination to pull off while still being actually entertaining. Because Williams could do both things and be both things, ‘Jumanji’ worked. It’s easy to toss around words like “gravitas,” but that’s exactly what is on display in ‘Jumanji’: Williams’ gravitas and skill and presence. It’s not just a kid’s fantasy, it’s a classic, and Williams’ performance is what elevates it to that status. – Kate Erbland

‘Good Will Hunting’

Robin Williams won his first and only Oscar for a supporting role in ‘Good Will Hunting,’ opposite the dynamic duo, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. In the film, Damon plays a 20-year-old working-class Bostonian and a genius when it comes to mathematics. The problem is that he’s got a bit of an attitude problem. After assaulting a policeman, the young man gets some leniency if he goes to see a psychiatrist, played by Williams. In one of their most memorable interactions, Williams’ Sean Maguire attempts to connect with Will Hunting by telling him a tale of how he skipped “the greatest game in Red Sox history” to go meet his future wife. If you’re not bawling your eyes out by the end of the scene, a shame on your house! This role helped re-establish the actor as a dramatic force to be reckoned with — years earlier, he wowed audiences with turns in such works as ‘The Fisher King’ and ‘Dead Poets Society,’ but ‘Flubber,’ ‘Jumanji,’ ‘Aladdin,’ ‘The Birdcage’ and even a turn on ‘Friends’ flexed his comedic chops. ‘Good Will Hunting’ was a welcome reminder of Williams’ versatile breadth. – Nick Romano

‘The Birdcage’

Williams was an incredibly versatile actor, and his performance as Armand Goldman in ‘The Birdcage’ is, like many of his best roles, both hilarious and deeply touching. Goldman is a gay cabaret owner who, along with his drag queen partner (Nathan Lane, also giving one of his best performances), play it straight when Goldman’s son comes home to visit with his fiancee and her exceedingly conservative parents. Looking back on Williams’ roles, the ones that move me the most are inextricably linked to my nostalgia, and here again he plays a father who will go to any length — no matter how exhausting, humiliating, or absurd — for the love of his child. What could be a performance couched in stereotype is instead exuberant and full of warmth, and a bit more restrained than the roles he was often known for playing. What makes him so special is his commitment to understanding his characters and finding their humanity. His manic tendencies allowed him to play in a very broad range, and within that range were so many shades of emotion — he made it seem effortless when he honed in on any one particular feeling, and as Armand Goldman, he gave us more than just a character, as he so often did — he gave us a real person. – Britt Hayes

‘Dead Poets Society’

While Williams’ only Oscar win was for ‘Good Will Hunting’, he was certainly nominated for others, one of which was for ‘Dead Poets Society,’ the film that produced such memorable quotes as “Oh Captain, my Captain” and “Carpe Diem.” Yes, those are the words made famous by Walt Whitman and John Keating, respectively, but Williams gave them new life while teaching his onscreen students to love poetry. What’s great about this moment, is that he’s teaching the audience watching the film just as much as he is the characters. Come the tearjerking moment of the final sequence, you want to stand atop your coach, shouting “Oh Captain, my Captain” along with the newly awakened kids. Even now, fans reciting these lines as a memorial sendoff and poetic declaration for how Williams touched our lives. And, of course, this film wouldn’t be a Robin Williams performance without a few impersonations thrown into the mix (our favorites: his Shakespeare (“Oh Titus, bring your friend hither”) and Marlon Brando). – Nick Romano

‘Mork and Mindy’

Let’s be honest: there’s no way ‘Mork and Mindy’ should’ve worked. A spinoff from an episode of ‘Happy Days’ where an alien named Mork comes to Earth looking for a human specimen and attempts to abduct Richie Cunningham (only to have his plan foiled – natch – by The Fonz), the sitcom should’ve been a bad joke. One of those high concept 70s sitcoms that we wonder how they ever got greenlit. With any other actor, there would’ve been no ‘Mork and Mindy.’ But, Robin Williams came in and just did what he does: made people laugh no matter what material he was given. It didn’t matter how silly the premise was, you couldn’t not watch Robin Williams. After just one season on air, Williams was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. ‘Mork and Mindy’ was his first ever on-screen role, but it was obvious to anyone watching it was just the beginning. – Mike Sampson

‘Good Morning, Vietnam’

No kid sits in History class thinking they’re going to enjoy a movie their teacher shows them. They were, at best, the chance to stack up your books like a makeshift pillow and take a nap in the darkened room. But, I’ll never forget my middle school teacher who one day, likely without permission from the administration, wheeled in the TV cart and played for us ‘Good Morning, Vietnam’ during a lesson on the war. It was shocking, not just because, as a rated-R movie, it was wildly inappropriate for a classroom of kids in junior high. But, shocking also, because – gasp – we loved it. We probably didn’t get half the jokes, but it was impossible not to be mesmerized by Robin Williams’ performance as motor-mouthed radio DJ Adrian Cronauer (a role for which he would be nominated for his first Oscar). Williams hooked us in with the jokes, and, wouldn’t you know it, when things turned serious, we actually learned something. Our History teacher probably got himself in trouble, but he (and Robin Williams) did the job better than any stale old filmstrip could have. – Mike Sampson

‘The Fisher King’

No one will ever say that Williams’ role in ‘The Fisher King’ was a big stretch for the actor. While his other two Oscar nominations were for more against-type characters (in both ‘Good Will Hunting’ and ‘Dead Poets Society’), his work in ‘The Fisher King’ is filled with all the manic zings and quirks for which we know him best. But, his work is buoyed by equally strong performances from Jeff Bridges, Mercedes Ruehl (who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar) and Amanda Plummer. Other directors sometimes struggled to rein in this version of Williams (see: ‘Patch Adams’), but Terry Gilliam was deftly able to balance his performance with the darker moments in the script. – Mike Sampson

Filed Under: Robin Williams

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      Robin Williams was like a blazing comet, who passed through our lives adding greatness only to burn out sooner than we’d like. If the good trulydie young, Williams personifies that ten fold.            

ROBIN WILLIAMS – BIGGER THAN LIFE, One-Off

Genius Missed Already

Perhaps once in a generation we’re lucky enough to have a special person sent down from above to give us his or her gifts, whether it be comedy, acting, humanitarianism, etc. Like Charlie Chaplin before, Robin Williams is that one person who graced us with such talents and more. Now he’s gone in a time when we could really use him

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So goes a piece of all of us with the man who gave us so much.       Rarely is there such an outpouring as there has been for Williams.

Perhaps we didn’t deserve him. He deserved to go out in a better way.

            A LOOK BACK AND THE LIFE and TIMES and CAREER of  ROBIN WILL      Hollywood had to flook hard  a genie bottle big enough for Robin Williams     Robin Williams was, admittedly,  a lonely man despite his very public persona.  It’s easy to dismiss celebrity as caught up in it’s own excesses. Yet, Williams was different. He never played the Hollywood game, living hundreds of miles from its epicenter.  He was always himself, never changed, treating  everyone as he would want to be treated.     Hearing people who grew up in Williams’ San Francisco Bay Area pay tribute, it seems everyone here has at least one personal Robin Williams story. Like the KTVU weatherman, Bill, who told about Robin coming into the camping store where he was working in 1974 and spending twenty minutes entertaining his new daughter in one of the tents; even though Williams hadn’t achieved major fame yet, Bill was impressed by Williams’ fatherly ways – and remembers it well to this day.     We remember being at the Holy Ciy Zoo comedy club in San Francisco for one of Williams’many ”drop ins.’ You never knew back then whe Williams would surprise an audience by coming on stage to enhance one of his fellow comics’ shows. Who else would take time froman already busy life to do this?                   ROBIN WILLIAMS’ FIRST APPEARANCE ON JOHNNY CARSON Notice any nervousness in the seemingly unflappable Willams?           Another local offered this tribute. Whenever he heard that Robin Williams was going to be on Johnny Carson or a similar late night show he would make a point to stay up to watch it. We did exactly the same thing. It was always a treat when Williams came on and you never knew where he was going to go with his sponteous, laugh-out-loud, over-the-top yet quality comedy. Perhaps only two others come to mind with such quick-witted talent – Don Rickles and the great Jonathan Winters, Williams’ no. 1 mentor who, himself , passed away recently but a ripe old age. Now we’re down to Rickles, who at 88 doesn’t quite have what Wiliams did at 63. And, that’s it today. Lots of great fellow comics and actors of the day in additon to Rickles – Dana Carvey, Bobby Slayton, Jerry Seinfeld, Paul Rodriquez and a few others, but none coming close to matching Williams’ God-given and Julliard-honed skills.           Frankly, I did often wonder how Williams could keep up his pace. Just this past year, age 63, Williams had recently cancelled TV Series (The Crazy Ones) (sp), made four movies (which we’ll be fortunate enough to see later this year) numerous TV /humanitarian appearances –all while trying to be a good father and husband (recently remarried to his third wife) living a non-Hollywood life in suburban San Francisco. Not so surprising that Williams was hospitalized for heart problems in 2009.       Just happened to be discussing ‘what is genius’ yesterday with a friend, before getting the news of Williams’ passing. Couldn’t readily define genius or think of any living genius’ right off the bat… until we heard a tribute from James Lipton of the Actor’s Studio in Los Angeles.         GENIUS: To do effortlessly what the rest of us can’t do           Lipton could come up with only one example before going into Williams. ‘Willie Mays was a genius. You can’t acquire genius. He was able to do what no one else could do, ‘ stated Lipton, emphatically.     During a TV interview last night on CNN, Lipton talked about Williams in glowing terms. Lipton said that he had come to know William very well over 20 years, while running the Actors Studio. Of the 250 guest actors to visit the Actors Studio, Williams was the FAVORITE guest of all, according to Lipton. That pretty much says it all.     Some wonder how Williams so easily transitioned from comedy to acting so easily .  
  According to Lipton,     ‘All great comedians are great actors. Williams gave us miralces. He was a miracle.’     Meanwhile, the tributes to Robin Williams began pouring in from the masses.Nice words, but perhaps falling short of an honest appraisal of Williams life and life work.     Maybe Williams’ co-star Pam Dawber, Williams’ co-star in his first and break-through TV series, came closest in her choice of words, honoring the late Williams, ‘I am completely devasted. Nothing more can be said.’ (i.e. words cannot express)     Depression is nothing new to comics and actors like Williams. It’s known that they often ‘hide’ behind their work. They try to work through their own demons and, when for those few moments or hours the audience is laughing or clapping, these comics and actors are at peace. Then they go back to their personal despair. Many think that actors and celebrities have it made, but quite the contrary. No price can overcome what has taken its early toll on so many. The demons may not always result in suicide; it could be marital, drug and/or other problems. In Williams case, it may have been all the above. Yet , on the outside, Williams kept up a cheery demeanor and maybe fooled us into thinking everything was o.k. Maybe next time we show envy of a celebrity we should think twice of what is really going on behind the scenes. Williams was raised in a upper-middle class home in the Detroit area. As such, he was able to go to the Julliard School of acting. Yet, he never forgot the little guy and always was big on humanitarian causes, whether it be his five tours to Iraq and Afghanistan or Comic Relief, for which he helped raise $50 million.       Robin Williams was simply on a higher plain than the rest of us. He was an over-achiever who packed more into his 40 -year career than 100 of us could think about doing. But, Robin Williams was an over-achiever in humanity, too. When others were in trouble, Williams was right there as with John Belushi’s family following the passing of Belushi. Williams Tiburon neighbors in Tiburon said that Robin was a great , friendly neighbor – who DID NOT hide behind his celebrity; he was often seen riding his bicycle in the neighborhood . Nobody seemed to have a bad word about Williams – something you rarely hear about today’s celebrities.       Williams often paid tribute to his mentors and those he admired, like Jonathan Winters and Sid Caesar. Yet, the ‘curse of success’ lived with Robin Williams.  728×90 Leaderboard

      More tributes come in. ‘Condolences to the world,’ from Drew Carey. ‘We will carry on but it won’t be fun anymore without you‘ – anonymous ‘Words fail,‘ says Terry McGovern. ‘I met Robin in 1974 when I he was working at Baskin Robbins. I came in for some ice cream and he regaled me stories from his native Scotland. Two nights later I happened to be at the Holy City Zoo comedy club and who was there but Robin Williams, putting on an amazing show!’     Robin Williams had to have REAL empathy in his own make-up to be able to portray the various characters in his many different roles, such as the psychiatrist in Good Will Hunting, for which he won an oscar. Williams was able to fulfill the DUAL roles of both feuding husband and wife in Mrs. Doubtfire. Williams was NEVER typecast, with a string of blockbuster movies , mostly in the 1990s , including Fisher King, World According to Garp, Dead Poets Society, Good Morning Vietnam, Bi-Centennial Man and Jack.     All the while through the years, Robin Williams could be seen returning ‘back home’ to San Francisco between making movies, surprising old friends with continued drop-ins’to comedy clubs.     Fellow comedian Bob Sarlotte started with Williams at the Holy City Zoon in 1976. ‘Shocking. Robin seemed to have calmed down in recent years. But he still had that energy, not duplicated in anyone.     James Lipton remembers one conversation he had with Williams, discussing the topic death. When asked by Lipton what he would like to see when he arrived at the Pearly Gates, he said, ‘I’d like to see Mozart, Elvis and have God offer me a couple good seats in the front row.’ I think Williams is more than deserving of such.     Lipton concluded his thoughts of Robin Williams, ‘We loved him. We felt our love. He was always just himself while filling those thousands of different character creations.’ Don’t ever blame Robin Williams if he did, in fact, take his own life     As one person said, he was used up.     Perhaps after having him with us for 30 years we began to take this talent for granted… the 20 plus films, TV shows, many standup appearances, humanitarian causes, spontaneous visits, Johnny Carson appearances. He gave and gave and gave like no other. That energy. No wonder he had some heart problems… despite in a man whose heart was bigger than most .   They say that depression is easily cured in 95% of people. Why couldn’t Robin Williams be one of those. 63 years is much too young to go. Perhaps if more of us reached out to him and told him how much he brought to our lives it could have made a difference. Maybe not. The man who helped many of us cope via his many roles ,eg with depression by playing the comedic Wife – and Husband in Mrs Doubtfire to the sensitive counselor Good Will Hunting… I’m afraid we could never give back to Robin what he gave to us…     Williams talks to Larry King about the ‘fluke’ how he got his first big break on Mork and Mindy     Final notes…  Williams was generally a-political but did go after primarily conservatives such as Sarah Palin, as has been de riguer today. Yet, Williams got along with the other side as he was an admirer and friend to fellow neighbors conservative-leaning Mort Sahl and Michael Savage.     Perhaps there is more to the story than we’re being told.   If 95% of depressives are generally able to cope why wasn’t Williams. He could afford the best of care – and recently was treated at a facility in  Minnesota. Could it be that such care may not always be what it’s cracked up to be with, perhaps, certain drugs having deterious effects. We’ve heard past allegations against Prozak.  Just food for thought.     Williams was the greatest comedian, by far, of this generation. Many of us grew up with him.  His movies actually helped many of us cope.  That’s why this death is an especially difficult one to deal with us. Ironically,  Robin Wiliams has  followed his friend, John Bellushi, whose similar situation  he had tried to help. May we learn from this tragic loss.     Click here to subscribe to my mailing list