OBITUARY - Robin Williams: 1951-2014
He was the funniest guy in the room, something that made it all the harder for friends and fans to accept that beneath that reservoir of frenetic energy and seemingly endless good humour resided demons so dark they could push Robin Williams to suicide.
It was no secret that the Oscar-winning actor had suffered for years from periodic bouts of substance abuse and depression — he made reference to it himself in his comedy routines. But word that he had killed himself on Monday at his San Francisco Bay Area home left both friends in the Hollywood community and neighbours of Tiburon, which he called home, equally stunned and grief-stricken.
Daniel Jennings who lived across the road from Williams said: “He was really nice to all the neighbours. Really appreciated his kindness.”
Just last month, Williams announced he was returning to a 12-step treatment programme he said he needed after 18 months of non-stop work. And in 2006, he had sought treatment after a relapse following 20 years of sobriety. Williams joked about falling off the wagon during a comedy tour: “I went to rehab in wine country to keep my options open.”
But his struggles never seemed to affect his talent.
“Robin was a lightning storm of comic genius and our laughter was the thunder that sustained him. He was a pal and I can’t believe he’s gone,” Steven Spielberg said.
As word of his death spread, tributes from inside and outside the entertainment industry poured in.
Robin’s co-star in the recently cancelled show The Crazy Ones, Sarah Michelle Gellar told People: “My life is a better place because I knew Robin Williams. To my children, he was Uncle Robin, to everyone he worked with, he was the best boss anyone had ever known, and to me he was not just an inspiration but he was the father I had always dreamed of having.”
Born in Chicago in 1951, Williams would remember himself as a shy kid who got some early laughs from his mother — by mimicking his grandmother. He opened up more in high school when he joined the drama club, and he was accepted into the Juilliard Academy, where he had classes in which he and Christopher Reeve were the only students and John Houseman was the teacher.
Encouraged by Houseman to pursue comedy, Williams identified with the angriest of performers: Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, George Carlin. Their acts were not warm and loveable. They were just being themselves.
“Comedy can deal with the fear and still not paralyse you or tell you that it’s going away,” he said in 1989. “You say: ‘OK’, you got certain choices here, you can laugh at them and then once you’ve laughed at them and you have expunged the demon, now you can deal with them. That’s what I do when I do my act.”
Henry Winkler recalled his first day on set of Happy Days where the character of Mork made his debut. “It is unimaginable that this is the reality today that this incredible human being, this incredible talented and funny dramatic human being is gone,” he told CNN.
“When he came to do Happy Days, which I believe was his first role, we usually rehearsed Monday to Friday, he came in on Wednesday because they couldn’t find anybody to play this alien from space that Gary Marshall had thought up. “We started rehearsing and I realised I was in the presence of greatness. My only job was to keep a straight face. No matter what line, he took it in, processed it, then it flew out of his mouth, he never said it the same way twice, he was incredibly funny every time. I thought: ‘oh boy’, we’re witnessing the beginning of something unbelievably special.”
He once said: “You have an internal critic that says, ‘OK, you can do more.’ Maybe that’s what keeps you going,” Williams said. “Maybe that’s a demon. ... Some people say, ‘It’s a muse.’ No, it’s not a muse! It’s a demon! DO IT YOU BASTARD!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! THE LITTLE DEMON!!”
Fortunately he survived those dark days, but his death robbed the world of a man whose comic genius inspired millions.
Williams is survived by his wife and three children.
-“Ah, yes, divorce … from the Latin word meaning to rip out a man’s genitals through his wallet.”
-“Do you think God gets stoned? I think so… look at the platypus.”
-“You could talk about same-sex marriage, but people who have been married say: ‘It’s the same sex all the time’.”
-“See, the problem is that God gives men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time.”
-“Never fight with an ugly person, they’ve got nothing to lose.”
-On himself: “Sad? No, I’m quiet. When people see me that way, they think something’s wrong. No. I’m just recharging. In down times I do things like go for a long bike ride or run. The other thing I’m doing in that quiet time is just observing.”
-“Death is nature’s way of saying, ‘your table is ready’.”
-“I went to rehab in wine country to keep my options open.”
-“Cocaine is God’s way of telling you you are making too much money.”
-Console 24-hour helpline: 1800 201890.
-Samaritans 24-hour helpline: 1850 609090.
-Pieta House Crisis Centre for prevention of self-harm and suicide: Free of charge counselling, and drop-in branches Dublin and Limerick. Helpline: 01 6010000.
-Aware: Provides support to those affected by depression and related disorders. Helpline: 1850 303302 (10am-10pm Monday- Wednesday; 10am-1am Thursday).
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