RIPs

[Minkyboy]

'Robin Williams was an airman, a doctor, a genie, a nanny, a president, a professor, a bangarang Peter Pan and everything in between. But he was one of a kind. He arrived in our lives as an alien - but he ended up touching every element of the human spirit.' - President Obama

Note he doesn't include creepy photo booth guy, gay director, homeless loon or murderer.  But fair play to Obama's writers, not a bad job there.

It'd maybe be something if this sad end to a great life finally allowed people to see that the darkest depression is not the product of an inability to cope with hard times or a weakness of character but rather something that can destroy you when you're on top of the world, and one of the planet's finest people.  Depression tells you you're none of those things, and you and the world would be better off without you: how wrong that is.

Amen to that

[Fungus]

Well-put.

[Keef Monkey]

Yeah, very well put Tordelback. It's a massively misunderstood illness and is often overlooked or unrecognised even by someone in the grips of it.

Really sad to hear about Robin Williams, a proper legend and one of those celebrity deaths that's quite hard to process given how much of a mark he made. They'll be no-one else like him again for sure.

[JamesC]

According to the entertainment correspondent on the BBC News this morning Disney's Aladdin wasn't eligible to be considered for the Best Screenplay Oscar because such a massive proportion of it (basically all of Robin Williams' lines) was improvised.
I thought that was pretty great. Maybe they should do a Robin Williams Award for best improvisation in a Motion Picture. 

[Goaty]

According to the entertainment correspondent on the BBC News this morning Disney's Aladdin wasn't eligible to be considered for the Best Screenplay Oscar because such a massive proportion of it (basically all of Robin Williams' lines) was improvised.
I thought that was pretty great. Maybe they should do a Robin Williams Award for best improvisation in a Motion Picture.

Agreed!

[Greg M.]

According to the entertainment correspondent on the BBC News this morning Disney's Aladdin wasn't eligible to be considered for the Best Screenplay Oscar because such a massive proportion of it (basically all of Robin Williams' lines) was improvised.
I thought that was pretty great. Maybe they should do a Robin Williams Award for best improvisation in a Motion Picture.

By all accounts, he did pretty much the same thing in Mork and Mindy - as has been related many times since, the writers started leaving large sections of the script empty, with just the note 'Robin can go off here' and let him get on with being Robin Williams. In his day, he was the funniest man in the world. An awful loss - it's been a bad year for comedy heroes.

[von Boom]

So sad about Robin Williams. Words fail. 

[Prodigal2]

'Robin Williams was an airman, a doctor, a genie, a nanny, a president, a professor, a bangarang Peter Pan and everything in between. But he was one of a kind. He arrived in our lives as an alien - but he ended up touching every element of the human spirit.' - President Obama

Note he doesn't include creepy photo booth guy, gay director, homeless loon or murderer.  But fair play to Obama's writers, not a bad job there.

It'd maybe be something if this sad end to a great life finally allowed people to see that the darkest depression is not the product of an inability to cope with hard times or a weakness of character but rather something that can destroy you when you're on top of the world, and one of the planet's finest people.  Depression tells you you're none of those things, and you and the world would be better off without you: how wrong that is.

Great post TordelBack.

[Heath C Ackley]

Very true TordelBack. First Rik and now Robin. My comic heroes are leaving the stage for the last time. Yes I was one of the Mork and Mindy generation (I was the only kid in school who could do the laugh!) but I fell in love with his comedy when I saw one of his stand-up videos. Recent generations of fans will know him more for his mainstream family-oriented movies but I remember his brilliant acting in movies like The Fisher King. Williams was a great actor. He was far beyond the mania and goofiness. I feel that even though he was in his early sixties, there would come role that would have suited his genius characterisation. I often wondered why he never took on a bad guy role as he certainly had the presence for it. (And I'm not referring to the Hollywood shenanigans that stopped him from playing the Joker or the Riddler etc).

[Zarjazzer]

The passing of a giant. RIP RObin Williams.

[auxlen]

I genuinely filled up when i heard. I thought Rick M would be the one that got me but no.
i grew up with nanoo nanoo, and although films such as patch Adams filled me with too much smaltz, i loved a lot of his films.
perhaps its probably because i have the same illness as mr williams it hit.

[Hawkmumbler]

Utterly gutted. A rewatch of The Fisher King and his stand ups are in order, a comic genius. RIP Robin Williams

[ThryllSeekyr]

I couldn't believe the news when I read it.

MORK IS NO MORE

That's where I first saw him on television back in 1979 0r a little earlier and a classic sitcom.

It's really sad that that I'll never meet him (Even if that might seen as a blessing for him...) and seen him tour if he was ever planning to in the near future.

So many roles...I think I like him best in Good Morning Vietnam, (His voice work for the Genie in Alladin, Gumanji, Miss Doubtfire (There was a sequel planned...you know!!) Millienium-Man (Now, that would be a idea, but there is rumour of that his passing had nothing to do with his age or health.) One-Hour-Photo (Creepy...)

On the subject of his tours and how I've never seen him perform on stage. It was less then ten years ago now while I was semi-homeless in the city of Sydney, New South Wales that I was listening to practically almost a entire cd of his stand up work current to that time in a music store in Fox-Studios near Centennial-Park. In this store and I could sit in one of these booths with headphones on and choose to listen to what was available. This was for free and I was proberly meant to purchase the cd before leaving the shop.  It was his usual humorous look at life, his comedic fair and very hilarious as well. I just hope my carelessness here wasn't the breeze from the beatings of a butterfly's wings that resulted in the hurricane drove him to the state he's now in.

On a sligthly different note.. I had always thought that if the Dragon-Lance novels were to be made into a film or television series. He would have made a great Fizban] the elderly wizard avatar of the god Paladine, but after the flop of the original and more generic Dungeons & Dragon's film. I don't think that (or my personal realisation of it.) would have ever come to be



Here's another memory of Mork

My apologies if you find any of my remarks inappropriate. Yet, you should know me by now and that I do mean well.

[COMMANDO FORCES]

Lauren Bacall aged 89

"You know how to whistle, don't you?"

[Frank]

Lauren Bacall aged 89  "You know how to whistle, don't you?"

Pure filth and pure class, which is a tricky combination to pull off.