Tributes
One of several fan tributes to
Williams, this at the steps of the San Francisco Pacific
Heights home used for Mrs. Doubtfire
News of Williams's death spread
quickly worldwide. The entertainment world, friends, and fans responded to his
sudden death through social media and other media outlets. His wife, Susan
Schneider, said: "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." Williams's daughter Zelda responded to her father's death by
stating that the "world is forever a little darker, less colorful and less
full of laughter in his absence". U.S. President Barack Obama said of
Williams: "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."
On Broadway in New York City,
theaters dimmed their lights for one minute in his honor. Broadway's Aladdin cast honored Williams by having the audience join them in a
sing-along of "Friend Like Me",
an Oscar-nominated song originally sung by Williams in the 1992 film. Fans of
Williams created makeshift memorials at his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and at locations from his television and film career, such
as the bench in Boston's Public Garden
featured in Good Will Hunting; the Pacific Heights, San
Francisco, home used in Mrs. Doubtfire;
and the Boulder, Colorado,
home used for Mork & Mindy. During the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards on August 25, 2014, comedian Billy Crystal presented a
tribute to Williams, referring to him as "the brightest star in our comedy
galaxy".
His film career included acclaimed work such as Popeye (1980), The World According to Garp (1982), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Dead Poets Society (1989), Awakenings (1990), The Fisher King (1991), and Good Will Hunting (1997), as well as financial successes such as Hook (1991), Aladdin (1992), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Jumanji (1995), The Birdcage (1996), Night at the Museum (2006), and Happy Feet (2006). He appeared in the music video for Bobby McFerrin's song "Don't Worry, Be Happy".
Williams was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor three times and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as therapist Dr. Sean Maguire in Good Will Hunting. He received two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and five Grammy Awards.
On August 11, 2014, Williams died of an apparent suicide at his home in Paradise Cay, California.
Film
actor
Williams's first film was the 1977
low-budget comedy Can I Do It 'Till I Need Glasses?. His first major performance was as the title character in Popeye (1980); though the film was a commercial flop, the role
allowed Williams to showcase the acting skills previously demonstrated in his
television work. He also starred as the leading character in The World According to Garp (1982), which Williams considered "may have lacked a
certain madness onscreen, but it had a great core". Williams continued
with other smaller roles in less successful films, such as The
Survivors (1983) and Club Paradise (1986), though felt these roles did not help advance his
film career.
Williams's first major break came
from his starring role in director Barry Levinson's
Good
Morning, Vietnam (1987), which earned Williams a
nomination for the Academy
Award for Best Actor. The film takes place in 1965
during the Vietnam War, with Williams playing the role of Adrian Cronauer,
a radio "shock jock" who keeps the troops entertained with comedy and
sarcasm. Williams was allowed to play the role without a script, improvising
most of his lines. Over the microphone, he created voice impressions of people
including Walter Cronkite, Gomer Pyle, Elvis Presley, Mr. Ed, and Richard Nixon.
"We just let the cameras roll," said producer Mark Johnson, and
Williams "managed to create something new for every single take."
Many of his later roles were in
comedies tinged with pathos. Williams's roles in comedy and dramatic films
garnered him an Academy
Award for Best Supporting Actor
(for his role as a psychologist in Good Will Hunting),
as well as two previous Academy Award nominations (for playing an English
teacher in Dead Poets Society (1989), and for playing a troubled homeless man in The Fisher King
(1991)). In 1991, he played an adult Peter Pan
in the movie Hook, although he said he would have to lose twenty-five pounds.
Other acclaimed dramatic films
include Moscow on the Hudson (1984), Awakenings
(1990), and What
Dreams May Come (1998). In the 2002 film Insomnia, Williams portrayed a writer/killer on the run from a
sleep-deprived Los Angeles policeman (played by Al Pacino)
in rural Alaska. Also in 2002, in the psychological thriller One Hour Photo,
Williams played an emotionally disturbed photo development technician who
becomes obsessed with a family for whom he has developed pictures for a long
time. The last Williams movie released during his lifetime was The
Angriest Man in Brooklyn,
a film addressing the value of life. In it, Williams played Henry Altmann, a
terminally ill man who re-assesses his life and works to redeem himself.
Among the actors who helped him
during his acting career, he credits Robert De Niro
from whom he learned the power of silence and economy of dialog when acting, to
portray the deep-driven man. From Dustin Hoffman,
with whom he co-starred in Hook, he learned to take on totally different
character types, and to transform his characters by extreme preparation. Mike Medavoy,
producer of Hook, told its director, Steven Spielberg,
that he intentionally teamed up Hoffman and Williams for the film because he
knew they wanted to work together, and that Williams welcomed the opportunity
of working with Spielberg. Williams benefited from working with Woody Allen,
who directed him and Billy Crystal in Deconstructing Harry (1997), as Allen knew that Crystal and Williams had often
performed together on stage.
His penetrative acting in the role
of a therapist in Good Will Hunting (1997) deeply influenced some real
therapists, and won him an Academy Award. In Awakenings (1990) Williams
played the role of Oliver Sacks, the doctor who wrote the book. Sacks later said the way
Williams's mind worked was a "form of genius." Williams played a
private school teacher in Dead Poets Society in 1989, which included a
final emotional scene which some critics said "inspired a generation"
and became a part of pop culture. Looking over most of Williams's films, one
writer is "struck by the breadth of Williams' roles," how radically
different most were.
Terry Gilliam, who co-founded Monty Python
and directed Williams in two of his films, The Fisher King and The
Adventures of Baron Munchausen
(1988), noted in 1992 that Williams had the ability to "go from manic to
mad to tender and vulnerable," adding that to him Williams was "the
most unique mind on the planet. There's nobody like him out there."
Legacy and influence
Although recognized as a comedian, Williams became known for taking mostly roles of substance and serious drama. Williams was considered a "national treasure" by many in the entertainment industry and by the public.
His on-stage energy and improvisational skill became a model for a new generation of stand-up comedians. Many comedians valued the way he worked highly personal issues into his comedy routines, especially his honesty about drug and alcohol addiction, along with depression. According to media scholar Derek A. Burrill, because of the openness with which Williams spoke about his own life, "probably the most important contribution he made to pop culture, across so many different media, was as Robin Williams the person."
His unusual free-form style of comedy became so identified with him that new comedians imitated him. Jim Carrey impersonated his Mork character early in his own career. Williams's high-spirited style has been credited with paving the way for the growing comedy scene which developed in San Francisco. Young comedians felt more liberated on stage by seeing Williams's spontaneous style: "one moment acting as a bright, mischievous child, then as a wise philosopher or alien from outer space."
As a film actor, Williams's roles often influenced others, both in and out of the film industry. Director Chris Columbus, who directed Williams in the smash hit Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), says that watching him work "was a magical and special privilege. His performances were unlike anything any of us had ever seen, they came from some spiritual and otherworldly place."
Looking over most of Williams's films, one writer was "struck by the breadth of Williams' roles", and how radically different most were, writing that "Williams helped us grow up."
Jaydeep Nimavat
