Famous people give us a vast amount of themselves. They generously give their time, their feelings, and when it comes to actors and entertainers, a piece of their soul. When they die, there is often a need for many to express what that person meant to them; the collective grief of people mourning their beloved idol. This was no more evident than when it was announced that on August 11 2014, at the age of 63, Robin Williams had taken his own life.
For years people had known of the toll comedy took on its participants, the fact that behind many comedians rictus grins and infectious humour were dark thoughts and troubled souls, but for Williams, it was even harder for people to come to grips with. Williams was a one of a kind talent, an actor who had worked with people ranging from Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Spielberg to Christopher Nolan and Terry Gilliam.
There was no doubt that Williams had secured himself a place in the pantheon of film history. In 1992, he re-wrote what it meant to make an animated film with Aladdin. Before Williams, it wasn’t commonplace for A list actors to take roles in animated films; generally speaking, it was reserved for theatre types and those who specialised in voice work. With Williams, though, it changed everything.
It wasn’t without controversy either: His mile-a-minute delivery and ability to improv meant the Academy rejected to script for Aladdin as it failed to meet the minimum requirement for the amount of scripted material in the finished film.
Famously, having previously made Hook with Spielberg, Williams was called by the director while on set of his Holocaust drama Schindler’s List to make the cast and crew laugh during the depressing shoot. Williams performed scenes and ideas from the Aladdin script to raise their spirits which Spielberg said was an invaluable asset to help those who were tasked with portraying people killed in death camps.
The outpouring of love for Williams following his death also brought to light the various roles he had performed in his long and successful career, such as his stand-up comedy, with its meandering quickfire subject changes, and his comedy roles to follow suit. However, many people also expressed admiration for his dramatic performances.
Williams won the Oscar on his fourth nomination for Good Will Hunting, often known for an improvised scene where Williams discusses his wife’s sleep flatulence, but before that Supporting Actor win, he had been three times nominated for Lead Actor. In 1988 he got a nod for comedy-drama Good Morning Vietnam, in 1990 for drama Dead Poets Society and in 1992 for the moving The Fisher King.
His list of Golden Globe nominations is even longer, including nominations for Mork & Mindy (1979 / 1980), Moscow on the Hudson (1985), Dead Poets Society (1990), Awakenings (1991), Good Will Hunting (1998) and Patch Adams (1999), as well as wins for The Fisher King, Good Morning Vietnam, Aladdin and Mrs Doubtfire.
Many people also spoke about the roles that Williams didn’t receive awards notices for, such as his turn as flamboyant gay man Armand Goldman in The Birdcage, as well as his sinister turn in Mark Romanek’s psychological thriller One Hour Photo. What makes his career so interesting is that he never had a set agenda for his roles — though known for being hilarious, he could turn on the sinister on a dime.
What remains from the tragic end of Williams life is a reopening of the conversation about depression and suicide among men. We recognise that a man as beloved as Williams, as respected as he was, still had something within him that he couldn’t reconcile.
His legacy goes deeper than changing the format of comedy, revolutionising animation casting and giving us some of the great comedy and dramatic performances of the past forty years — they’re all there and they exist and they’ll remain for a long time to come —but what his true legacy is, is that he managed to open up an often neglected topic. Williams was able to let people know that being a man, being depressed and being a brilliant artist did not negate one another. He has healed a great many people by opening up conversations, and by providing hours of entertainment. Immortality is more than deserved.
Robin Williams
1951 – 2014
