Thatman Robin joins Dead Poets’ Society

Comedy is heart wrenching, and can be fatal. For the comedian, that is. As it was, for Robin, the genius, who ended his 37-year career, and his 63-year life, by apparently killing himself, on 11 August 2014, at his home. What really killed him? Cocaine? Alcohol? Depression? Parkinson's? Maybe a combination of all. But cinema lost one of its most versatile, innovative actors, who was also incomparable in his wit, mimicry and motor-mouth repartee. Earth's loss is Dead Poets' Society's gain, up there. Rest in everalsting peace, Robin.

Robin McLaurin Williams was born on July 21, 1951, in Chicago, Illinois, son of a Ford Motor Company executive. He was educated at Claremont Men’s College, College of Marin, California and Juilliard School (of Drama), New York. At Juilliard, he was a room-mate of Christopher Reeve, who became his best friend. A stint under the legendary John Houseman (Orson Welles’s partner for his early years) helped hone his acting skills. Williams began as a stand-up act, performing in New York and San Francisco.

Williams had done work on TV programs like The Richard Pryor Show, Laugh-In and Eight Is Enough before getting his big break with Happy Days. Writer-director Garry Marshall’s son said to him that it would be nice to have a Star Wars-like alien on the show, and Marshall thought of Williams. Robin would recall much later, “I went to the meeting with Garry and I kind of did the thing where I started doing a voice. I came into the room and immediately sat on my head, rather than, you know ... he said, "Make yourself at home," so I sat down and put my head, ass up, thinking, Well that's a good way to start with him. And then he said, "Well, it'll be great. You won't be doing Shakespeare, but it will be fun." Williams became widely known to American audiences as the alien Mork from Ork, before being given his own show, Mork & Mindy. 

This picture is from Robin's Twitter page, posted by Ryan Haught and clicked by his aunt, in 1979. It shows Robin performing on a street of New York City.

Williams co-starred with Pam Dawber in the zany, endearing ABC sitcom, about an innocent, wise-cracking, alien (Robin), and the earthling (Mindy), which debuted in 1978 and ran for four seasons. Robin’s other TV appearances include America 2Night, Carol and Carl and Whoopi and Robin (Emmy award) and Royal Gala: Prince’s Trust (another Emmy). On stage, he did Waiting for Godot with Steve Martin (1988, off- Broadway) and teamed-up with Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Crystal to do fund-raising events for the homeless, called Comic Relief. He also made some outstanding recordings: Reality, What a Concept (1979, Grammy Award), Throbbing Python of Love, and A Night at the Met.

On the big screen, he was part of the cast in the 1977 (72-minute) suggestive romp, Can I Do It 'Till I Need Glasses?, but the debut in a lead role came when he played the famous spinach-eating sailor Popeye (1980), in the eponymous film, directed by Robert Altman. Another title character was in The World According to Garp (1982). In Good Morning Vietnam (1987), Williams portrayed irreverent radio DJ Adrian Cronauer, a real, though highly fictionalised, person) while in Dead Poets' Society (1989, remade in India as Mohabbatein), he played free-thinking teacher John Keating, both roles bringing him Academy Award nominations for lead actor, with GMV earning him a Golden Globe.

He developed a drug and alcohol problem early on in his career, while working on Mork and Mindy, and struggled with addiction for many years. He also became involved with several women, even while married to actress Valerie Velardi. Williams and Velardi ultimately divorced in 1988. The following year, he married his son's former nanny, Marsha Garces, with whom he formed a production company.

He appeared in the hit Penny Marshall (Garry’s sister) medical drama Awakenings (1990) with Robert De Niro, and received his third Oscar nomination for his role as a homeless man in the 1991 drama, The Fisher King. He did win a Golden Globe, though. Providing wholesome entertainment as well, he starred as a grown-up Peter Pan in Hook (1991), with Dustin Hoffman, and provided the voice of the genie in Disney's animated film, Aladdin (1992). Williams starred in the drag classic, Mrs. Doubtfire (1993, remade in Hindi as Chachi 420), Jumanji (1995) and Flubber (1997).

His performance as the psychiatrist Sean Maguire in Good Will Hunting (1997) won him an Academy Award as best supporting actor. He starred as the doctor who treated his patients with humour (remember the round, red, Santa Claus, nose?) in Patch Adams (1998) and then portrayed a Jewish man in Germany during World War II in Jakob the Liar (1999). Based on a work by Isaac Asimov, Bicentennial Man (1999) gave Williams the opportunity to play an android who develops human emotions. And he returned to ‘voice acting’ (dubbing) as Dr. Know in A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, in 2001.

 Arts and literature were the themes of three of Williams’ films in the early 21^st century: One Hour Photo (2002), in which he played a creepy photo developer, Insomnia (2002)--a writer of pulp novels and The Night Listener (2006)--a radio host who gets caught up in the mystery surrounding a troubled fan. Williams returned to his comic talents as well with Man of the Year (2006), and that same year, he portrayed Teddy Roosevelt in Night at the Museum, with Ben Stiller.

In 2006, Williams suffered a drug relapse and got admitted to a rehabilitation facility for alcoholism treatment. Recovering fast, in 2007, he starred as a Reverend, in the comedy, License to Wed. In 2008, Robin Williams started touring for his one-man stand-up comedy show, Weapons of Self Destruction, focussing on social and political absurdities. That same year, he and his second wife Garces (Finnish-Filipina by birth) divorced, citing irreconcilable differences.

His health was deteriorating. Besides shortness of breath, he developed a heart condition too, and was operated. Even as he was recovering, the actor was seen playing Teddy Roosevelt again in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. In November 2009, he starred alongside John Travolta in the Disney film, Old Dogs.

In March 2011, he appeared on Broadway as part of the original cast of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, written by Rajiv Joseph and directed by Moises Kauffman, in which the ghost of Uday Hussein, Saddam Hussein's son, wanders around with the head of his brother, Qusay, in a plastic bag. Charles Isherwood wrote in the New York Times, “Mr. Williams, the kinetic comic who has sometimes revealed a marshmallowy streak in movies, never indulges the audience's hunger for displays of humorous invention or pinpricks of poignancy. He gives a performance of focused intelligence and integrity, embodying the animal who becomes the play's questioning conscience with a savage bite that never loosens its grip." Variety said, "Robin Williams is phenomenal". On the big screen, reprising his roles of Ramon and Lovelace from the 2006 original, he lent his voice to the 2011 animated sequel Happy Feet 2. He wed graphic designer Susan Schneider that October. Susan, his third wife, was living with him till his death.

Williams had supporting roles in two 2013 films: the romantic comedy The Big Wedding with Robert De Niro and Diane Keaton, and the drama The Butler, where Williams portrayed Dwight D. Eisenhower. Then, in 2014, Williams starred as disgruntled Henry Altmann in the film Angriest Man in Brooklyn. This year, Williams also announced his return to series TV. He co-starred with Sarah Michelle Gellar on the sitcom The Crazy Ones, which debuted in the fall. Set in an advertising firm, the show featured Williams and Gellar as father and daughter. In its April 10, 2014, episode, Pam Dawber was briefly reunited with her partner from Mork and Mindy. The show was cancelled after only one season, on May 10 this year, due to less than expected response.

Pam Dawber paid tribute to Robin on their reunion for The Crazy Ones: "I don’t know what it is about the two of us, but I have just loved him on a very deep level. Robin is truly one of the kindest, most caring people I’ve ever met. He cares about all the younger cast members, and I’m so happy they’ve surrounded him with such talented kids. Robin was never one of those comedians that was competitive and had to have all the funny lines. It was always playtime for him. He’s just very generous. In Mork and Mindy, there’s a scene in a restaurant where he’s just unraveling. Well, while we were shooting that, playing that together, he kept reaching out, grabbing my hand, saying, “Dawbs, are you okay? Dawberdog, are you all right? And I said, “Yeah, Robin, I think we’re getting it. It’s good, you know? We’ve got plenty of time! “Oh, okay. Are you sure? Finally, after he did this maybe three times, I realised. I said, “You feel bad that you’re hurting my feelings in the scene. He said, “It’s killing me! I can’t stand it! And I said, “Oh my God, that’s so sweet, but Robin, it’s called ‘pretend.’ I’m not taking it seriously! But that’s what kind of a sensitive soul he is: It was really bothering him to watch his character hurting my character!" 

Robin Williams quotes

· No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.

· You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.

· You're only given one little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.

· Why do they call it rush hour when nothing moves?

· I'm sorry, if you were right, I'd agree with you.

· What's right is what's left if you do everything else wrong.

· The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying, 'Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses.' She's got a baseball bat and yelling, 'You want a piece of me?'

· In America they really do 'mythologise' people when they die.

· Never pick a fight with an ugly person, they've got nothing to lose.

· If women ran the world we wouldn't have wars, just intense negotiations every 28 days.

· Ah, yes, divorce... from the Latin word meaning to rip out a man's genitals through his wallet.

· Reality is just a crutch for people who can't cope with drugs.

· Okra (called ladyfinger/bhindi in India) is the closest thing to nylon I've ever eaten. It's like they bred cotton with a green bean. Okra, tastes like snot. The more you cook it, the more it turns into string.

· I left school and couldn't find acting work, so I started going to clubs where you could do stand-up. I've always improvised, and stand-up was this great release. All of a sudden, it was just me and the audience.

· We've had cloning in the South for years. It's called cousins.

· If it's the Psychic Network why do they need a phone number?

· I started doing comedy because that was the only stage that I could find. It was the pure idea of being on stage. That was the only thing that interested me, along with learning the craft and working, and just being in productions with people.

· Spring is nature's way of saying, 'Let's party!'

· Comedy is acting out optimism.

· We had gay burglars the other night. They broke in and rearranged the furniture.

· Having George W. Bush giving a lecture on business ethics is like having a leper give you a facial, it just doesn't work!

· You have this idea that you'd better keep working otherwise people will forget. And that was dangerous.

· Divorce is expensive. I used to joke they were going to call it 'all the money,' but they changed it to 'alimony.' It's ripping your heart out through your wallet.

· Death is nature's way of saying, "Your table's ready."

· You could talk about same-sex marriage, but people who have been married (say) 'It's the same sex all the time.'

· Cocaine is God's way of saying you're making too much money.

· I love running cross country....On a track, I feel like a hamster.

· When the media ask him (George W. Bush) a question, he answers, 'Can I use a lifeline?'

· We have a president for whom English is a second language. He's like 'We have to get rid of dictators,' but he's pretty much one himself.

· Men wearing pants so tight that you can tell what religion they are.

· Cricket is basically baseball on valium (diazepam, a prescription drug, also sold under the brand name of calmpose).