Nanu Nanu: The Legacy of Robin Williams (Split)

[Guest d'Kong76]

Robin Williams, RIP

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2014/08/11/robin-williams-dead-at-63/

[Edgy MD]

What a waste.

[Zvon]

I don't think anyone ever made me laugh as much or as hard.

RIP

[Frayed Knot]

Sometimes that level of genius comes with some bad baggage, in this case drug & alcohol abuse and apparently depression.
Which isn't to say that ordinary folks don't have those problems too, but one does wonder about the connections.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Sad but I suppose not altogether shocking given the histoty of substance abuse and that persistent sad-clown quality that came through in his work.

[metirish]

Very sad, I saw Dead Poet's Society a few months back after not seeing it in years, still brilliant , it is in those performances i liked him best.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

[ashie62]

I hope he can now find peace in his adult life...R.I.P. Robin....

[Guest sharpie]

I knew a guy back in the '70's who was in a San Francisco improv company that Robin Williams sometimes performed with.

The only night I went to see this improv company (at a place that seated about 50) my friend told me during intermission that Robin Williams, who by then had begun shooting Mork and Mindy but it had yet to air, was going to be on for the second half.

It was immediately apparent that Robin was far and away better than the rest of those guys. I hung around afterward for drinks. Robin was the wild and crazy guy pretty much non-stop. It seemed like the next day he was crazily famous.

He made too many crappy movies but you always rooted for him to succeed. RIP.

[Edgy MD]

I think that last line is fair. You always knew that, paired with the right film and director, he could paint the world any color he wanted. But what director could possibly channel his act without dulling it? Alladin, I guess, was the perfect vehicle for him. Just let him improvise everything, and you can rewrite and edit around what he gives you. He could totally subvert the film without throwing the other actors because they could just get the other performers' readings and dub them in separately. Made forgivable stupid anachronisms like doing Ed Sullivan imitations in medieval Arabia for an audience of kids who mostly had no idea who Ed Sullivan could possibly be.

My wife had a voice coach who had him at Juliard. Said he was completely un-containable. Scripts, blocking, fourth walls, costume changes... they were all just humble suggestions to him.

[MFS62]

Nanu Nanu
Robin, you will be missed.
RIP

Later

[G-Fafif]

One of his briefest performances was, in its way, probably my favorite:

[youtube:24lqy2bc]d-diB65scQU[/youtube:24lqy2bc]

Warm, playful, expressive and, for what it's worth, he didn't say a damn thing.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Awwww....

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

G-Fafif wrote: One of his briefest performances was, in its way, probably my favorite: [youtube]d-diB65scQU[/youtube] Warm, playful, expressive and, for what it's worth, he didn't say a damn thing.

Played this for my daughter last night after-- coincidentally-- we happened to hear it on WFUV earlier yesterday. Got her smiling, hard.

[Guest themetfairy]

Would one of the administrators consider making the Robing Williams discussion a separate thread.

I have a feeling we're going to have a lot to say about him for a while to come.

[Zvon]

I'm glad this was done (split). I feel that I have a lot more to say but it feels all jumbled up. I'm more bummed over this today than I was yesterday, which surprises me.

[Frayed Knot]

A number of reports, particularly from those with a sports angle, are portraying RW as a "huge SF Giants fan". Now maybe that's true as he was raised and lived much of his life in that area. Plus the team's been good in recent years and he certainly wouldn't be the first celebrity to jump on a sports bandwagon.

But if it is true then it's a later-in-life conversion. I remember he and Crystal on a NYM telecast a whole buncha years ago (maybe back to the Tim & Ralph days) where Williams admitted to knowing next to nothing about the game other than what Crystal had prepped him on prior to the show. He also said that the significance of the 'Fisk game' had to be explained to him so he could understand the scene when his character in 'Good Will Hunting' is telling Damon's about having tickets that night but skipping it to be with his future wife.

Not a big deal either way really. But when I hear about claims of celebrity fandom I instinctively wonder how much of it is real and how much is image.

[MFS62]

My favorite Robin Williams moment is in Birdcage, where he teaches the dance troupe, and emulates the styles of famous choreographers. I couldn't get the link to work.

Later

[Guest cooby]

MFS62 wrote: My favorite Robin Williams moment is in Birdcage, where he teaches the dance troupe, and emulates the styles of famous choreographers. I couldn't get the link to work. Later

I love that movie

[Edgy MD]

A country day school and Julliard guy, he seemed ever-rooted in the humanities and gravitated toward humanist roles --- philosophers, psychiatrists, professors, musicians. Almost all of his characters could pull a Plato or Shakespeare quote out of his ass, and then ground it from seeming too high-faluting by coming up with a sophomoric retort on top of it. (A lot like seventies Woody Allen in that last regard.)

was an anthropologist/philosopher.

With his broad hairy chest and his mental quickness sharpened to go right back at somebody, he often played brawlers, righteous ones --- the dockside avenger in Popeye, the suburban avenger in Garp, the firefighter burned out by urban decay and dysfunction and bullshit in Club Paradise, the pub-brawler in Good Morning Vietnam. Even in Good Will Hunting, his genial mood suddenly turns as he throws a kid half his age and well built up against a wall and threatens to kill him for ungentlemanly comments about his wife, and the kid (and the audience) believes him. Always willing to throw down in defense of the exploited little guy, but it's notable that he never played a lawman or a soldier (except as far as you can call Adrian Tarnauer a soldier). He'd do bits as John Wayne or a type A football coach, but I imagine he couldn't find any depth beyound the surface joke playing a guy who took on violence or enforcement as a liftestyle.

[RealityChuck]

I first saw him when he was on Laugh-In.

Not the Rowan and Martin version, but the reboot in the late 70s. What I remember best was that in his official bio, he claimed to be a Scottish lord with his own castle.

Here's a clip. Williams shows up at about 1:40.
dtIx3RguLaw

[Vic Sage]

Here's the thread with discussion of his films:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=21686

[Guest d'Kong76]

There is a phone video circulating on fb that is a good-
bye phone message left by Williams. I didn't click on it,
I think I'd find it too disturbing. Does anyone know if it
is indeed a suicide note message that has become public?

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, I stayed the heck away. It's either a clickbait trap or questionable for general circulation. I couldn't imagine coming out of that click hole in better condition than going in.