A Robin Williams fan, having placed her flower on Williams' Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in tribute to her departed hero, declared that 11 August 2014 was 'The Day the Comedy Died'. Growing up as a boy, Robin Williams was someone I deeply admired for his comic genius. One of the first movies I watched was Aladdin, in which Williams expertly breathed life into the Genie. I remember watching Mrs Doubtfire a couple of times and even though many have adjudged it, at least in terms of its storyline, to be a mere carbon copy of Dustin Hoffman's Tootsie (1982), Williams made the titular character his own. Good Morning Vietnam! also deserves a mention as Williams juggles his comic talents and an impeccable command of serious drama admirably in this film set during the harrowing Vietnam War. I even remember enjoying his less renowned films such as The Fisher King, Jumanji and Patch Adams and I was always amazed by the brilliantly versatile comedic actor he was. I'll admit that, at one point, he was my favourite silver screen actor and I went through a phase attempting to catch every movie he's ever been in. I even got hold of his late 1970s TV series, Mork and Mindy, where he actually plays an alien!
As a teenager, I got into his more serious films and although I came to develop issues with the film's muddled philosophy, Dead Poets' Society was an inspiration to me and I would be lying if I said that the movie played no part in my decision to become a teacher. On a less sophisticated level, the film was, to me, a bastion of educational idealism and I've to admit that I still think about how I can inspire my students like Mr. Keating did (I'm afraid to say that, for now, the only way I can make students stand on the table is to make them do so as punishment).
I read about his struggles with drugs during the early 1980s (his friend, the comedian John Belushi, died of drug overdose in 1982) but to me, because of his roles on film, Robin Williams was someone I've never ceased to, on a personal level, associate with an inexplicable innocence and a youthful idealism. In a way, the idea governing the famous line 'the day the music died' in Don McLean's 'American Pie' echoes in Robin Williams' death. Even as he struggled for critical and commercial success during his later years, I always had this feeling that, considering his talents, success was only a movie away. Hearing about his death this morning though, put these hopes to bed. It's as if a jolly avuncular figure, who spent a lot of time with you during your childhood and who's left a deep yet amorphous impression on you, has passed on. It's going to take a while for many of us who grew up watching Robin Williams' films to get used to the fact that he is gone from this world.
I read about his struggles with drugs during the early 1980s (his friend, the comedian John Belushi, died of drug overdose in 1982) but to me, because of his roles on film, Robin Williams was someone I've never ceased to, on a personal level, associate with an inexplicable innocence and a youthful idealism. In a way, the idea governing the famous line 'the day the music died' in Don McLean's 'American Pie' echoes in Robin Williams' death. Even as he struggled for critical and commercial success during his later years, I always had this feeling that, considering his talents, success was only a movie away. Hearing about his death this morning though, put these hopes to bed. It's as if a jolly avuncular figure, who spent a lot of time with you during your childhood and who's left a deep yet amorphous impression on you, has passed on. It's going to take a while for many of us who grew up watching Robin Williams' films to get used to the fact that he is gone from this world.
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