portrait of this blog's author - by Stephen Blackman 2008

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

"And being a fool, he was simple minded, he didn't see a king. 
He only saw a man alone and in pain.
-Robin Williams,  
The Fisher King

Robin Williams

July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014
So sad to hear of the apparent suicide of Robin Williams, actor and stand-up comedian and star of many of my favourite films, not least in another hero of mine Terry Gilliam's 'The Fisher King' with Jeff Bridges, Mercedes Ruehl and Amanda Plummer or 'Awakenings' with Robert De Niro but I started thinking and realised how many of Robin's films I had in fact seen and enjoyed, after a while I stopped counting. How many other actors can you say that of? Whether in more maudlin sugary things, the kids things like 'Toys' or 'Jumanji' to the profoundly moving 'Dead Poets Society' or 'Good Will Hunting', or whether to the more quiet performances that I truly found gripping like 'Insomnia' opposite Dustin Hoffman playing a psychopathic murderer (!) and 'Moscow in The Hudson', I always enjoyed his work immensely and his work always seems struck a chord as in so many of us I that we now feel we have lost a dear dear friend.
A favourite stand-up gig. . . . . . 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdIRME3EpFY
 
another favourite from the 80's at the New York Met (this s the set that had me weeping!)
Pt I
 Pt II
 
Knowing that he will be sorely missed, the issue of depression and mental health will be uppermost for a while as we reflect how it is no respector of class, fame or wealth. We will simply miss him as a force of nature and good humour, despite the wrestling with addictions we will remember the smile and the crying with laughter at his stand-up comedy and marvel at his abilities in his movies which I for one have spent time watching over and over

Good Morning, Vietnam

Films I found I had seen him in from 'The World According to Garp', 'Good Morning, Vietnam', 'Dead Poets Society', 'Awakenings', 'The Fisher King' , 'Good Will Hunting' , 'One Hour Photo', Jakob The Liar', 'A.I. Artificial Intelligence', 'Jumanji', 'The Birdcage',  'Insomnia', 'Moscow on the Hudson', 'What Dreams May Come',  as well as financial successes such as 'Popeye', 'Hook', 'Aladdin', 'Night at the Museum' and 'Mrs. Doubtfire' which curiously I was less enamoured of but also he was in 'Baron Munchausen', 'Cadillac Man', 'Ferngully: The Last Rainforest', 'Toys', 'Being Human', 'Nine Months', 'Patch Adams' and 'Bicentennial Man'. I stopped counting there and realised he was someone who truly I would go and see in anything. I can't think of another actor who consciously I could list more than 30 films they'd been in and I had seen . . . . . . At Peace Now

The Fisher King













the dance scene from Fisher King . . a favourite

from Baron Munchausen

Robin Williams - Rest In Peace

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