In September 1988, American vocalist and music conductor Bobby McFerrin
released the iconic song: Don’t Worry, Be Happy. The Grammy Award
Winning song bore the unforgettable lines:
In every life we have some
trouble/ When you worry you make it Double/ Don’t worry, Be happy. The
video accompanying the soothing, minimalist song had featured McFerrin,
Bill Irwin and Robin Williams. Both the song and the video have remained
a source of happiness.
On Monday, 11 August, Robin Williams died, leaving the world shocked and
surprised. He was reportedly suffering from severe depression. The news
took some time sinking in, for Robin Williams always appeared on stage
and screen with a sense of indefatigability. In comic roles, he could be
a riot. In more serious ones, you felt that boundless energy
consciously reined in.
Robin McLaurin Williams, was born in Chicago, Illinois, on July 21,
1951, was an American actor and comedian. Starting off as a stand-up
comedian in San Francisco and Los Angeles in the mid 1970s, he is
credited with leading its "comedy renaissance".
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Williams gave us many memorable film, His film career included such films as
Popeye
(1980), The World According to Garp (1982), Good Morning, Vietnam
(1987), Dead Poets Society (1989), Awakenings (1990), The Fisher King
(1991), and Good Will Hunting (1997), as well as financial successes such as
Hook
(1991), Aladdin (1992), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Jumanji (1995), The
Birdcage (1996), Night at the Museum (2006), and Happy Feet (2006). Mrs.
Doubtfire (1993), Jumanji (1995) being my favorite. He also
provided voiceover in Happy Feet and helped anchor in Night at The
Museum. Given his capacity for spontaneous creativity, directors often
allowed him room to improvise.
It was in 1998 that Robin Williams won the Academy Award after being
nominated thrice earlier. He won it in the best supporting actor
category for Good Will Hunting. Williams was nominated for the Academy
Award for Best Actor three times and won the Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actor for his performance in Good Will Hunting. He received
two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild
Awards, and five Grammy Awards.
On August 11, 2014,
Williams died of an apparent suicide at his home near Tiburon,
California. Either way. He wasn’t an actor you thought would go away
abruptly although Wikipedia says his life featured substance abuse,
periods of rehabilitation and reports of bipolar disorder.
Him and Christopher Reeve...
For anyone revisiting the life of
Robin Williams, reading up details on the actor as he fades into the
movie history, a heartwarming chapter would be his friendship with the
late Christopher Reeve. Years ago, the two actors had trained together
at New York’s Julliard School. If you go by the descriptions on the
Internet, the two were very different people –One of modest height, the
other 6 feet 4 inches tall; one seemingly a natural actor and a bundle
of energy, the other preferring a measured, studied approach. Their
first successful film roles came in years featuring the same numbers but
inversely. For Reeve it was Superman in 1978 and for Williams it was
Good Morning Vietnam in 1987 that likely made him a name known globally.
In
May, Christopher Reeve suffered an accident while riding a horse that
left him paralyzed from neck down. Like Monday’s disclosure of “seven
depression” for one of the world’s best known comedians, Superman
paralyzed from neck down was as difficult to accept. Reeve’s initial
phase in the hospital was the most trying. He contemplated suicide. In
June 1995 he was scheduled to have surgery to reconnect his spine to his
skull. The thought of it was frightening.
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As he lay
nervous and afraid in ICU, the door flew open and in hurried a squat
fellow with a blue scrub hat and a yellow surgical gown and glasses,
speaking in Russian accent. The man announced that he was a proctologist
and he was going to do a rectal exam on Reeve. It was Robin Williams.
Wikipedia quotes Reeve –
“For the first time since the accident, I laughed. My old friend had helped me know that somehow I was going to be okay”.
From Superman to ordinary people, Robin Williams made us laugh.
Mrs. Doubtfire: The movie I cannot Forget…..
Every once in a while there comes a movies that you can watch again and
again, yet still revel in an enjoyment that is untainted by the passage
of time. Very few jokes retain their original freshness, and only the
rarest scenes keep their magic intact. Robin Williams has given us many
such movies, but to me and many others Mrs. Doubtfire was the one that
stood out.
I wish I could point out one particular day when I watched the film……
one momentous occasion that I could always remember. Alas, I don’t
remember how old I was or where I watched it, or even with whom I
watched it with. But the film crept up on me, making a silent but
indelible mark that would always remain. My feelings towards the film
are now a result of watching the movie multiple times over the last two
decades –sometimes skipping through my favorite scenes, sometimes
watching it from the begging to the end.
While many
describe Mrs. Doubtfire as a children’s movie I am not ashamed to say
that I can still watch it with undivided attention and enjoyment. Indeed
some sequences are slightly risqué, some jokes so unapologetically
adult –remember the conversation between Mrs. Doubtfire and Stu (played
by Pierce Brosnan) about activities in the boudoir?
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Like
so many others, I woke up on Tuesday to the fact that Robin Williams
was dead. Williams who brought the role of the grey haired, no-nonsense
Mrs. Doubtfire to life, found dead from apparent suicide in his Northern
California home. While Flubber, Jumanji, Hook, Aladdin and Fathers’ Day
were all films we grew up watching, Mrs. Doubtfire will always remain
the one that will always remain with me. It’s a film with equal amount
of humor and pathos, wonderful on-screen chemistry and from the heart
dialogue delivery, and beneath it all, a beautiful story that pulls at
the heartstrings of those old enough to appreciate the ambiguity of the
ending.
Though there is no doubt that Robin Williams
will be missed. While it is depressing to lose a part of your childhood,
I’d like to think that he was bigger than his role as Mrs. Doubtfire,
or as Aladdin’s Genie or as Patch Adams, for that matter. Robin Williams
was greater than the sum of his parts, and one can only hope that
wherever he is, he is brightening up the place with his funny voice and
witty repartee.
May the crazy, fun-loving and
heart-warming guy rest in peace and make every soul laugh its heart out
in Heaven.
Rofl with Robin...
Do you think the God gets stoned? I think so –look at the platypus!
If you’re looking for Sarah Palin’s new book, it is a bitch to find. I
found it somewhere between fiction and non-fiction, in the fantasy
aisle!
And then you realize god gave you a penis and a brain and only enough blood to run only one at a time.
If women ran round the world we wouldn’t have wars, just intense negotiations every 28 days.
Beer commercials usually show big men, doing manly things: ‘You’ve just
killed a small animal. It’s time for a light beer’. Why not have a
realistic beer commercial, with a realistic thing about beer, where
someone goes, ‘It’s 5 ‘ clock in the morning. You’ve just pissed on a
dumpster. It’s Miller time’.
Ah, yes, divorce… from the Latin word meaning to rip out a man’s genitals through his wallet.
You could talk about same-sex marriage, but people who have been married say. “It’s the same sex all the time”.
Most memorable Robin Williams lines on set……
You
don’t know about real loss, ‘cause that only occurs when you’ve loved
someone more than you love yourself. And I doubt you’ve ever dared to
love anybody that much
- Dr Sean Maguire in Good Will Hunting
Gooooood Morning Vietnam! It’s 0600. What’s the O stand for? ‘Oh, my God, it’s early’
- Adrian Cronauer in Good Morning Vietnam
Now in this class you can either call me Mr Keating, or if you’re slightly more daring, O Captain my Captain
- John Keating in Dead Poets Society
Our job is improving the quality of life, not just delaying death
- Patch Adams in Patch Adams
There’s
three things in this world that you need… respect for all kinds of
life, a nice bowel movements on a regular basis, and a navy blazer
- Parry in The Fisher King
My first day as a woman and I’m already getting hot flashes!
- Euphegenia Doubtfire in Mrs. Doubtfire
Pleas
e don’t worry so much. Because in the end, none of us have very long on
this Earth. Life is fleeting. And if you’re ever distressed, cast your
eyes to the summer sky when the stars are strung across the velvety
night. And when a shooting star streaks through the blackness, turning
night into day, make a wish and think of me. Make your life spectacular
- Jack Powell in Jack
But
oh, to be free. Not to have t go poof! What do you need, poof! What do
you need, poof! What do you need? To be my own master. Such a thing
would be greater than all the magic and all the treasures in the world.
But what am I talking about? Let’s get real here, that’s never gonna
happen. Genie, wake up and smell the hummus
- Genie in Aladdin
The
human spirit is more powerful than any drug – and that is what needs to
be nourished: with work, play, friendship, family. These are the things
that matter. This is what we’d forgotten….the simplest things
- Dr Malcolm Sayer in Awakenings
I love you with all my heart. With every cell, with every molecule, with every atom. I love you on a subatomic level
- Professor Philip Brainard in Flubber
Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your live extraordinary
- Keating in Dead Poets Society
