Remembering Robin Williams
The amazing comedian and actor left us eight years ago
Robin Williams’ suicide on August 11, 2014, affected people more personally than any celebrity death I can recall.
It wasn’t just that the tweets of the rich and famous who worked with him or knew him socially were warmer, sadder and more genuine sounding than what we usually see.
It was that everyday folks with whom I spoke or communicated with via Facebook acted as though they’d lost a family member.
A big part of that, no doubt, had to do with Williams’ ubiquity.
He’s deeply ingrained in the consciousness of at least two generations. After he catapulted to national attention in the ABC sitcom Mork & Mindy, in 1978, he was seemingly everywhere, starring in movies as a hyper-kinetic Vietnam disc jockey, a nanny in drag, a schizophrenic street person; doing voice work for Disney animations and stand-up specials for HBO, enlivening talk shows, co-hosting Comic Relief fundraisers with his super-friends, Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg.
But the strong reaction to Williams’ death also spoke to his warmth and vulnerability. His comedy was often manic but seldom if ever mean. The title of his first comedy album, Reality…What a Concept, conveyed his bemusement with the human condition, his own included. His characters…
