Photo from Wikipedia (taken by Tabitha M. Mans)
It's said that comedians are some of the most depressed people in the world. With great pain and sorrow, comes laughter. One of the funniest men of all time, unfortunately suffered from such a severe depression, that he committed suicide by asphyxiation today.
Robin Williams first gained national attention from his TV show character Mork, but quickly made a name for himself. His standup comedy was legendary and he was a favorite guest among late night talk show hosts because of his spontaneity. He could improvise so well, that the writers for Mork And Mindy left script pages blank with a note telling Robin to go wild.
His career rocketed upwards after playing Mork and he was nominated three times for an Academy Award (Dead Poet's Society, The Fisher King, and Good Morning, Vietnam) and won once for Good Will Hunting. Despite being known for his comedy, he was a versatile actor. He could tug at your heart strings in movies like What Dreams May Come and Patch Adams and he could scare you in role such as Insomnia and One Hour Photo.
His presence in entertainment transcended just comedy, television, and film. He was a cultural icon. The type of person that when they pass, his death hits everyone hard, just as other cultural icons such as John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, or Marilyn Monroe. Passing away from a suicide just makes it even harder for his fans to deal with the grief. It leaves a feeling that as a fan base, we were robbed of future laughs.
And not to spotlight what was robbed from his fans, the man was more important than that. He himself dealt with tragedies when some of his best friends such as fellow partier John Belushi overdosed. This inspired Robin to clean up his act, which held for years. He had a relapse with alcohol while shooting in Alaska, but again admitted himself to rehab to recover. Christopher Reeve was also one of Williams' friends who was dealt a tragic hand.
Despite being a first hand witness to these tragedies, in the end, he must had dealt with so much depression, that he felt suicide was the only way to end the pain. As a fan myself, I wished he would have reached out to someone. Too many comedians over the years have died too young and even though he was sixty-three years old, I believed he had many years left.
If a hall of fame was created for comedy, on the scale of Cooperstown for Major League Baseball or the Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Robin would surely be in the first class along with legends such as Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, and George Carlin.
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