RIP Robin Williams
- Thread starter Lepplady
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When I first joined this board. You were all in mourning of JD. I was afraid to even intrude.
This board is why we try to stay strong.
This board is why we try to stay strong.
That's pretty amazing
Williams will be immortalized by WoW as an npc. Only fitting since he was such a gamer himself.
Blunt- here is the full episode. Laughter to replace tears.
I was just reminded from the televsion (it's on in the other room, watching me....) that Robin had a special bond with Christopher Reeve's. Perhaps they're sharing a laugh together right now? Superman and Popeye together again....
Oh wow, I couldn't find it at Yahoo earlier today! Thankee, Sai Spidey!
Oh wow, I couldn't find it at Yahoo earlier today! Thankee, Sai Spidey!
Enjoy- pure genius. I saw it when it first aired- and now to watch again.... it's still all there. We are all so touched by this man.
After the accident that left him paralyzed, Christopher Reeve was in the hospital facing a surgery that he had a 50% chance of making it through. He was in a dark place, contemplating his own mortality.
"Then, at an especially bleak moment, the door flew open and in hurried a squat fellow with a blue scrub hat and a yellow surgical gown and glasses, speaking in a Russian accent. He announced that he was my proctologist, told me to turn over and said that he had to examine me immediately...it was Robin Williams... for the first time since the accident, I laughed. My old friend had helped me know that somehow I was going to be okay."
~Christopher Reeve
Oh wow, I couldn't find it at Yahoo earlier today! Thankee, Sai Spidey!
Oh my. Thank you Spidey. James Lipton could not even keep his control
Letter from Zelda Williams:
"My family has always been private about our time spent together. It was our way of keeping one thing that was ours, with a man we shared with an entire world. But now that’s gone, and I feel stripped bare. My last day with him was his birthday, and I will be forever grateful that my brothers and I got to spend that time alone with him, sharing gifts and laughter. He was always warm, even in his darkest moments. While I’ll never, ever understand how he could be loved so deeply and not find it in his heart to stay, there’s minor comfort in knowing our grief and loss, in some small way, is shared with millions. It doesn’t help the pain, but at least it’s a burden countless others now know we carry, and so many have offered to help lighten the load. Thank you for that.
To those he touched who are sending kind words, know that one of his favorite things in the world was to make you all laugh. As for those who are sending negativity, know that some small, giggling part of him is sending a flock of pigeons to your house to poop on your car. Right after you’ve had it washed. After all, he loved to laugh too…
Dad was, is and always will be one of the kindest, most generous, gentlest souls I’ve ever known, and while there are few things I know for certain right now, one of them is that not just my world, but the entire world is forever a little darker, less colorful and less full of laughter in his absence. We’ll just have to work twice as hard to fill it back up again."
"My family has always been private about our time spent together. It was our way of keeping one thing that was ours, with a man we shared with an entire world. But now that’s gone, and I feel stripped bare. My last day with him was his birthday, and I will be forever grateful that my brothers and I got to spend that time alone with him, sharing gifts and laughter. He was always warm, even in his darkest moments. While I’ll never, ever understand how he could be loved so deeply and not find it in his heart to stay, there’s minor comfort in knowing our grief and loss, in some small way, is shared with millions. It doesn’t help the pain, but at least it’s a burden countless others now know we carry, and so many have offered to help lighten the load. Thank you for that.
To those he touched who are sending kind words, know that one of his favorite things in the world was to make you all laugh. As for those who are sending negativity, know that some small, giggling part of him is sending a flock of pigeons to your house to poop on your car. Right after you’ve had it washed. After all, he loved to laugh too…
Dad was, is and always will be one of the kindest, most generous, gentlest souls I’ve ever known, and while there are few things I know for certain right now, one of them is that not just my world, but the entire world is forever a little darker, less colorful and less full of laughter in his absence. We’ll just have to work twice as hard to fill it back up again."
I also heard that he told christopher not to worry about money. That he would support him and his family.
After the accident that left him paralyzed, Christopher Reeve was in the hospital facing a surgery that he had a 50% chance of making it through. He was in a dark place, contemplating his own mortality.
"Then, at an especially bleak moment, the door flew open and in hurried a squat fellow with a blue scrub hat and a yellow surgical gown and glasses, speaking in a Russian accent. He announced that he was my proctologist, told me to turn over and said that he had to examine me immediately...it was Robin Williams... for the first time since the accident, I laughed. My old friend had helped me know that somehow I was going to be okay."
~Christopher Reeve
I hear Zelda has decided to stop internet networking due to all the crap she's been receiving since her dad's death from people who feel they must take advantage and behave like evil children.
Today's encore selection - in memory of the extraordinary Robin Williams, from Make 'em Laugh: The Funny Business of America by Michael Kantor and Laurence Maslon. This selection describes how Williams started his career. As a preamble to this selection, we include a story recounted by Groucho Marx in his 1959 book Groucho and Me:
" 'I'm sure most of you have heard the story of the man who, desperately ill, goes to an analyst and tells the doctor that he has lost his desire to live and that he is seriously considering suicide. The doctor listens to this tale of melancholia and then tells the patient that what he needs is a good belly laugh. He advises the unhappy man to go to the circus that night and spend the evening laughing at Grock, the world's funniest clown. The doctor sums it up, 'After you have seen Grock, I am sure you will be much happier.' The patient rises to his feet, looks sadly at the doctor, turns and ambles to the door. As he starts to leave, the doctor says, 'By the way what is your name?' The man turns and regards the analyst with sorrowful eyes. 'I am Grock.' "
"Robin Williams was an acting student in the early 1970s at New York's prestigious Juilliard School, where his classmates were Christopher Reeve and William Hurt. As producer George Schlatter recalls, 'He didn't graduate because they asked him to leave after his junior year. They said, "No, Robin, there's just nothing more we can teach you. So you should go out and work."' Williams himself remembers the conversation with the school's founder, the esteemed director and actor John Houseman, a bit differently: 'Mr. Williams, the theater needs you. I'm going off to sell Volvos.' ...
"Robin Williams was born in Chicago in 1952 and was raised in a well-to-do suburb outside of Detroit, Michigan, where his father was a busy senior executive with the Ford Motor Company. Neglected by his family, Williams grew up in a thirty-room mansion, where he had the entire third floor to himself. To entertain himself, he created an array of imaginary playmates. ...
" 'I'm sure most of you have heard the story of the man who, desperately ill, goes to an analyst and tells the doctor that he has lost his desire to live and that he is seriously considering suicide. The doctor listens to this tale of melancholia and then tells the patient that what he needs is a good belly laugh. He advises the unhappy man to go to the circus that night and spend the evening laughing at Grock, the world's funniest clown. The doctor sums it up, 'After you have seen Grock, I am sure you will be much happier.' The patient rises to his feet, looks sadly at the doctor, turns and ambles to the door. As he starts to leave, the doctor says, 'By the way what is your name?' The man turns and regards the analyst with sorrowful eyes. 'I am Grock.' "
"Robin Williams was an acting student in the early 1970s at New York's prestigious Juilliard School, where his classmates were Christopher Reeve and William Hurt. As producer George Schlatter recalls, 'He didn't graduate because they asked him to leave after his junior year. They said, "No, Robin, there's just nothing more we can teach you. So you should go out and work."' Williams himself remembers the conversation with the school's founder, the esteemed director and actor John Houseman, a bit differently: 'Mr. Williams, the theater needs you. I'm going off to sell Volvos.' ...
"Robin Williams was born in Chicago in 1952 and was raised in a well-to-do suburb outside of Detroit, Michigan, where his father was a busy senior executive with the Ford Motor Company. Neglected by his family, Williams grew up in a thirty-room mansion, where he had the entire third floor to himself. To entertain himself, he created an array of imaginary playmates. ...
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(Continued)
"When Williams turned sixteen, his father took early retirement and moved the family to Marin County, just north of San Francisco. 'It was mellow times,' he recalled. 'That's where I found out about drugs and happiness. I saw the best brains of my time turned to mud.' Williams returned there after leaving Juilliard and soon ventured to Los Angeles, where he did the stand-up rounds. Budd Friedman recalls, 'I put him on every time he'd walk in and people would say, "Why are you putting him on? He ain't got no act." Trust me, he's got an act. And Robin became a favorite so quickly.' George Schlatter [observed], 'He came out in overalls, with a straw hat on, barefoot-it was Jonny Winters squared, you know? And he had a pole, and he put it out over the audience, and he says, "I'm fishing for *******s." The moment you saw him, you said, "This is gonna be an important force. Not just a talent, but an important force in show business." ' Williams made his featured debut [on the short-lived revival of Laugh-In] in late 1977; his first line was 'Ladies and gentlemen, tonight I'm here to talk to you about the very serious problem of schizophrenia -- No, he isn't! -- SHUT UP, LET HIM SPEAK!' ...
"Over at the soundstages at ABC, there was a hit number one sitcom called Happy Days. Producer Garry Marshall, on a whim suggested by his seven-year-old son, decided to drop an alien from space down on Fonzie and his friends. Finding the right actor would be crucial, and Marshall called on his sister, Ronnie, who was his casting director. Marshall recalled:
'Get me Jonathan Winters, get me John Byner, get me one of those crazy guys -- Don Knotts, I'll take.' 'No, we got a guy, Robin Williams,' my sister Ronnie said. 'What he's done, Robin Williams?' 'He stands on a street corner and he does funny things and mimes and he passes the hat. That's his credit.' This is who I'm gonna see over the people I want to see? 'Yes, you gotta see him.' And I said, 'But why?' And I remember my sister said very clearly, 'You should see him -- it's an awful full hat.'
"Williams's debut as Mork from Ork whipped the studio audience into pandemonium; in the days of sitcom spin-offs, a vehicle was not far behind. Mork and Mindy was hastily arranged for the following fall. ...
"On the first day of shooting, Marshall had to contend with the fact that his star was out of orbit:
He was all set to go, I said, "All right, Robin, we have three cameramen." Three cameras for Mork and Mindy, and the average age of the cameramen is seventy-nine, eighty. And so I said, "Okay, Robin, ready, action." And he ran around, he did a very funny thing, he ad-libbed a little, he said the lines, he was all over the place, and I yell, "Cut! Great!" And to Sam, my oldest cameraman, I said, "Did you get that, Sam?" And Sam said, "Never came by here." I said, "You gotta move the camera, Sam. The man's a genius." And Sam said, "If he's such a genius, he could hit that mark right over there and he'll be on camera." So we hired a fourth camera, just to follow Robin."
Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America
Author: Michael Kantor and Laurence Maslon
Publisher: Twelve, Hatchette Group
Copyright 2008 by Michael Kantor and Laurence Maslon
Kindle Loc. 5003-44.
From Delancey Place
"When Williams turned sixteen, his father took early retirement and moved the family to Marin County, just north of San Francisco. 'It was mellow times,' he recalled. 'That's where I found out about drugs and happiness. I saw the best brains of my time turned to mud.' Williams returned there after leaving Juilliard and soon ventured to Los Angeles, where he did the stand-up rounds. Budd Friedman recalls, 'I put him on every time he'd walk in and people would say, "Why are you putting him on? He ain't got no act." Trust me, he's got an act. And Robin became a favorite so quickly.' George Schlatter [observed], 'He came out in overalls, with a straw hat on, barefoot-it was Jonny Winters squared, you know? And he had a pole, and he put it out over the audience, and he says, "I'm fishing for *******s." The moment you saw him, you said, "This is gonna be an important force. Not just a talent, but an important force in show business." ' Williams made his featured debut [on the short-lived revival of Laugh-In] in late 1977; his first line was 'Ladies and gentlemen, tonight I'm here to talk to you about the very serious problem of schizophrenia -- No, he isn't! -- SHUT UP, LET HIM SPEAK!' ...
"Over at the soundstages at ABC, there was a hit number one sitcom called Happy Days. Producer Garry Marshall, on a whim suggested by his seven-year-old son, decided to drop an alien from space down on Fonzie and his friends. Finding the right actor would be crucial, and Marshall called on his sister, Ronnie, who was his casting director. Marshall recalled:
'Get me Jonathan Winters, get me John Byner, get me one of those crazy guys -- Don Knotts, I'll take.' 'No, we got a guy, Robin Williams,' my sister Ronnie said. 'What he's done, Robin Williams?' 'He stands on a street corner and he does funny things and mimes and he passes the hat. That's his credit.' This is who I'm gonna see over the people I want to see? 'Yes, you gotta see him.' And I said, 'But why?' And I remember my sister said very clearly, 'You should see him -- it's an awful full hat.'
"Williams's debut as Mork from Ork whipped the studio audience into pandemonium; in the days of sitcom spin-offs, a vehicle was not far behind. Mork and Mindy was hastily arranged for the following fall. ...
"On the first day of shooting, Marshall had to contend with the fact that his star was out of orbit:
He was all set to go, I said, "All right, Robin, we have three cameramen." Three cameras for Mork and Mindy, and the average age of the cameramen is seventy-nine, eighty. And so I said, "Okay, Robin, ready, action." And he ran around, he did a very funny thing, he ad-libbed a little, he said the lines, he was all over the place, and I yell, "Cut! Great!" And to Sam, my oldest cameraman, I said, "Did you get that, Sam?" And Sam said, "Never came by here." I said, "You gotta move the camera, Sam. The man's a genius." And Sam said, "If he's such a genius, he could hit that mark right over there and he'll be on camera." So we hired a fourth camera, just to follow Robin."
Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America
Author: Michael Kantor and Laurence Maslon
Publisher: Twelve, Hatchette Group
Copyright 2008 by Michael Kantor and Laurence Maslon
Kindle Loc. 5003-44.
From Delancey Place