EMPATHY FACTOR: ZERO

pathetic and sad all at once.

Sad news

My favorite Robin Williams movie was The World According to Garp. It's often difficult to adapt a great novel and make an equally good film. In this case it worked.

And Williams had a drug and alcohol addiction, which is a disease. No matter how much rehab you do, it's always there. You just try to learn how to deal with it. Suicide is a terrible thing and I can't imagine how much he was suffering. Apparently, a great deal. I wasn't a huge fan of his frenetic humor, but I thought he was an excellent actor.

Sad News
 

This is really sad news. My favorite RW movie was Patch Adams. Funny, sensitive, and an avenue of hope for children in aweful situations. Robin will be missed by the millions of fans that loved him. RIP

Truly sad news. I loved his movies while I was growing up. As funny as he was, there was something profoundly sad about him too. All that pressure to be "on" all the time. I wonder what he was like when the lights were off.

I don't see why anyone would take this opportunity to blame Robin Williams for being depressed. We've all been depressed. It's not something you choose and being an addict is not something you choose either. Money does not make a person happy. Neither does fame or talent. We make ourselves happy. Some of us are fortunate enough to be/stay happy. But that is not the case for everyone.

Some posters should think about that before making insensitive posts. My uncle committed suicide earlier this year. I don't know what he was going through, but neither does anyone else. So it really does nothing to compare yourself to them and insinuate you have more self control / are a better person.

A sad end to the life of a talented guy.

I am reminded of Smokey Robinson's great lines about the tears of a clown/when no one's around. And of Edward Arlington Robinson's poem Richard Cory, a man who had everything, who "glittered when he walked," but who "one calm summer night went home and put a bullet through his head."

We cannot understand this any more than we can understand the recent decision of the Oregon mother with an apparently perfect life to kill herself. These people's inner lives are simply not visible to the outside world, perhaps even to their loved ones. One can only have empathy.

The Academy tweet this last night.

thanks for sharing your story TNP777. that took a huge amount of courage.

http://net54baseball.com/attachment....1&d=1407857353

:( I'd completely forgotten he did the Genie in Aladdin.
I'd forgotten for a moment anyway that he did Patch Adams.
He did so many wonderful things. He had such a diverse career. He had so much talent. If you didn't like his comedy, you could still respect his ability to act in dramatic roles, because he was a great dramatic actor. But even if you didn't like his comedy, or his acting abilities, you could still like him as a person. He had a kind heart. He cared about people.

I really miss him, guys.

Bill, did you personally know him?

I miss Robin too. Doctor Drew was talking the other night about how Robin had had open-heart surgery and how much depression follows that type of traumatic experience. I think he also missed his mentor, Jonathan Winters.

Here is a great Tonight Show clip with both Robin and Jonathan...bless them for what they have shared and left with us.

Always wanting more...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NqEKvk9F4I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDJjq0Pd0RM

I did not personally know him but I will convey a story to you and then you can decide if it's still uncool to think he was kind and caring.

Yesterday a friend of mine told me a story about a friend of his who was waiting in line years ago to get his bike fixed (which he needed for work.) Robin was waiting behind him. When said friend returned the next day to pick it up, there was a brand new bike waiting for him. Robin had overheard the conversation about all the problems he was having with his bike, and bought him a new one so he could "work without worry."

Troops
 

Robin did a lot for the troops. He didn't have to, he wanted to make them laugh. He will be missed, and yes, he made me laugh a lot.

RIP Robin


Jeff

Robin was not only a great comedian and actor he was truly a great person. I watched a tv clip yesterday of a time when he hired a plane so he could visit a teenager dying of cancer, in Texas, as one of her final requests. No one knew about it and it never came out in the news. He just sat with her for hours and played a card game she knew. (She won). She passed away a few weeks later. Her father told the story and showed a few pictures. To me, that is what a great person does. As was mentioned he also did a ton for our military. He was known as the Bob Hope of this generation. Personally I thought he was very funny too. RIP Robin.

It's great being part of a forum with so many intelligent passionate people who share interest in the same hobby. But it's good to remember where our areas of knowledge lie - I would be an idiot to get involved in a discussion about lawyering, and subjects like politics and religion get touchy. Mental illness involves a little of both areas where it would behoove us to be careful about what we say, or we are often going to sound like uncaring morons. Mental illness affects almost everyone in some way, but there are a few here who still obviously think they are immune.

Clinical depression is another form of mental illness, meaning that comments about Williams being selfish and not controlling himself, are as ignorant as using words like 'bipolar' or 'schizophrenic' to describe people who you disagree with in forum arguments. I guarantee you there are people on this forum who have bipolar disorder, schizophrenia AND clinical depression - some of these people are people who some of you have a great deal of respect for, and who you are unwittingly offending at times.

There are such things as situational depression, but that's not what Williams had. Clinical depression is usually 'there' for a long time - before the addictions start;in fact, the addictions are often a 'self-medicating' form of treatment. Obviously a bad choice, but it's common. If anything, Williams should be applauded for maintaining the good parts of himself, and for his amazing coping skills - not the bad choices of drugs and alcohol, but his work ethic. He worked non-stop, as a way to battle depression.