08/11/2014, hundreds of millions of people were upset to the core by the sad news: Robin Williams hanged himself.
The man who made me laugh, who inspired … Quotes from his monologues were used by journalists, politicians, ordinary people. The world famous American comedic and dramatic actor was able to make even furniture laugh! Not only America considered him “his”: on “foggy Albion” he was also a frequent visitor.
Best Roles
The actor enriched the world cinema with an unforgettable comedy image, sharpened by the mentality of the American and Western European viewers. Really talented embodied the main roles of Robin Williams:
- Sailor Popeye from the Robert Altman film of the same name;
- writer Garp in the film directed by George Roy “Peace on the Garp”;
- radio host Adrian Kronauer (“Good morning, Vietnam!”, directed by Barry Levinson);
- Teacher Kitting from the Dead Poets Society film directed by Peter Weir;
- Dr. Sayer Malcolm from Penny Marshall's Awakening;
- the tramp Perry (“The King Fisherman”, a drama by Terry Giliam);
- adult Peter Pan - lawyer Peter Banning (“Captain Hook” directed by Stephen Spielberg);
- Daniel Hillard, reincarnated as Mrs. Doutfire (“Mrs. Doutfire”, a comedy directed by Chris Columbus);
- swallowed up by Alan Parrish from the Jumanji film directed by Joe Johnston;
- wax Theodore Roosevelt from “Nights at the Museum” (1, 2, 3) directed by Sean Levy;
- the robot NDR-314, which takes on the appearance of a man Andrew Martin (Chris Columbus’s film “Bicentennial Man”);
- the sorcerer Maxwell Wallace from the melodrama Kirsten Sheridan's “August Rush”;
- the eccentric grandfather Mitch from the comedy of Tristran Shapiro “This is, damn it, a Christmas miracle.”
Suicide investigation
The death of him, bathed in the love of admirers, was at first glance illogical.
The day before, a couple of days before his death, the 63-year-old actor was discussing plans for the future with a friend. In the morning of that fateful day, while in the other bedroom, he dialed the phone of his wife Susan Schneider and asked him to buy newspapers and magazines.
Not even remotely reminiscent of a classic suicide bomber Robin Williams! How did this man die and, most importantly, why? However, a few days later the mournful picture of what happened became known to the public.
The wife of the deceased, Susan Schneider, reported details that coincided with the observations of his friends and acquaintances. The death of actor Robin Williams took place under the influence of a medicine that causes side fear and depression. He took it, struggling with the initial stage of Parkinson's disease. However, ultimately, Williams committed this act consciously. Although he was not a coward. The actor knew and felt that he was gradually losing his mind. The "parade" of symptoms began abruptly in the fall of 2013. He faded before his eyes. Doctors talked about imminent hospitalization.
Childhood
He could be called a man who made himself. Williams was born on July 21, 1951 in Chicago, Illinois, in the family of businessman Robert Fitzgerald Williams and former model Laurie Maclorin Smith, great-granddaughter of the state governor. The future actor had two older half-brothers.
The family often moved, and Williams replaced schools: in Gorton, Detroit, Larkspur. He studied well, was the president of the class, played football and wrestling. However, classmates remembered him for his ability to make laugh.
Williams chose a profession on his own
Robbie's parents, fortunately, were workaholics. Therefore, Robin Williams himself chose his life path, in accordance with his abilities. His biography therefore is a description of the life of a person who is constantly looking for new realizations of his talent, developing, self-fulfilling.
The father was not enthusiastic about the choice of his son, considering the profession of a welder the best start for a future career. In college, where, in addition to this working specialty, Williams also had acting classes, he eagerly interested in only the second aspect of his training. While in college, he first played a role in the musical "Oliver". Jimm Dunn, Robin's first acting teacher, spoke of him as “not knowing the boundaries on the stage” and “able to play any role”.
However, the father, who left early, obviously believed that his son would be a welder …
Rejected classic acting education
Having decided to become an actor, Robin Williams in 1973 entered the prestigious Juilliard Theater School (New York), where William Hurt and Christopher Reeve were in the same stream. However, having studied only two courses, he left her in 1976, and with reason.
Why did Robbie do this? He learned the academic principles of comic art as a child, endlessly trying to show friends and family the lessons of acting that he had “stolen” from leading comedians: Peter Sellers, Lenny Bruce, Mike Nichols, Jonathan Winters. The young man, once in Juilliard, was imbued with a sense of deja vu: the teachers tried to convey to him the skills that he already possessed.
He went the other way, because he knew what he needed: to become a magnet for the audience, to hone his ability of comic impromptu to perfection. Later he will say that in every artist there should be a “drop of madness”, and that it should be protected like the apple of an eye. It was her, the catalyst of inspiration, that could be extinguished by the academicism of classical education, turning the creative personality into a “typical product of Juilliard”.
Stand-up artist
The actor already had his own creative style. Robin Williams conquered the audience with the blurred boundaries between madness and genius.
A photo of the actor soon appeared on club posters. William began to develop his talent, becoming an artist of the stand-up genre. To do this, the artist moved with his family to San Francisco, where he performed at the Holy City club. But the city of St. Francis was not his city. Williams' talent demanded large shocks. The comedian later compared his life in San Francisco to living in Switzerland during a nuclear war.
Not surprisingly, he was soon lured by the Los Angeles clubs Comedy Club, The Roxy, The Improve. There life was in full swing.
Drug loyalty
It was during this period that the artist began to regularly take drugs, and then defeated this destructive hobby. How did this happen? To his credit, before the performance he never accepted them. My own drive was always enough.
Williams told about himself that his talent “turns on”, includes the situation if he has more than one listener, and as soon as the first laugh appears, it triples his strength and “drags him upstairs”. The audience’s laughter caused the very appearance on the stage of “absolutely convincing” Robin with an “eternal wry smile and squint”.
But after the speech, he took a combination of vodka with cocaine to “maintain the energy level”.
Reaching the pinnacle of stand-up genre
He was invited to perform by British clubs, including the famous The comedy store. It would seem that the goal has been achieved: became successful, comedian Robin Williams is famous all over the world. Photos of him were full not only on posters, but also in newspaper journal articles. But the crowning career of the comedian was an invitation to the “Richard Prior Show”.
This is the dream of any comedian. For a comedian, participating in this show is tantamount to the success of a football club entering the Champions League. What is only the phrase that he recommends to the audience a public person (a well-known heavy smoker): “He would have smoked even his uncle …” This was a new bright talent, which he wanted to get a cinema.
Powerful movie career start
The very first series of “Happy Days”, in which Williams starred as an alien Mark, became a bomb in the field of media. He was a resounding success: 03/12/1979, Robin Williams was portrayed on the cover of America’s main news publication Time. His filmography began triumphantly. Enterprising businessmen posted a photo of the artist on their goods, and chocolate eggs “stuffed” his figure.
The feature film, in which Robin soon starred, “Popeye the Sailor, ” also became resonant. The budget of the film was $ 20 million, for its filming on about. Malta built a whole village, preserved as a tourist attraction to this day.
Thanks to the talent of Williams, who portrayed the charismatic sailor, an avid spinach lover, the film earned $ 60 million. By the way, the replicated quote “this is check and check” from there.
Popularity. Drugs. Recovery
A successful actor in the 80s becomes the face of the HBO television channel, starring in the highly popular television shows “Evening with R. Williams”, “Alien to Conventions”, “Live at the Metropolitan Opera”. They were very popular, they were watched all over America, tickets for these acts were sold out in half an hour. In 1982, the successful film “Harpoon World” was released triumphantly.
During this period, the actor’s dependence on drugs intensified, but he had real friends, fans, and first of all the owner of the bike shop, Tony Tom. He “transplanted a famous comedian from drugs to a bicycle.” He was saved for the world by Robin Williams, an actor. The filmography of the actor subsequently picks up pace: “Club Paradise”, “Good Morning, Vietnam!”, “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen”.
Williams - dramatic actor
The actor is metamorphosed. Williams begins to captivate the viewer, not only as a film comic, but also as a dramatic actor.
The movie Society of the Dead Poets, one of the most beloved by all Americans, has been released on the screens. The audience gets goosebumps from the words of his hero, teacher John Kitting, showing old black-and-white photos of school graduates to his current students: “Look, they have the same haircuts as yours. Right? They have excess hormones, like yours. It seems to them that they are invulnerable, like you. They believe that great accomplishments are for them, like so many of you. Hope shines in their eyes, as well as yours … However, now these boys are fertilizer for tulips. But if you listen carefully, you can hear their whispers addressed to you, they bless you with a parting word: Carpe Diem, catch a moment, boys, make your life extraordinary. ”
Paradoxes: Robin Williams and the Oscars
Beginning with the above film (1989), a tragicomic situation begins that has been ridiculed by the Americans for a decade: their beloved actor is nominated every year for an Oscar, which he received only in 1998. And then for the supporting role, professor Sean Maguire, who teaches in college.
Although, in fairness, it is worth noting that before that there were roles thanks to which more than once I could be awarded the iconic figurine Robin Williams.
His filmography in this period was decorated:
- the cult film “Mrs. Doutfire”, which was included in the hundred highest-grossing American films;
- bright, unusual, unlike anything tape “Toys”;
- the philosophical movie “The King Fisherman”, where the crazy tramp reaches spiritual heights;
- the film “Father’s Day” and “Where Dreams May Come”, which were a difficult test for him, on the eve of his lost father.
Filming the last two films aroused the forgotten emotions of the actor, captivating the audience with a game with a break, at the level of disruption.
The public welcomed all these works of the actor favorably. The relentless humor of the lyceum actually sounded in them. How many men who are not being taken by executive cars have been encouraged by Mrs Doutfire’s phrase: “According to rumors, men acquire cool super cars as compensation for their small genitals. But that doesn't concern you!"
Creativity crisis
However, in the future, the talent of an actor who has reached a midlife crisis has changed the direction of his development. Since 1995, he, a public man who drew mega-energy from an all-American audience, wanted to prove himself in a more chamber audience.
For connoisseurs of his talent, it was a revelation that Robin Williams turned out to be a recluse, seen by everyone as an extrovert. His filmography is enriched with new films, where movie heroes are prone to introspection, withdrawal into themselves: “Seize the moment”, “Insomnia”, “Secret agent”.
The actor is invigorated: “I survived all my difficulties until the age of 30. And now I'm just rushing! ” But really experiencing a crisis of creativity, he begins to drink. Williams, according to critics, “having reached the point of negligibility, ” then begins to recover himself step by step again.
a swan song
In 2006, Williams undergoes an inpatient treatment for alcohol dependence. The directors again invite him to the films in the leading roles: “Psychoanalyst”, “So-so vacation”, “Best Dad”.
Perhaps the last film, a comedy smart and subtle, can be called the swan song of the great actor. He played brilliantly teacher Lance Clayton, the long-suffering parent of the deceased teenager, a misanthrope boy, sexually preoccupied, unbalanced.
In the same film, through the lips of his character, he uttered his phrase that he was afraid of dying alone more than anything else. However, another quote was made here that suicide is the final solution to temporary problems.
Unfortunately, Robbie Williams did not remember her when, wearing a black T-shirt and black jeans, on August 11, 2014, holding one end of the belt between the cabinet door and the door frame and wrapping the other around his neck, he repeated the suicide of Kyle Clayton from the movie “Best Dad " No alcohol or drugs were found in his blood. There were two prescription caffeinated medicines and two types of antidepressants. In the last year, the actor suffered from depression.
A man with a capital letter
People in the USA and Europe cried. After all, the lyceum left, who made the world kinder and better. He made people laugh, he made people cry. He generously and freely gave his huge talent to each viewer.
His huge heart showed itself not only in the movies, but also on the stage. He actively participated in a homeless support program, speaking at congressional hearings. Personally sponsored a children's hospital. He supported many patients, and once Robin rented a plane to meet a girl who developed an aggressive and rare cancer.
Thousands and thousands of people carried flowers, a huge number of which formed impromptu memorials near the name star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and at the house where Robin Williams lived. The death of the actor caused condolences from politicians, businessmen, and cultural figures. All agreed on one thing: a genuine soul had left.
