I went to bed early last night. Earlier than I normally do. I don’t recall the time, but my wife was still downstairs binging on Netflix. At some point, she woke me to say “Have you heard?”. Normally, those words really aren’t very good, especially in the middle of the night. “Robin Williams is dead” she continued. Being about 75% asleep I thought she said “Robbie Williams is dead”. No offense to the Take That singer, but I just said “Ok” and turned over and went back to sleep. I woke this morning and immediately reached over for my iPad. It was then I realised that it wasn’t the singer that had died, but the legendary Robin Williams was no longer with us.
I’ll admit, it took some time for this to sink in. I couldn’t really get out of bed. I just kept reading the news over and over again. Eventually, I did get up and wrote a piece for the site, but as this morning has gone on, I’ve just felt sadder and sadder.
One of my first memories of television was Mork and Mindy. I didn’t get the humour as I was far too young, but I recall my Dad laughing out loud time after time, and as we know, laughter is contagious, regardless if you get what’s going on or not. That alien from Ork made such an impression on a very young boy that I’ve loved Robin Williams ever since.
It was Good Morning, Vietnam that started my life long love of radio and impressions. I haven’t seen the movie in a few years, but William’s incredible energy left such an impact. Every minute of that movie I eagerly awaited another impression or another “radio bit”. His filmography as a whole is fantastic, from the iconic Mrs. Doubtfire to his academy award winning performance as Sean Maguire in Good Will Hunting. It’s rare that an actor can have such a diverse filmography and deliver consistently great performances every time. Hell, he even made RV watchable.
But the greatest thing for me was Robin Williams just being Robin Williams. His “Live On Broadway” stand up show is just phenomenal with a finale that really is nothing but pure genius. His talk show appearances were always something to relish and stay up late for. He was always “on”. Not once did I see him fail to knock an interview out of the park. From Johnny Carson to Jonathan Ross, the guy was simply incredible. And while he had his problems and the darkness won out in the end, he lit up lives around the world. I just hope he knows that. However, like alot of you, I’m still sad. It’s just completely Shazbot!
But, let’s be thankful that one of the finest comedians and actors ever to come into our lives made such an impression and brought people such joy and happiness. I just hope they were expecting him home on Orson. Nanu-Nanu.
