Robin Williams, 1951 - 2014

While a student at the University of Georgia in the late 1970's, I and other friends gathered for a party one evening, and to watch an HBO special starring a guy who had been a San Francisco Street Performer. That guy was, of course, Robin Williams. We laughed out loud for the duration of the show, and continued to laugh for decades to come.

Robin's singular talent was so bankable that makers of the film, Dead Poets Society used clips of him from the standing-on-the-desk scene to sell the movie as if it were a Robin Williams comedy vehicle. Although misleading, because his role and the movie itself was not comedic, per se, it yet brought people to the theater to see it.

I loved his talent because he was Jonathan Winters 2.0. The incredibly inventive mind of Jonathan Winters which made him worth the watch, went to an entirely different level through the mad energy and imagination of Robin Williams. The talent went far deeper than comedy, as we all witnessed, in movie roles like those he created in Awakening with Robert DeNiro and Insomnia with Al Pacino. He was brilliant, and yet, like all of us, flawed.

As an adoring public we rarely see the truth behind the mask we are sold. Going back to the 70's, I recall the shock and sadness I felt when I learned that Freddie Prinze had taken his own life. I and a buddy of mine had been big fans of the sitcom Chico and the Man starring Freddie and Jack Albertson. But we had been bigger fans of Freddie's, and wished in some way we could have had a chance to speak with him, and to tell him how much his comedy had meant to us, and maybe we could have prevented the thoughts which left him with no hope of going on for another day.

And now all of us, who were amazed at the talent of Robin Williams, are left wondering what could have been said to have helped this brilliant talent, loving father, and good friend choose life in the critical moment we now mourn. Perhaps nothing could have been said to change his decision, but prayers certainly would have risen to Heaven on his behalf. I am in shock over the loss of a man whose brilliance was worth the price of admission, and yet struggled with a hopelessness in the dark midnight of his soul which overwhelmed the love so many felt for him. It is a cautionary tale of which we must all take heed. Robin, may you rest in peace....

Fearlessly.... JD