# Robin Williams is gone ten years now

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-is-gone-ten-years-now/1005565
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 11, 2024, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-is-gone-ten-years-now/1005565 "2024-08-11T14:50:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2024, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-is-gone-ten-years-now/1005565/1 "2024-08-11T14:50:52Z")

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This clip is from 1981 and it’s like he already saw what was going to happen. RIP.

> **[Mork on being a celebrity.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6ESJa7PTl0%2F)**
>
> "Mork Meets Robin Williams" S03E14Mork reports back to Orson on what it is to be a celebrity after meeting Robin Williams. A very serious note from a somew...

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### Author: ![Ellecram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellecram/32/18948_2.png) [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2024, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-is-gone-ten-years-now/1005565/2 "2024-08-11T15:56:22Z")

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I’ve never been one who keeps up with celebrities but when Robin Williams died I experienced more than a passing bit of sadness.

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### Author: ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2024, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-is-gone-ten-years-now/1005565/3 "2024-08-11T16:41:12Z")

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Also 10 years since I backed out of the garage and took of the passenger side mirror. I had just heard about his death about 5 minutes earlier and was distracted.

RIP

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### Author: ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2024, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-is-gone-ten-years-now/1005565/4 "2024-08-11T23:07:17Z")

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I too, miss him and continue to feel bad about the anguish he apparently experienced in his last months (and maybe years).

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### Author: ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2024, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-is-gone-ten-years-now/1005565/5 "2024-08-11T23:19:49Z")

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IIRC Williams suffered from life-long depression but it was him getting [Lewy Body Dementia](https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/lewy-body-dementia/what-lewy-body-dementia-causes-symptoms-and-treatments) at the end which is a progressive and unpleasant way to die that led him to his suicide.

I am shocked it was ten years ago now. Somehow it does not seem like that long ago to me.

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### Author: ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2024, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-is-gone-ten-years-now/1005565/6 "2024-08-12T04:13:35Z")

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He’s missed!

I remember playing pinball with Robin at a comedy club in San Francisco, and Bo Diddley was playing upstairs circa 1984. Robin was terrible but joked about it. And then was gracious when me and the collage radio team asked Robin to record a call sign, and he did.

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### Author: ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2024, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-is-gone-ten-years-now/1005565/7 "2024-08-12T18:37:21Z")

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> [@Whack-a-Mole](#):
>
> IIRC Williams suffered from life-long depression but it was him getting [Lewy Body Dementia](https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/lewy-body-dementia/what-lewy-body-dementia-causes-symptoms-and-treatments) at the end which is a progressive and unpleasant way to die that led him to his suicide.

I don’t recall the name of the documentary about him I’m thinking of here–there has been more than one, I believe. In the one I’m remembering there was a scene of Robin preparing for his role in (I think) _Awakenings_ by meeting a man with a mental disorder. It seemed clear that Robin wasn’t just looking to imitate the man’s demeanor or voice or anything, but was actually deeply interested in how the man’s brain worked.

Just about anyone would agree with the idea that Robin’s brain differed from the average brain. But clearly he was aware that the difference, while it gave him a highly successful career, had severe drawbacks, too.

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### Author: ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2024, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-is-gone-ten-years-now/1005565/8 "2024-08-12T21:31:28Z")

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> [@Sherrerd](#):
>
> I don’t recall the name of the documentary about him I’m thinking of here

It’s this one:

> **[Watch Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind | Prime Video](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Robin-Williams-Come-Inside-Mind/dp/B07FYRHKTZ)**
>
> Told largely through his own words, this funny, intimate portrait of Robin Williams looks at the life of the comedy legend, focusing on what he brought to comedy and to the culture at large-from the wild days of late-1970s L.A. to his death in 2014.

He talks to a guy with Tourette’s syndrome in it - I just watched it yesterday.

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### Author: ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2024, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-is-gone-ten-years-now/1005565/9 "2024-08-13T01:14:52Z")

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There are people who seem to burn more brightly than the rest of us. And the brighter they burn, their inner energy is expelled faster and faster until it is all used up, often way before their “time.” Robin Williams was just such a person.

I miss him. I liked him much more as a dramatic actor than as a comedian. He really had talent.

Another funny man whose dramatic talent was just beginning to develop was John Candy. Another light that failed much too soon.

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### Author: ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2024, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-is-gone-ten-years-now/1005565/10 "2024-08-13T18:52:51Z")

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> [@romansperson](#):
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> It’s this one:

Thank you! Yes, that’s the one.

And you can see how Robin might have seen Tourette’s as being not-completely-unrelated to his own cerebral situation.

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### Author: ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2024, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-is-gone-ten-years-now/1005565/11 "2024-08-13T18:58:34Z")

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> [@XOldiesJock](#):
>
> I liked him much more as a dramatic actor than as a comedian. He really had talent.

Me too. I liked him best in “The Fisher King”.
