Robin Williams dead at 63

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I'm very interested to see what Craig Ferguson says. Seemed like they were friends and when he talked about his own alcoholism on his own show it was very well said.
 
Oreoleo said:
What do you mean by public health? Like someone is going to be inspired to kill themselves the same way Robin Williams did?
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Yeah.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/mar/28/media-reporting-suicide-bad-science

I'm not saying the information shouldn't be public. It should (coroner reports are public). But media reporting too many details on HOW (especially in headlines) can be dangerous. Especially when it's a popular star and there is a lot of public sympathy.
 
Volimar said:
Anyone know if he has a new episode tonight or reruns? What about Jon Stewart and Colbert?
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The daily show is old this week unfortunately, I really wanted to hear Jon Stewart talk about this tonight. I'm sure he will when they come back. Did not check on Colbert though. I'm sure Fallon, Conan, Letterman will have their own tributes and stories as well tonight.
 
witness said:
The daily show is old this week unfortunately, I really wanted to hear Jon Stewart talk about this tonight. I'm sure he will when they come back. Did not check on Colbert though. I'm sure Fallon, Conan, Letterman will have their own tributes and stories as well tonight.
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Conan did.

Volimar said:
Wow, Conan was taping when the news broke and spoke about it at the end of the show. The moment he said that Robine Williams had passed and the studio audience gasped...made me lose it again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opGqW0Eocqc
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I am so sad about Robin Williams's death. I actually gasped, and then went numb all over my body when I saw the Yahoo headline.

He was one of my favorite comedians. I loved when he was a guest on talk shows. (especially on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in the 90s). It was great when he guest-starred on Whose Line, it was one of my wishes that he would appear on that show, and he didn't disappoint!

My favorite interview of Robin's was on Inside The Actor's Studio. He was a tour de force on that episode! Wish I could watch it again. My favorite movie of his is 'One Hour Photo'. I could relate to the loneliness the character he played felt in the movie (though I did not relate to the creepy stuff his character did). Really good movie.

I remember when my mom took the family to see Aladdin at the movie theaters. My mom never wanted to go to the movies, but that day she took us. She was laughing so much at the Genie. One of my favorite memories.

Rest in peace, Robin.
 
Kifimbo said:
Yeah.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/mar/28/media-reporting-suicide-bad-science

I'm not saying the information shouldn't be public. It should (coroner reports are public). But media reporting too many details on HOW (especially in headlines) can be dangerous. Especially when it's a popular star and there is a lot of public sympathy.
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I see nothing there except some guy I never heard of say there have been studies done but doesn't seem to point to any. Also, even if what he is saying is true, there is no way to know if these people would have comitted suicide anyway, just with different means.
 
BattleMedic said:
The way the internet has reacted only goes to prove how well loved he was, usually when a celebrity dies the trolls show up with their tasteless comments and bad jokes, even here on Gaf it can only take a couple of pages before someone's shouted down.

This time I've seen nothing but love and respect and that's amazing.

RIP
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I think it speaks to how much people were touched by his comedy in all its forms. People love to laugh, if you can make people laugh on a consistent basis then you have quite a gift. Since laughter usually coincides with happiness, a lot of people (myself included) associated Williams with, well, being happy. I think it's part of why there appears to be less trolling this time around compared to when, say, Phillip Seymour Hoffman or Paul Walker died. More people just have happy, positive associations with Williams. That's not meant to be a knock against other celebrity deaths, but as a testament to the power of humor and the effect it has on people.
 
Kifimbo said:
Yeah.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/mar/28/media-reporting-suicide-bad-science

I'm not saying the information shouldn't be public. It should (coroner reports are public). But media reporting too many details on HOW (especially in headlines) can be dangerous. Especially when it's a popular star and there is a lot of public sympathy.
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This is the same reason news don't report on suicides in subways. Well at least here they don't. It's always mentioned as "accidents" and zero details are given.
 
slit said:
Thank you, although I'm still not convinced. They found a few casual links. I don't feel that's conclusive, especially when it comes to determining if the suicide would have occured anyway.
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Well, you actually didn't read the studies (unless you can read 42 articles in 5 minutes).

Of course, some people probably would have killed themselves eventually anyway.
 
Kifimbo said:
Well, you actually didn't read the studies (unless you can read 42 articles in 5 minutes).
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No kidding, I read the paper. I speed read and I found nothing conclusive and I'm not about to read 42 articles because an article isn't always a study.
 
dyls said:
I had a couple scenes in License to Wed playing a singer in the church choir where Robin Williams's character was a priest. We filmed for three days at a church in long beach, and he managed to do a couple very cool things in that time.

1. If you've seen the movie, you know it's terrible. Not funny at all really. So we were doing these scenes in the church with Robin at the pulpit delivering these crappy jokes. As soon as the cameras would cut, he would start riffing and just busting up everyone in the room. It was hot and awful in the church and there were maybe 500 extras sweating away in their Sunday best in uncomfortable wooden pews for hours, and it could easily have been miserable for everyone. But he singlehandedly kept everyone entertained and happy.

2. Later we were filming with just him and the choir. Once again it was dreadfully hot and we were all wearing thick choir robes over our regular clothes. There was no A/C in the church, only big yellow hoses piping in cold air from outside, and of course they were all aimed at him. But between every take - and I mean every take - he would lift up the hose and slowly blow it back and forth over the whole choir while talking to us all and asking us questions about ourselves.

3. We had recorded the audio at a studio a few days earlier, so when we filmed we were just lip syncing to our own playback track. But the playback kept fucking up until they finally cut it and we were lip syncing to nothing. Not great. Still, it probably would've worked as we were all in the background and they could've edited it to look okay. But Robin said, "Didn't you guys sing this?" to which we replied yes. "So why don't you just sing it live now?"
The SAG rep had to explain that the rates for on-camera singing are a fair bit higher than off camera plus lip sync (to the tune of about $800 more per singer, with over 30 singers.)
"Fuck it," he said, "I'll pay the bump. Let's hear it."
So we sang it live and he loved it and it raised the spirits of the whole day and that's what made it in the film.

Basically he was amazing throughout the whole thing, and just a total fucking class act.
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That sounds like the Robin Williams as I imagined him to be. Like others have already said, thank you for sharing!
 
In media ethics, suicide generally isn't reported unless it is a public figure, even then they most organizations have policies not to report HOW it was achieved. This is just a continuation of the sensationalism that is news.
 
dyls said:
I had a couple scenes in License to Wed playing a singer in the church choir where Robin Williams's character was a priest. We filmed for three days at a church in long beach, and he managed to do a couple very cool things in that time.

1. If you've seen the movie, you know it's terrible. Not funny at all really. So we were doing these scenes in the church with Robin at the pulpit delivering these crappy jokes. As soon as the cameras would cut, he would start riffing and just busting up everyone in the room. It was hot and awful in the church and there were maybe 500 extras sweating away in their Sunday best in uncomfortable wooden pews for hours, and it could easily have been miserable for everyone. But he singlehandedly kept everyone entertained and happy.

2. Later we were filming with just him and the choir. Once again it was dreadfully hot and we were all wearing thick choir robes over our regular clothes. There was no A/C in the church, only big yellow hoses piping in cold air from outside, and of course they were all aimed at him. But between every take - and I mean every take - he would lift up the hose and slowly blow it back and forth over the whole choir while talking to us all and asking us questions about ourselves.

3. We had recorded the audio at a studio a few days earlier, so when we filmed we were just lip syncing to our own playback track. But the playback kept fucking up until they finally cut it and we were lip syncing to nothing. Not great. Still, it probably would've worked as we were all in the background and they could've edited it to look okay. But Robin said, "Didn't you guys sing this?" to which we replied yes. "So why don't you just sing it live now?"
The SAG rep had to explain that the rates for on-camera singing are a fair bit higher than off camera plus lip sync (to the tune of about $800 more per singer, with over 30 singers.)
"Fuck it," he said, "I'll pay the bump. Let's hear it."
So we sang it live and he loved it and it raised the spirits of the whole day and that's what made it in the film.

Basically he was amazing throughout the whole thing, and just a total fucking class act.
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the more I hear about how awesome he was the more painful the news about him dying is :(
Fuck depression man , fuck it :(

wish I could have given him a hug. I dunno.. sounds stupid I know sorry :(
 
Kifimbo said:
Releasing the details on HOW he killed himself is really fucking stupid, from a public health standpoint.
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I feel that it's a 50/50 world out there. 50% of the population care while 50% do not. It's very difficult and the people paying attention ought to be the American Psychiatric Association and every mental care/substance abuse facility on planet earth. I'm glad I'm not taking classes at the moment. The suicide portion of nursing is basically "listen, wait, and see". It's always "seek the person in charge, roll call if needed,or etc". I have a terrible feeling like a lot of people do. It's very depressing and there's a lot of "why?". I think it'll take some time to sort out a lot of feelings regarding the subject, but I also hate hearing such negative comments in regards to who he was. I know I really wouldn't want to put up with a friend right now who'd go full blast on the subject.

I channel surfed seeing if the local news were saying anything because the internet has over 90% coverage on the subject.There weren't that many shows on, but I'm sure there will be. Them having said his methods will just increase the blame space. I'm also not really impressed with religious programming. Their prerecorded politics is just garbage. I hate the news. It's always negative and political stories run amuck. The world still has to continue, we still have to live our lives, but it's sad to have this happen all of a sudden.
 
How in the world are they able to just publicly state the details of the death? Are there no privacy laws for things like that? Does it not qualify as patients privilege since a Doctor has to determine the cause?
 
dyls said:
I had a couple scenes in License to Wed playing a singer in the church choir where Robin Williams's character was a priest. We filmed for three days at a church in long beach, and he managed to do a couple very cool things in that time.

1. If you've seen the movie, you know it's terrible. Not funny at all really. So we were doing these scenes in the church with Robin at the pulpit delivering these crappy jokes. As soon as the cameras would cut, he would start riffing and just busting up everyone in the room. It was hot and awful in the church and there were maybe 500 extras sweating away in their Sunday best in uncomfortable wooden pews for hours, and it could easily have been miserable for everyone. But he singlehandedly kept everyone entertained and happy.

2. Later we were filming with just him and the choir. Once again it was dreadfully hot and we were all wearing thick choir robes over our regular clothes. There was no A/C in the church, only big yellow hoses piping in cold air from outside, and of course they were all aimed at him. But between every take - and I mean every take - he would lift up the hose and slowly blow it back and forth over the whole choir while talking to us all and asking us questions about ourselves.

3. We had recorded the audio at a studio a few days earlier, so when we filmed we were just lip syncing to our own playback track. But the playback kept fucking up until they finally cut it and we were lip syncing to nothing. Not great. Still, it probably would've worked as we were all in the background and they could've edited it to look okay. But Robin said, "Didn't you guys sing this?" to which we replied yes. "So why don't you just sing it live now?"
The SAG rep had to explain that the rates for on-camera singing are a fair bit higher than off camera plus lip sync (to the tune of about $800 more per singer, with over 30 singers.)
"Fuck it," he said, "I'll pay the bump. Let's hear it."
So we sang it live and he loved it and it raised the spirits of the whole day and that's what made it in the film.

Basically he was amazing throughout the whole thing, and just a total fucking class act.
Click to expand...
#2 is probably the nicest thing I've ever read about any celebrity.
 
Terry Gilliam also shared that on FB today.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=745460812179402

10373822_745460812179402_1533181977224733816_n.jpg

Terry Gilliam

Robin Williams, the most astonishingly funny, brilliant, profound and silly miracle of mind and spirit, has left the planet.
He was a giant heart, a fireball friend, a wondrous gift from the gods. Now the selfish bastards have taken him back. Fuck 'em!
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Lots of the people who worked with him tweeted or shared their condolences and feelings and it's just incredible. This man touched so many lifes and it's a great loss.

Also, again, if you haven't seen The Fisher King, please do so. Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges in one of their best roles in a Terry Gilliam movie.
 
It's pretty fucking disgusting how much the media is digging into the minutiae of Robin Williams killing himself. Why not talk about him as a person and the plague that is depression? It seems sometimes that people are reveling in the gore like they are watching Law and Order.
 
I'm wondering if this might be the catalyst for an actual examination of mental health and depression finally? There were hints of it back after some of those mass shootings, but I predicted rightly that it would just turn mental health into even more of a scapegoat ("he couldn't have been a normal person, he was mentally ill!"). But Williams...was like America's dad. Seeing the outpourings of grief everywhere on the internet often accompanied by people very directly confronting the issue of his depression makes me hopeful...
 
I'm still so traumatized about this. Depression doesn't fuck around.

The way he checked out upsets me greatly.

There is simply no way Robin could have understood the way the rest of us saw him. And there is simply no way he could have understood how much respect and adoration other performers had for him.

At least I hope he didn’t understand.

Because it’s too sad to think that maybe he did understand, and it just wasn’t enough anymore.
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I'm more down about this than I should be. I've always admired him, and even liked him when I was a kid watching reruns of Mork and Mindy. The guy had a comedic range that could entertain kids and adults at the same time, and could offend the living shit out of anyone and still come off as just giving a hard time. Felt like he was a genuinely good guy, even when he played some darker roles.

The world was fortunate to have him, and is fortunate to have had him. I'm going to go watch World's Greatest Dad tonight...always wanted to watch it and never got around to it.
 
I could only get 2 hours sleep last night, was just thinking about his roles in movies and shows all night. He was hilarious in Whose Line, I loved his performances in One Hour Photo and Good Will Hunting.
 
Omegasquash said:
The world was fortunate to have him, and is fortunate to have had him. I'm going to go watch World's Greatest Dad tonight...always wanted to watch it and never got around to it.
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That might be a bit difficult right about now. Lots of suicide and remorse in that film.
 
kris. said:
norm macdonald talking about meeting robin for the first time

ugh
he seemed like such an amazing individual
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Reading all the encounters with him are heartwrenching. He did seem like an amazing person.


I loved QuestLove's story of meeting Robin
Man. The smallest gesture can mean the world to you. Robin Williams made such an impact on me and didn't even know it. He named checked all of us in the elevator during the 2001 Grammys. I know y'all think I do this false modesty/T Swift "gee shucks" thing to the hilt. But yeah sometimes when you put 20 hour days in you do think it's for naught and that it goes thankless. Grammy time is somewhat of a dark time simply because you just walk around asking yourself is it worth it or not: all the sweat and blood. I just felt like (despite winning grammy the year before) no one really cares all that much for us except for a select few. Especially in that environment in which people treat you like minions until they discover what you can do for them...if you're not a strong character you run the risk of letting it get to you.
This particular Sunday we were walking backstage and had to ride the elevator to the backstage area and we piled inside when suddenly this voice just said "questlove.....black thought....rahzel....the roots from Philadelphia!!!! That's right you walked on this elevator saying to yourself 'ain't no way this old white dude knows my entire history and discography'"....we laughed so hard. That NEVER happened to us before. Someone a legend acknowledged us and really knew who we were (his son put him on to us) man it was a small 2 min moment in real life but that meant the world to me at the time. Everytime I saw him afterwards he tried to top his trivia knowledge on all things Roots associated. Simply because he knew that meant everything to me. May his family find peace at this sad time. I will miss Robin Williams. #RIP.
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Rez said:
wider awareness is always a good thing.
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Oh, sure. Don't get me wrong.

Just listening to the popular media, I wouldn't be shocked if they asked "Could Robin Williams have spread this disease to other actors?"

I don't listen/watch these networks very often, so always glance over when instead of taking a break or coming up with more appropriate information, they just just start grasping at straws for their talking heads.

Some of the nice well though posts and media from the people he has collaborated with over the years are very welcome.
 
Ben Affleck speaks on his Facebook.

Heartbroken. Thanks chief - for your friendship and for what you gave the world. Robin had a ton of love in him. He personally did so much for so many people. He made Matt and my dreams come true.

What do you owe a guy who does that? Everything.

May you find peace my friend. ‪#‎RobinWilliams
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This is really sad news. Best wishes to his family.

BocoDragon said:
I understand well the concept of people not having compassion for the clinically depressed... so I understand your aim here.

Although keep in mind, labelling all sadness/suicide as "mental illness" has its own shadow sides.

I'll keep it short but I was labelled as mentally depressed when I was young, they gave me anti-depressants, etc.... as it turns out I was one of the people who just needed a better philosophy and excercise. The insistance to label me as "clinically depressed" was the harmful trap in that case! I would have been stuck there, if I had accepted that!

So I think, from either side, it's best not to be "one size fits all" and conclude that someone must be clinically depressed or they must be just temporarily sad. Both exist.
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Mental illness is a problematic concept because it's treated as a disease by insurance and medical interests and the general public; like a thing you have. Which sometimes is the case. But really disorders are defined by meeting certain criteria and being impaired by said criteria. They're a categorization based on common symptoms rather than a description of a disease you have. Clinical depression can totally be caused by having the wrong mindset; it's not only caused by a biological problem. The way you think can cause otherwise properly functioning biology to malfunction.

For major depressive disorder you have to meet 5 of the following criteria over the period of 2 weeks (depressed mood or decreased interest/pleasure must be one of the five):

  • Depressed mood for the better part of nearly every day
  • Lack of pleasure and loss of interest
  • Change in eating, appetite, or weight
  • Sleep - insomnia or hypersomnia nearly every day
  • Motor activity - agitated or slow as observed by others
  • Fatigue
  • Self-worth - feeling worthless nearly every day
  • Reduced concentration
  • Thoughts of death and suicide

If you met enough criteria and it caused impairment, which obviously most of those criteria would naturally cause impairment, and it isn't caused by drugs then a diagnosis isn't wrong. But depression isn't a disorder with a definite cause and yours wasn't necessarily caused by a biological disorder. They prescribed medication, but they should have also prescribed therapy, which would have worked better for you since your depression was at least partly due to maladaptive thoughts and a good therapist could have helped you work through that. You can have major depressive disorder and only have one major depressive episode. It wouldn't necessarily be something you had to live with your whole life. The meds could help take care of your immediate mood while therapy sets you up for the long term, which is essentally what you did. Exercise can essentially fulfill the same role as meds since it releases neurochemicals that increase mood, and it sounds like you gave yourself some self-therapy regarding your thought processes.

The thing about suicide is that there aren't a lot of rational reasons for it. Things like terminal painful illness or facing a life of inescapable torture can be seen as rational reasons. But it seems like most people commit suicide to escape from something that they could have escaped from without dying. It's a sad misfire of our nervous systems wherein our escape response trumps survival response. The purpose of escaping is to survive and feel better, but sometimes what you are facing seems so insurmountable and you aren't thinking straight that death seems like a good option. You get so preoccupied with getting away from what's causing you pain that you don't realize or care that death won't just make what you want to get away from go away but everything else as well and you are unable to see alternative methods of escape. I think in such cases, although not officially a mental disorder unless they were depressed for 2 weeks, suicide is the result of a malfunction of the nervous system. It's sad that it happens to people and even sadder that people blame them.
 
RagnarokX said:
For major depressive disorder you have to meet 5 of the following criteria over the period of 2 weeks (depressed mood or decreased interest/pleasure must be one of the five):

  • Depressed mood for the better part of nearly every day
  • Lack of pleasure and loss of interest
  • Change in eating, appetite, or weight
  • Sleep - insomnia or hypersomnia nearly every day
  • Motor activity - agitated or slow as observed by others
  • Fatigue
  • Self-worth - feeling worthless nearly every day
  • Reduced concentration
  • Thoughts of death and suicide
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That's a useful list, thanks.
I always wonder what people mean when they say thoughts of death and suicide though. Imagining your own death can be quite relieving when you have a lot of anxiety but that doesn't mean you're actually suicidal. I figured it was pretty normal.
 
I searched but couldn't find anything so hopefully this hasn't been posted. If it has I think it's worth posting again.

http://paulftompkins.com/post/94492542604/rest-in-peace-robin-williams

It's pretty short and says a lot of what everyone else is saying about what a nice person he was but I think this last part is worth reading:

Paul F. Tompkins said:
There will be much celebration, in the coming weeks and months, of Robin Williams’ life and career. But perhaps the best tribute to him would be if we all reached out to the troubled people in our lives and let them know that we are here for them. Because Robin Williams was there for us.
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El_Gato said:
Terry Gilliam also shared that on FB today.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=745460812179402

10373822_745460812179402_1533181977224733816_n.jpg



Lots of the people who worked with him tweeted or shared their condolences and feelings and it's just incredible. This man touched so many lifes and it's a great loss.

Also, again, if you haven't seen The Fisher King, please do so. Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges in one of their best roles in a Terry Gilliam movie.
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Rewatched The Fisher King last night. Amazing movie.
 
I was about to watch Dead Poets Society for the first time last night when I checked on GAF real quick. Saw the thread, couldn't believe it, checked news sites, and boom. It hit me, and it hit me hard. I've been a weird state all day.

I decided to watch Dead Poets Society today and man was it good. It was light hearted and fun at times but also really poignant, and I think knowing he had died mere hours before I sat down to watch it made the film hit me harder than it usually would have.

Some of my best childhood memories came from Robin Williams. The first film I can recall watching was Flubber - it wasn't his best, but whatever, I loved it all the same. Later I watched Jumanji, Peter Pan, Patch Adams and so many other great films he's been and stared in.

Celebrity deaths usually don't so much as hit me as they surprise me. But this is different. Robin Williams touched my life from an early age, and him not being around anymore, it's weird to me.

What saddens me the most is the way he went out. Depression is no joke, it sucks people up in a seemingly bottomless put, and a lot people end up losing the fight to get out of it.

I hope everyone can just find some comfort in knowing that Robin Williams touched countless lives and was responsible for countless more laughs. I'll always remember him fondly.
 
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