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Originally posted by Emer McLysaght on DailyEdge.ie
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There has only been a handful of times, in my own experience, where a person whom I didn’t know personally had died and I felt a genuine loss (selfish, I know). Robin Williams was one of those people. I checked the Journal on the way to bed that night and the article was up that he had died. Both myself and my wife were bowled over by the news.
So true Connolly, I could care less 99% of the time when I hear a celebrity has died but it was so different with Williams and the circumstances surrounding his death made it all the harder to accept. When he had died me and my partner wanted to watch his films and we tried to find some of them on Netflix. There was not much there at the time except for a film we had never seen before, probably the most recent one he had done before he died, it was called Supedad. The film was quite funny but there was a scene at the end where robin is running naked towards a swimming pool in slow motion and the camera is really concentrating on his face. He had the biggest smile on his face but I swear you could see the sadness in his eyes, was a really beautiful moment. I’m not ashamed to say me and my partner went into floods of tears watching it, was like we were in mourning. Just thought I’d share that anyway, sorry if I went on a bit. Good film you should check it out.
Also a line in the film really stuck out to me, was so relevant to Williams and his death. He said that “suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem”. Shame these words weren’t enough for Williams but hopefully they helped some people not to succumb to depression. Was really powerful stuff.
good will hunting & dead poets was my favourite of his films but his standup was for me his real genius. he was also a great American patriot entertaining the troops in Iraq. My favourite one of those is when the flag is lowered & all the military personnel turn their back on him to salute. Very funny its on YouTube.
Agreed. For anybody wanting to see his true genius and talent in action, click on the following, I’m actually watching it myself right now, having already seen it at least a dozen times…
Liked his early stuff.
Some of his later comedy I don’t know. Struck me that he was trying too hard, almost as if he was driven by the conviction that he wasn’t merely a comedian rather that he was comedy itself, a conduit through which the art of comedy passed.
He seemed to lapse between Chaplinesque pathos and an end of career attempt to redefine himself as a serious actor, which didn’t work for me personally as invariably he adopted the same pained expression in every role,
My brother was invited to play at Billy Connolly’s wedding (name dropping….ahem) . Robin Williams did a celebration of the haggis and my brother (did I mention that already) says that it was the funniest thing anyone had ever seen. The whole place was in tears laughing.
Avant garde genius in his prime.
Yes suicide is a terrible thing but 10′s of thousands of people commit suicide every year but somehow the suicide of a celebrity is different?.
A celebrity death from suicide is almost celebrated in an outpouring of fake grief or any celebrity death for that matter (Diana anyone?) such collective grief for a person you never even knew is nauseous ,
Those other victims of suicide will of course remain just another statistic.
Fine if you like Robin Williams enjoy his movies or stand up and leave it at that, personally I use to break out in a rash if I saw his face on the cover of a video in my local extra vision.
I actually found this old 5 minute clip more hilarious than Robin Williams entire career, everyman to himself I suppose?.
Just wondering: why the the time out of your day to post on a page that is a memorial to a dead man to let us know how much you dislike him?
Do you go to funerals to tell people that the deceased wasn’t that great and the guy buried last week was better?
You do, of course have every right to express your opinion but I’m wondering why you feel the need to pour scorn on someone who even as a celebrity appeared to move people on a different level.
Who is pouring scorn?, just pointing out the nauseous celebrity culture that obsesses todays society, some people probably know more about some celebrities than their own mothers?.
If you like Robin Williams fine, not everybody found him hilarious.
The thing is I never found Robin Williams as funny as most here did.
A little manic for me.
I preferred his more low key performances.
But I didn’t feel the need to share that opinion
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