Celebrity deaths don't usually affect me all that much because I don't read tabloids, and therefore, don't ever really feel like I know any of these people on a personal level. However, for some reason, what Jon Cryer said about Robin Williams -- "we will try to carry on, but it won't be any fun without you" -- is ringing true to me right about now.
I'm not really sure what it is, but there was something about Robin Williams that made you feel like he was a genuinely sweet person, that his everyman personality wasn't just some Hollywood façade. The best way I can describe it is that he reminds me -- and probably you, too -- of that crazy uncle you look forward to seeing at family reunions, the one who always makes those forced rendezvous seem sooo much more fun.
But, in reality, we don't even know this man. It's not like mourning the loss of a true friend, but rather a hilarious and touching muse that comes and goes, since we only know the parts of him that he chose to share with the world: the space alien from the planet Ork, the Vietnam War-era DJ, the clownish doctor, the shape-shifting genie, the cross-dressed nanny (read: diehard father), presidents Ike and Teddy, the professor encouraging us to seize the day, an adult version of Peter Pan, the guy aging at four times the rate of a normal person, the mad scientist, the guy stuck in a jungle board game, the spinach-loving sailor with the oversized forearms, the boss of an ad agency, and so on, and so on.
And since that's the only way we know the man, that's the only way I can see fit to honor him. So without further ado, here are my five personal favorite roles played by Robin Williams...
5. Seymour Parrish, One Hour Photo (2002): In this movie, Robin Williams played an obsessive photo developer whose loneliness eventually goes horribly awry and turns him into a stalker. The role was so pleasantly disturbing that it made me forever view the man I used to watch imitating dolphins on nature documentaries as a child in a whole new, much-more-menacing light.
4. Armand Goldman, The Birdcage (1996): Being a longtime fan of Mr. Williams' stand-up career, I fancy myself a good judge of what would and wouldn't be fun for the man, and I can almost guarantee you that Robin must've had fun playing a gay man pretending to be a straight man opposite a cross-dressing Nathan Lane in this updated and relocated version of the musical La Cage aux Folles.
3. John Keating, Dead Poets Society (1989): This film was about an English teacher who inspires his students through his teaching of poetry at a conservative, somewhat elitist school, and I eventually became a professional journalist and published poet after earning a Bachelor's Degree in the field. Need I really go any further in explaining why this movie appealed to me so much as a child? [Insert corny cliché about me "seizing the day" here, but only if you absolutely must.]
2. Genie, Aladdin (1992): Putting aside the fact that this is my all-time favorite Disney full-length animated movie and that without it my childhood wouldn't have been as happy, I also feel like Robin Williams was born to play this role. What other comic or actor that was famous in the early '90s do you know that can so flawlessly and easily portray a character who uses something like 32 different voices throughout the film? The only ones I can think of are Robin Williams and maybe Jim Carrey.
1. Sean Maguire, Good Will Hunting (1997): I consider this movie about an unrecognized genius trying to find his way in life and essentially being guided there by Williams' Dr. Maguire character a masterpiece from beginning to end, and have long heralded and cherished it as one of my overall favorite films because it touched me on so many different emotional levels. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of watching this movie, seriously, what are you waiting for?!
Here's just a taste of what you're missing...
Honorable mentions also go out to Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) and Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), which got cut out only because I said I'd pick five, not because they weren't great films. They absolutely were. Robin Williams was definitely an amazing actor/comic, so from all of us remaining back here on Earth, thanks for the memories, you crazy uncle, you!
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