View Poll Results: What is your favorite Robin Williams role?

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  • Mork from Ork

    7 7.29%
  • Popeye

    0 0%
  • TS Garp (The World According to Garp)

    4 4.17%
  • Adrian Cronauer (Good Morning Vietnam)

    13 13.54%
  • John Keating (Dead Poets)

    15 15.63%
  • Dr. Sayer (Awakenings)

    2 2.08%
  • Parry (The Fisher King)

    3 3.13%
  • Peter Pan (Hook)

    8 8.33%
  • Genie (Aladdin)

    6 6.25%
  • Mrs. Doubtfire

    6 6.25%
  • Alan Parish (Jumanji)

    0 0%
  • Armand Goldman (Birdcage)

    2 2.08%
  • Sean Maguire (Good Will Hunting)

    21 21.88%
  • Patch Adams

    2 2.08%
  • Other (list in post)

    7 7.29%
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  1. #21
    "CNN is breaking news......."

    Why do we have to know EVERYTHING? This can't get any more tragic so what is the merit in bleating out further salacious details?

    Let the man rest and give his family a break. Are they not suffering enough?
    Nothing incites bodily violence quicker than a Duke fan turning in your direction and saying 'scoreboard.'

  2. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by lotusland View Post
    Steve Martin is probably the closest. Bill Murray has a strong sketch comedy and movie resume but his tv and stand up work is lacking. Ditto for Chevy Chase. Tom hanks has tv and movies but little if any stand up. Seinfeld has no movie work to speak of. If I had to pick someone to match Robin Williams I'd pick Louis CK but he needs a lot of movie success to catch up and he's closing in on 50.
    Will Smith would insist upon his inclusion in this list, as well. He has no standup, but he's navigated serious and silly roles alike, and been a boon at the box office either way. And he's got two Oscar nominations for Best Actor, and has won four Grammy Awards, as well.

  3. #23
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    I am still very shocked and saddened by this news. This goes to show that sometimes the ones that seem the happiest on the outside, can be deeply troubled on the inside. I will never forget Mr. Williams and his art, and my thoughts and prayers are with his family. RIP, Robin.

  4. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by JasonEvans View Post
    I completely agree that Robin Williams always felt genuine to me. Perhaps it was that he often seemed similar in real life to the characters he played on screen. His appearances and interviews were rarely strained or difficult, they always seemed fun and off-beat, which is how many of his most celebrated characters acted too.

    And I think it also helped our connection to him that he was fairly public about his struggles with addiction (and depression). It made him more human (somewhat like Robert Downey Jr, though I don't think Robin Williams was as troubled and addicted as RDJr. was at times). If you ever saw Williams' amazing standup routines, he would often talk about what it was like (both the insane highs and the terrible lows) to be addicted to cocaine or alcohol. Heck, half his characters acted like they were high most of the time. You know Mork and Adrian Cronauer were toking every time we did not see them on camera

    Compared to, for example, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Williams always seemed more like one of us and he was someone with whom we all wanted to break bread and share a dinner conversation. Like many of you, I have found myself reflecting on his varied and wonderful roles over the past 20 hours since we heard this news. I'll probably crack out a couple somewhat dusty DVDs this evening to relive the joy that he brought me. Thanks Robin... we will miss you oh so much!

    -Jason "it is good that The Crazy Ones was not picked up or we could be treated to something awful like when the producers tried to keep 8 Simple Rules alive after John Ritter died" Evans
    I don't if he is more genuine or not but the owner of the Laugh Factor was interviewed on NBR (On Point with Tom Ashbrook) today and said he's known RW for 35 years but never felt that he got to know him on a personal level. Said Williams was always "on" and "in character" of his stage persona. As with other comics he said that he'd spent considerable time with Williams outside the club in social settings he never saw him let his guard down, so to speak, unlike other comics. Just one guy's opinion but he felt that Williams always covered up the depression and pain. His dime store psychology seemed to be that Williams put more pressure on himself by bottling it all up.

  5. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by weezie View Post
    "CNN is breaking news......."

    Why do we have to know EVERYTHING? This can't get any more tragic so what is the merit in bleating out further salacious details?

    Let the man rest and give his family a break. Are they not suffering enough?
    "The bubble-headed bleach blond comes on at 5:00. She can tell you 'bout the plane crash, with a gleam in her eye. It's interesting when people die; Give us dirty laundry."

  6. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by lotusland View Post
    "The bubble-headed bleach blond comes on at 5:00. She can tell you 'bout the plane crash, with a gleam in her eye. It's interesting when people die; Give us dirty laundry."
    Kick 'em when they're up, kick 'em when they're down.


    (Can't Spork you again yet, so at least I can lyric-tag you back)

  7. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Corey View Post
    Will Smith would insist upon his inclusion in this list, as well. He has no standup, but he's navigated serious and silly roles alike, and been a boon at the box office either way. And he's got two Oscar nominations for Best Actor, and has won four Grammy Awards, as well.
    I am dead certain who the "next Robin Williams" is in terms of huge TV career and huge movie career as a comedian and a bit of a serious actor as well (though he is a bit lacking in the standup category)... Steve Carrell. He is going to get his first Oscar nomination this winter for Foxcatcher.

    -Jason "I feel dirty even talking about the 'next Robin Williams' as he was such a singular talent" Evans
    Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?

  8. #28
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    in one of his talk show appearances, he was asked where he got his sense of humor, and he mentioned that his father's was dry. asked for an example, RW shouted, "shut up!!,,, that kind of dry."

    in one of the remembrances, someone recounted that RW spent much of his childhood in a really big house surrounded by a couple thousand little toy soldiers. I can imagine the battles he must have played out.

    His death saddens me like hoffman's did. Great talents who couldn't get out from themselves. Ugh.

    Why would their deaths upset me more than the deaths of people I actually know? Well, they don't affect me more than the deaths of people I was close to, but compared to more peripheral people in my lives, I saw them more often and felt like I knew them better... though I never said hello to either.

  9. #29
    Quote Originally Posted by JasonEvans View Post
    I am dead certain who the "next Robin Williams" is in terms of huge TV career and huge movie career as a comedian and a bit of a serious actor as well (though he is a bit lacking in the standup category)... Steve Carrell. He is going to get his first Oscar nomination this winter for Foxcatcher.

    -Jason "I feel dirty even talking about the 'next Robin Williams' as he was such a singular talent" Evans
    That's a good choice and one I missed somehow. For some reason I've been thinking about this a lot since the OP. Several folks I missed before deserve a mention - Richard Pryor, Eddy Murphy, and Jim Carrey come to mind. JC looked like the guy for a while but his film career seems to have fizzled and he's exhibited some curious behavior recently. I've never been a fan of his brand of humor anyway but I think I may be in the minority there.

    To circle back to Steve Martin, I don't think it was mentioned that he's a decent banjo player who just finished a record and tour with Eddie Brickell and the Steep Canyon Rangers and he has several fiction novellas to his credit including "Shop Girl" and "The Pleasure of My Company" so, while his dramatic movie catalogue falls way short of RW, he's succeeded at almost every form of media.

  10. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by lotusland View Post
    That's a good choice and one I missed somehow. For some reason I've been thinking about this a lot since the OP. Several folks I missed before deserve a mention - Richard Pryor, Eddy Murphy, and Jim Carrey come to mind. JC looked like the guy for a while but his film career seems to have fizzled and he's exhibited some curious behavior recently. I've never been a fan of his brand of humor anyway but I think I may be in the minority there.

    To circle back to Steve Martin, I don't think it was mentioned that he's a decent banjo player who just finished a record and tour with Eddie Brickell and the Steep Canyon Rangers and he has several fiction novellas to his credit including "Shop Girl" and "The Pleasure of My Company" so, while his dramatic movie catalogue falls way short of RW, he's succeeded at almost every form of media.
    I thought about Jim Carey, but his TV career really only covers In Living Color, which was short-lived and he was not the main focus of the show. Richard Pryor did very little TV, I think. Pryor was a huge standup star who moved into movies -- and most of his movies were just so-so, especially when compared to some of the others mentioned here. Eddie Murphy is a pretty good comparison as he was a big TV star on SNL (does SNL count the same way a regular TV series would?) for many years. Because Murphy was a bigger standup star than Carrell, Murphy's career may be closest to Robin Williams, though Murphy hasn't shone nearly the serious acting chops that Robin Williams displayed.

    By the way, for you youngsters, check out Steve Martin in Roxanne, a re-telling of the Cyrano story set in modern times. The "20 Something Betters" is really special --


    -Jason "Jimmy Fallon did a little Robin Williams impression last night on the Tonight Show... it didn't work" Evans
    Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?

  11. #31

    with due respect to posters above

    IMO the reason this tragic news hits many of us so hard is that we know there is no "next Robin Williams." He was unique; it's hard to imagine there will ever be another like him. I don't even see a similarity to some of the people mentioned here, not stylistically anyway. There will always be a handful that can do both comedy and drama (e.g., Steve Martin, Bill Murray - hardly up and comers).

    But I have yet to see anyone combine that two-way ability with the manic brilliance of Robin Williams. Razor-sharp, quick wit - maybe the quickest I've ever seen. Yet in dramatic roles, he had extraordinary emotional depth ... I'm not sure I can think of another comedian-by-trade who could deliver dramatic performances on his level. Combining the two? Forget it. RW was it, and that's why it hurts so much that he's gone.

  12. #32
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    Quote Originally Posted by cspan37421 View Post
    IMO the reason this tragic news hits many of us so hard is that we know there is no "next Robin Williams." He was unique; it's hard to imagine there will ever be another like him. I don't even see a similarity to some of the people mentioned here, not stylistically anyway. There will always be a handful that can do both comedy and drama (e.g., Steve Martin, Bill Murray - hardly up and comers).

    But I have yet to see anyone combine that two-way ability with the manic brilliance of Robin Williams. Razor-sharp, quick wit - maybe the quickest I've ever seen. Yet in dramatic roles, he had extraordinary emotional depth ... I'm not sure I can think of another comedian-by-trade who could deliver dramatic performances on his level. Combining the two? Forget it. RW was it, and that's why it hurts so much that he's gone.
    You know what is crazy? Look at Robin Williams' early film career and you will see that he was not some guy who started in comedy and then morphed into dramatic acting. Yes, he grew to fame from his manic standup and inspired work as Mork, but much of his early film work was not in big comedic roles. Popeye was comedy, I suppose. But for his second starring role he did World According to Garp, which was certainly funny at times but was mostly a dramatic role. He followed that with Survivors, a funny film co-starring Walter Matthau, and then did Moscow of the Hudson, which was a bit like Garp in that it had a good bit of humor but was a fairly dramatic flick. He got a Golden Globe nomination for Moscow. After that came the awful Club Paradise, which stands out as probably the worst film in which Williams stars and also the worst directing job by Harold Ramis. Then he did The Best of Times with Kurt Russell (it was only ok and was mostly a comedy) and then he entered the golden years of his career making Good Morning Vietnam, Dead Poets' Society, Awakenings, The Fischer King, Hook, Toys, and Aladdin over the course of 6 years. There's lots of humor in there, but he was best in roles that combined comedy with a strong sense of drama and the human condition.

    It really was a unique combination and made him oh so special. That 6 year from, from Vietnam in 1987 to Toys and Aladdin in 1992 is truly remarkable. If you extend it a bit further you can add Mrs. Doubtfire in 1993, Jumanji in 1995, The Birdcage in 1996, and Good Will Hunting in 1997. It goes a bit downhill from there (I'm not a fan of Patch Adams and the late 90s saw him doing much weaker fare like What Dreams May Come, Jakob the Liar, and Bicentennial Man) but that might be as good a decade as any comedian has ever had in terms of quality films.

    -Jason "I left out a few stinkers like Cadillac Man in 1990, Being Human in 1994, and Jack in 1996" Evans
    Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?

  13. #33
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    Wonderful thread.

  14. #34
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    Quote Originally Posted by JasonEvans View Post
    I don't know if I qualify as a youngster anymore, but as a child that grew up self-conscious of his gigantic nose--thanks, Dad!--this was a constant source of self-deprecating material that I plagiarized and used against middle school tormentors.

    Um, and law school ones a few years thereafter.

  15. #35
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    I added a poll for us to list our favorite Robin Williams role. I listed a spot for "Other" and I won't be shocked at all if someone puts "Sy" from One Hour Photo in as a "other" vote. I probably should have put in One Hour Photo and left out either Patch Adams or Popeye, but those are more famous roles so I left them in.

    I bet it ends up as a close race between Mork, The Genie, Mr. Keating, Cronauer, and maybe Armand Goldman and Sean Maguire. So much wonderful stuff to pick from here. I need to think about my vote.

    -Jason "I am tempted to go with Garp... I really liked that movie" Evans
    Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?

  16. #36
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    Went with John Keating. Over the last 2 years I think I have seen Dead Poets about 7-8 times, it is on Showtime at least 4 times a week and I always manage to get sucked in. Plus the look on his face as the boys stand on their desks is superb. Adrian Cronauer is a very, very close 2nd.

  17. #37
    Just to be different, I went with "Hook." One of my favorite movies. If anyone was born to play a grown up Peter Pan who rediscovers his boyhood, it was Robin Williams. The movie was a family flick with such a great premise, although it wasn't a cinematic marvel or anything.

    A close second was Dead Poets Society. Such a great flick, and a shout out to all the teachers who changed our lives. In the end, I just think Peter Pan was much closer to Williams's true personality than Mr. Keating.
    "There can BE only one."

  18. #38
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    I ended up picking Adrian Cronauer. No one else could have played that role... NO ONE! It also may be Williams' finest marriage of humor and really dramatic acting. Many of the other contenders to me were roles in which he was not the focal point of the film (such as Dead Poets and Good Will).

    -Jason "Genie may be the closest character to the standup Robin. I really considered voting for that but Robin never appeared on camera so I just could not do it" Evans
    Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?

  19. #39
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    Quote Originally Posted by JasonEvans View Post
    I added a poll for us to list our favorite Robin Williams role. I listed a spot for "Other" and I won't be shocked at all if someone puts "Sy" from One Hour Photo in as a "other" vote. I probably should have put in One Hour Photo and left out either Patch Adams or Popeye, but those are more famous roles so I left them in.

    I bet it ends up as a close race between Mork, The Genie, Mr. Keating, Cronauer, and maybe Armand Goldman and Sean Maguire. So much wonderful stuff to pick from here. I need to think about my vote.

    -Jason "I am tempted to go with Garp... I really liked that movie" Evans
    I'll bite.

    I put "Other". One Hour Photo is indeed my favorite Robin Williams movie. Uncle Sy is a dark and complex character, and the best work of Mr. Williams's that I am aware of.

  20. #40
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    Cronauer comes in second to me, behind everybody's favorite cross-dressing nanny. I'd like to think that Williams's performance as Mrs. Doubtfire inspired co-star Harvey Fierstein's Edna Turnblad in Hairspray, at least as far as "fat cross-dressing old lady roles" go.

    Before the poll went up, I was going to say that the amazing thing about Williams was how many of his roles were so unique and quintessentially him. Of all the 'contenders' mentioned above, nobody has close to the number of incredible and diverse parts.

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