Robin Williams made quite a splash when he appeared
on Mork & Mindy way back when. His character, Mork, was an alien sent to
Earth from the planet Ork in a small egg-shaped spacecraft. Mork was supposed to observe human behavior
and send back regular reports.
The character, Mork, was filled with crazy energy,
confusion, quirky behaviors and, above all, kindness. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the
show was the fact that Mork was not really an act. Robin Williams was unable to switch the act
off when the cameras stopped rolling.
Mork was Robin Williams. The
producers and the fellow actors soon realized that Robin Williams was a force
akin to a hurricane—they buttoned-down all their gear and hung on. No two takes of a scene ever turned out the
same due to the constant improvisations of Williams. Often, the final scenes contained a brilliant
bit of spontaneous behavior on the part of Robin Williams.
Robin went on to become one of the most famous
actors and stand-up comedians of all time.
He won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for his role in Good Will Hunting. He won Golden Globe Awards and Grammy Awards. He
played unforgettable characters almost beyond count. Producers and directors often left some of
the script blank so that Williams could fill it in to his choice.
Behind all that, entirely away from the stage, Robin
Williams was a man often incapacitated by severe depression. He battled with substance abuse. He sometimes hid himself away for days on
end. There can be little doubt that
much of the genius we appreciated was the result of his constant struggle to
mask or rise above the underlying melancholy.
Above all, Robin Williams was a decent man.
--Mitchell
Hegman
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