Remembering Robin

We have just recently passed the five-year anniversary of the death of Robin Williams. The loss of Williams was the first, and probably only, celebrity death that I genuinely mourned, not only because he was such a massive part of my life growing up, but because of how he gave so much of himself in his performances. A couple of years before he died, I marathoned several of his films in a day, and I then realized that Williams had one of the most complex smiles that I had ever seen. In so many of his films I can simultaneously sense sincere happiness, sadness, gratitude, and generosity in that smile.  Even as talented of a vocal talent and improviser that he was, when I think of Robin Williams, I think of that smile that makes me feel a thousand different things. 

In honor of one of the biggest, best, most giving performers, here are my personal top ten Robin Williams film performances. There are several honorable mentions I could list, but I will limit myself to two non-film performances, which I think are particularly noteworthy. The first is his guest spot on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (2008), marking a truly disturbing performance from Williams.  The second is his 1978 stand-up special, particularly the concurrently hilarious and moving segment where he portrays himself as an old man, advising the audience to treasure that “spark of madness.”  Here’s that madness at work.

10.  Awakenings (1990, dir. Penny Marshall)

Williams plays Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Based on real-life neurologist Oliver Sacks), who discovers a means of waking patients who have been in a catatonic state for decades.  The film focuses on Dr. Sayer’s attempt to cure Leonard (Robert De Niro), a patient who became catatonic at the age of eleven and, with Sayer’s help, awakens decades later as a middle-aged man. This is probably the most restrained Robin Williams performance on the list, and you can feel the perpetual distress of Dr. Sayer as he fights to extend the waking life of the quickly-deteriorating Leonard.

9.  Good Will Hunting (1997, dir. Gus Van Sant)

Will Hunting (Matt Damon) is a young genius with a troubled past who is assisted by therapist Sean Maguire (Williams) in confronting his emotional issues.  This performance won Williams his only Academy Award.  While his Boston accent could have done with a bit more work, Williams is able to give Maguire warmth, even while speaking hard truths to Will.  Take a look at the quiet, moving scene set in Boston Public Garden and you can see why this is often one of his most beloved performances.

8. World’s Greatest Dad (2009, dir. Bobcat Goldthwait)

Here, Robin Williams plays Lance, a high school English teacher whose mean-spirited teenage son Kyle (Daryl Sabara) accidentally kills himself.  To save Kyle’s memory from the embarrassing details of his real death, Lance stages his death as a suicide and composes a suicide note for him that paints him as a more sensitive, sadder, and deeper person than the mean, selfish kid that he actually was.  The note spreads around the high school which Kyle attended (and where Lance works as a teacher) and quickly Kyle becomes a posthumous celebrity.  This was an interesting role for Williams.  Rather than seizing the spotlight, Lance is overshadowed by a character who is absent from the majority of the movie. You can feel Lance’s utter exhaustion and disbelief throughout the film at the ever-increasing attention that his lie has attracted.

7.  Good Morning, Vietnam (1987, dir. Barry Levinson)

Adrian Cronauer (Williams) is a radio DJ for the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, who successfully cheers the soldiers with his humorous riffs, while also infuriating his superiors who attempt to curb his irreverent inclinations.  With tons of improvisation on the part of Williams, he becomes the ultimate weapon of rebellion, as the real-life persona of Robin Williams is what ultimately makes the character of Adrian Cronauer a hero. 

6.  One Hour Photo (2002, dir. Mark Romanek)

In this psychological drama, Williams plays Sy Parrish, a lonely man who develops photographs for work at a one-hour photo booth.  He takes an interest in and eventually becomes obsessed with a certain family, making copies of the photos they have developed and keeping them for himself.  As Sy becomes more and more involved with the goings-on of the family, his emotional investment turns from mild curiosity to active stalking.  This was a great role for Williams because it was so outside of his repertoire.  Through Sy, Williams is able to elicit pity and sadness from the audience at one moment and disturbed tension and discomfort at the next. 

5.  Jack (1996, dir. Francis Ford Coppola)

In this film, Robin Williams plays Jack, a boy born with a condition in which his body ages four times the normal rate.  The film focuses on Jack’s first year in a public school as a ten-year-old boy in a forty-year-old’s body.  This movie was pretty much universally panned by both critics and audiences. And while I can objectively see that this may not be considered a good film by some, this was the movie that introduced me to Robin Williams as an actor. Jack aired on cable constantly when I was younger, and I watched it at every opportunity.  I can’t help but love this movie.  I am always truly moved (especially after the death of Williams) by Jack’s high school graduation speech: “…in the end none of us have very long on this earth - life is fleeting.  And if you're ever distressed, cast your eyes to the summer sky when the stars are strung across the velvety night, and when a shooting star streaks through the blackness turning night into day, make a wish and think of me.  Make your life spectacular.  I know I did.”

4.  Hook (1991, dir. Steven Spielberg)

Peter Banning (Williams) is a no-nonsense lawyer with no time for his two children, and has lost his ability to believe in magic.  When his kids are kidnapped by Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman), Peter is led by Tinkerbell (Julia Roberts) to Neverland, where he learns that he is actually Peter Pan and must remember his old self in order to be able to defeat Hook.  Casting Williams as Peter Pan was pure brilliance because the audience knows from the outset that something’s wrong in the world of the movie. It’s difficult to watch Peter’s hardness at the beginning of the film, because we know that’s uncharacteristic of the Robin Williams persona – that’s clearly not Peter Pan, and that’s certainly not Robin Williams. Watching this character rediscover the both of them is a joyous relief.  

3.  Dead Poets Society (1989, dir. Peter Weir)

In this modern classic, Williams stars as John Keating, an English teacher taking a new position at a prestigious prep school in the 1950s.  Keating inspires his students with his unconventional teaching methods, to the vexation of domineering headmaster Nolan (Norman Lloyd), and gives the boys a newfound appreciation for poetry.  The air of wisdom that Williams exudes seems so authentic.  As a kid it made me believe that he was on a whole other plane of existence than everyone else.  I’m still waiting for someone to badger the poet out of me the way Keating does to Todd (Ethan Hawke).  A nice bridge between Mr. Chips and Mr. Feeny, Keating is one of the most-loved fictional teachers of all time. 

2. Aladdin (1992, dir. Ron Clements, John Musker)

Everybody is familiar with this classic animated Disney film.  Aladdin (Scott Weinger) is a young “street rat” who frees a genie (Williams) from a magic lamp, and receives three wishes that change his life.  Though he’s not playing the titular character, the real star is Williams and his performance as “the genie.”  Williams probably should have been credited as a writer, given all of the improvisation that he contributed to the film, and his zany riffs informing how the genie would be animated.  Who knows what this movie would have been like without this ingenious, hilarious, and lively performance?

1.  Mrs. Doubtfire (1993, dir. Chris Columbus)

Daniel Hillard (Williams) is a divorced father with limited custody over his three children. In order to see them more, he poses as a female British nanny, fooling his ex-wife (Sally Field) into hiring him to take care of their children.  This is the ultimate Robin Williams movie, full of impressions, improvisations, laughs, and a couple of genuinely heartbreaking moments.  As great as his more serious films are, I grew up during his era of family films, and those are the dearest to me and the ones I watched most.  This movie withstands the test of time because of the care that that can be felt throughout the film, and the eagerness to show all sides of a difficult, but common, family situation.  Mrs. Doubtfire is one of the most outlandish films of the Robin Williams catalogue, but it is also one of the most earnest.

Feel free to share your memories of Robin Williams, your favorite movies, TV shows, or and/or moments below.

Copyright © 2019 Bailey Lizotte