The Very Best of Robin Williams: Memories of a Comedy Legend (4 page)

The Fisher King

‘There’s three things in this world that you need: Respect for all kinds of life, a nice bowel movement on a regular basis, and a navy blazer.’

Good Morning
Vietnam

‘
Goooooood morning, Vietnam! It’s 0600 hours. What does the ‘O’ stand for? O my God, it’s early!’

Toys

‘
I’d hug you, but your body is over there.’

Hook

‘To live would be an awfully big adventure.’

Mork & Mindy

‘He stole your necklace, he stole your ribs, he’s obviously not kosher’

*

‘Look, if I wanted a pen and coffee I'd have mugged a waitress.’

*

‘Nanu Nanu’

Good Will Hunting

‘
You don’t know about real loss because it only occurs when you’ve loved something more than you love yourself. I doubt you’ve ever dared to love anybody that much.’

Aladdin

‘
Oh, to be free! Not to have to go, ‘Poof! What do you need? Poof! What do
you
need? Poof! What do you need?’ To be my own master. Such a thing would be greater than all the magic and all the treasure in the world.’

*

‘Are you lookin' at me? Did you rub my lamp? Did you wake me up? Did you bring me here? And all of a sudden, you're walkin' out on me?! I don't think so! Not right now! You're gettin' your wishes, so sit down!’

Jack

‘
Please, don’t worry so much. Because 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.’

WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID ABOUT HIM

‘My friendship with Robin Williams is one of the real joys of my life … Robin is a person who gives to people 24 hours a day. The gift of joy, the gift of laughter. Just to be in a room with Robin Williams is a privilege. He’s a gift to the world.’

Christopher Reeve

*

‘What hurts most about the apparent suicide of Robin Williams is that as much as he achieved, he died in his own mind unfulfilled. And to an extent, he was unfulfilled — he never found a form that would capture the genius of his stand-up act or his early appearances on
The Tonight Show
, when his mind worked faster than anyone alive and very possibly dead, when he seemed to be channeling a fleet of circling UFOs containing the galaxy’s best comedy writers. The man didn’t need to play a sitcom alien to seem as if he had his own extraterrestrial energy field.’

David Edelstein, Vulture.com

*

‘I don't think I've met anyone as exceptional as Robin was … every moment … could be explosive
any
which-way, you didn’t know where it was going to go, you didn’t know even where it came from, he seemed to be able to channel the Cosmos, and at the same time he was always totally involved with the people around him, he really had a close touch with everybody he touched.’

Terry Gilliam

*

‘So many times you meet people they don't impact you. You meet them and they're gracious and they're nice, and then there are sometimes when you meet somebody and they say one thing and for the rest of your life you carry that one thing and they don't even know that they impacted your life. So here's Robin Williams fully decked out in elephantiasis makeup, like he was the Elephant Man, and we were talking and I'm being super quiet, and he just kind of turns to me and he said, “What's your name?”

And I said, “I'm Mila.”

And he said, “Yeah? You're on
'70s
?” And then he said, “Remember this moment. Remember this because things like this don't happen very often. Remember this time.”

Having somebody of Robin Williams' stature tell me to just acknowledge something meant so much. He didn't
 
mentor
 me. He just said, “Step back and appreciate this. You're having an amazing time.” I was so nervous. And he said, “Relax. And don't forget to enjoy yourself because things like this don't happen to everyone.” … All he did was say, "Enjoy yourself and don't forget this." Like: "Just take a breath and acknowledge that you have an amazing opportunity.”

Mila Kunis

*

Robin Williams was an airman, a doctor, a genie, a nanny, a president, a professor, a bangarang Peter Pan, and everything in between. But he was one of a kind. He arrived in our lives as an alien – but he ended up touching every element of the human spirit. He made us laugh. He made us cry. He gave his immeasurable talent freely and generously to those who needed it most – from our troops stationed abroad to the marginalised on our own streets. The Obama family offers our condolences to Robin’s family, his friends, and everyone who found their voice and their verse thanks to Robin Williams.

Barack Obama

*

‘Most comics are linear – they plod from subject to subject – but with Robin it was as if it was all fresh and new every single night. This seemed impossible, and indeed it was. It was only through watching him that I saw that what seemed spontaneous was in fact the result of a huge amount of work. Eventually, if you watched long enough, the same bits came around again (though never in the same order), so you could see that he had a massive store of maybe four hours of material backed up in his brain and that he would bring the material out as he needed it. Seeing the craft he brought to bear on his act – that it wasn’t magic but just sheer hard work – only increased my admiration for him.’

Alexei Sayle

*

‘Robin Williams, tower of raw and unfiltered talent, is a force this world will not experience again anytime soon. Our prayers and thoughts are with the Williams family.’

Henry Winkler (The Fonz)

*

We lost Robin - first witnessed his genius as he created Mork before our eyes in two hours on set. A Force. A Sweet Soul. A Brilliant Artist.

*

‘Robin was a lightning storm of comic genius and our laughter was the thunder that sustained him. He was a pal and I can't believe he's gone.’

Steven Spielberg

*

‘Robin Williams made the world laugh & think. I will remember & honour that. A great man, artist and friend. I will miss him beyond measure.’

Kevin Spacey

*

‘So sad to think about this. Hard to speak. Hard to say. Hard to take. All I can think about is what a joy he was to be with. I'm devastated. My heart is broken by this news.’

Danny DeVito

*

‘
Robin was both my friend and my hero, a unique talent and a kind and generous man; the world will be a much poorer place without him.’

Billy Connolly

*

‘I never met anyone who loved making people laugh more than Robin.’

Minnie Driver

*

‘Just so damn sad. This guy made so many people happy. There will always be that.’

Michael Keaton

*

‘Robin was as sweet a man as he was funny. If you're sad, please tell someone.’

Jimmy Kimmel

*

‘I've never known a sweeter, brighter, more considerate person that Robin. Robin's commitment as an artist to lifting our mood and making us happy is compared to none. He loved us all and we loved him back.’

John Travolta

*

‘I can't believe my lovely friend is gone. My heart goes out to his wife and his beloved children. He brought us so much joy and laughter.’

Eric Idle

SOME
INTERESTING FACTS

Robin
Williams was a keen cyclist and was known to occasionally train with Lance Armstrong.

Williams and his ex-wife named their daughter Zelda. However, it was neither of them that came up with it; it was their son, Zachary. Upon hearing the name they thought it was a great idea.

Williams owned a vineyard in California. He joked that this was akin to “Gandhi owning a delicatessen”.

The majority of his lines as Genie in Aladdin were completely improvised. Apparently, this resulted in the film’s bid for the Academy Awards’ ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ category being rejected.

He said that his favourite celebrity to impersonate was Jack Nicholson, and that he thought Dana Carvey’s impersonation of himself was the best.

Upon auditioning for the role of Mork (originally in Happy Days), when producer Garry Marshall asked him to sit dow, Williams sat on his head in the chair. Garry Marshall hired him, saying that he was the only alien who auditioned.

During the Mork & Mindy era, script writers used to deliberately leave gaps in the scripts, writing only “Mork can go off here”, leaving Williams with the opportunity to improvise in these gaps.