Be kind,
for everyone you meet
is fighting a harder battle.
Plato
A quiet pause to honor a fireball of laughs, Robin Williams. His genius for improv was said to be honed by a solitary childhood. His standup comedy put our pain and miseries in hilarious perspective. If our darkness is the birth place of our light, why do we feel compelled to hide behind a constant cheerful mask?
While a performer lives for the audience’s laughter and applause, he must always muster the courage to bare his soul to relentless critics. I prefer to honor this man’s great legacy through movies that family generations can enjoy together than remembering him for how he chose to die.
Please add your favorite Robin Williams movie by clicking on “Leave a Comment” (above left). xoxox
Mrs. Doubtfire
My favorite Robin Williams movie! Daniel Hillard (Williams) is a kind man and a loving father, but he’s a shaky role model for the kids so he loses custody when the wife divorced him. Learning that his wife was advertising for a housekeeper, Daniel applies for the job as the perfect Scottish nanny so he can see his children more than once a week.
Patch Adams
A medical student strives to improve the quality of life of terminally ill patients and prove that laughter is the best medicine. “When you treat a disease, you win or you lose. But when you treat a person, you win no matter what the outcome.”
The Fisher King
An abrasive radio deejay (Jeff Bridges) strikes up an unlikely friendship with a homeless man (Williams) who has a poignant connection to his past.
Dead Poets Society
An embattled English teacher at a private academy inspires students with the power of language and all that make life worth living: poetry romance, love.
Birdcage
A gay couple attempts to present a “normal” family when their son brings home his fiancee’s parents.
World’s Greatest Dad
A milquetoast high school teacher pens a phony suicide note for his son after discovering him dead of auto-erotic asphyxiation. I love the scene of how he masks frustration and tears with stifled laughter when a colleague comments “Raising a child is the toughest job you’ll ever know.”
Moscow On The Hudson
Released during the peak of the Cold War 1980s, a Soviet circus musician (played by Williams in an early dramatic role) defects to the United States while he’s in New York for a performance.
Good Morning, Vietnam
The wartime experience of real-life Armed Forces Radio Service DJ Adrian Cronauer, finding belly laughs as well as poignant drama in his attempts to survive the war while finding friendship and battling the hypocrisy of his superiors. Life, liberty, happiness is America!
Good Will Hunting
As the therapist who helps Will Hunting (Matt Damon) move beyond his troubled past, Williams provided an impetus for the film’s touching final act while delivering some of his most sensitive dramatic work.
Aladdin
His largely ad-libbed voice work as the genie in 1992’s Aladdin represents the best of Williams firing on all cylinders and delivering some of his funniest lines without having to carry the film.
xoxox
Sharon Birke
201 697 1947
Sharon@PowerfulGoddess.com
Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother
Aug 14, 2014 @ 16:37:25
I agree Sharky, I’d rather remember and honor someone for their talent or whatever they have done to add to our lives personally. Why anyone has chosen to take there own life is mostly speculation and in many cases we will never know anyway. All we can do looking on is shake our head in wonder. They had their reason, leave it alone.
I’ve not seen all of the movies listed here but of the ones I have seen “Mrs. Doubtfire” is also my favorite. My earliest recollection of Robin Williams goes back to “Happy Days” when Mork from Ork dared to challenge The Fonz to a dual of the powers. We know who won that battle…Ayyy! Maybe he lost the battle but we got to laugh at his own series the next season.
Nanu nanu!
Mountain
Aug 14, 2014 @ 18:23:32
That “Nanu nanu” makes me smile takes me all the way back, Mountain!
xoxox
Aug 17, 2014 @ 22:33:14
🙂
Aug 18, 2014 @ 19:19:07
What a beautiful Job you did honoring a great Man ❤ Thanks Sharkie
Aug 27, 2014 @ 17:31:58
Thanks so much, Deb–
I laughed plenty watching his “Live on Broadway” standup show last week.
xoxox