From TPM:
Actor Robin Williams was in the early stages of Parkinson’s Disease at the time of his death, his wife said in a statement Thursday.
“Robin’s sobriety was intact and he was brave as he struggled with his own battles of depression, anxiety as well as early stages of Parkinson’s Disease, which he was not yet ready to share publicly,” William’s wife Susan Schneider said in a statement obtained by multiple news outlets…
For an artist whose work was based so much on total physical control, imagine how devastating that diagnosis was.
I would’ve preferred to use this clip (NSFW/trigger warning – violence) from The Fisher King, because it’s such a great vignette of Robin Williams at his finest. “Hey — I know a fabulous place, with great ambiance!”…
Thoughts from David Simon, of The Wire:
This is a grievous thing to say aloud, much less think, but I wish that the suicide of Robin Williams made less sense to me than it somehow does. I say that with very little real knowledge of the man, his inner being, or the whole of his life. I encountered him only once, twenty years ago, but the memory is distinct. I found Mr. Williams good-hearted, hilarious, talented, and remarkably, indescribably sad….
And from NYMag, Terry Gilliam talks about making The Fisher King:
“…The interesting thing about Robin in all of those scenes was that he always wanted to do another take. He felt he had even more anguish and pain to spill out of the character. And I had to really stop him. I had to say, ‘Robin, you’ve reached a point here, way beyond what we expected. We’ve got what we needed. Now you’re just hurting yourself.’…”
Finally, y’know, I would’ve liked to see Williams play Casey Stengel.