Robin Williams Dead

https://www.yahoo.com/movies/robin-williams-found-dead-in-possible-suicide-94474962212.html

battling severe depression? wow

I wouldn’t have been surprised if he was bipolar (my wife is, so I am intimately familiar with the symptoms). I always got a melancholy vibe from him when he’d let the mask slip in interview. He also struggled with various addictions throughout his life.

So when I heard about the suicide, I wasn’t surprised. Too bad - he was a brilliant actor, and probably one of my top 5 comics of all time.

one of my favorite bits of all time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcnFbCCgTo4

That’s too bad, I enjoyed his work. RIP and best wishes for his family.

Wow rip

wow, that’s really sad.

bizarrely I always think of suicide as a young man’s disease

Robin Williams: The 60 Minutes Interview

I always thought that too. But then I read that the middle aged are pushing the suicide rate up in the west. And Scandanavian countries experience a very high rate of suicide amongst the elderly.

^ that’s interesting. I would have guessed that it was still skewed heavily to men in their teens and 20’s.

It’s sad, he was very gifted but his brand of humour fell out of mainstream. RIP

I wonder what is the thought process of someone like this who is depressed and commits suicide. Since he is so famous, rich, and beloved by the public, he can pretty much do anything he wants - business, politics, promote charitable cause, or any other thing. So, I doubt that his concern was no longer being relevant.

So apparently, he was super depressed because he had money problems, and he was getting depressed about lack of roles and money.

somehow money problems and world famous actor don’t seem to belong in the same sentence.

Look at his body of work since the mid 90s.

What did he spend his money on? Failed business ventures? Admitedlly I don’t know much about his personal life but he doesn’t seem like the type to waste his cash on fleets of cars, multiple homes, pornstars etc.

im gonna miss you bro. Whos pouring out some liquor today for the fallen homey Robin Williams. Loved him in “The World According to Garp” and Popeye.

I keep reading all these Facebook posts and cant believe how many of my “friends” knew him.

Those things don’t really matter to subjective well being. It’s just like when people panic or get extremely sad – you get tunnel vision and feel like the walls are closing in on you. It’s not the type of mental state where you start building a Mote Carlo sim of all your life possibilities.

Yes, I agree. Since suicide does not seem to be the optimal solution in the bigger picture, he must have internalized issues. However, I still would be interested in what he perceives these issues to be. Even in a state of panic or depression, people surely have certain views of their situation.

Greek heroes often felt it was best to die at the peak of their greatness. When you feel - accurately or not - that your best years are behind you (profesionally, health, family, etc.) and there’s not so much left at the well, I would think suicide could become more appealing. It’s sad, but I can sort of understand it, especially for someone who’s life was as an entertainer, it’s a dramatic last act which could feel more satisfying than the fear of fading into obscurity and ill health.

Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Natalie Woods, Kurt Cobain. Dying too young does seem to immortalize entertainers in our psyche. Robin WIlliams was still young enough to benefit from that.

I saw Jackie Mason eating at a restaurant on the Upper East Side about a year ago. He looked all shriveled up and probably had Parkinsons. For someone who was once such a public figure, it must be very humbling to be lain so low. I don’t think Williams made a sensible choice, but I can see why it might have looked appealing.

Obviously depression had a big part to do with it, but it could be that at this point there was less of a hurdle to overcome before pulling the (metaphorical) trigger.

Here’s an interesting article on the relation between comedy and depression. I dont’ know if it’s true, but it seems plausible from my experience, and one of the reasons I ultimately stopped doing stand-up and switched to dance, which tends to have the opposite effect on mood.

http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/robin-williams-why-funny-people-kill-themselves/

Not to disrespect the recently departed, but personally, I never liked Robin Williams’ humor. Didn’t like Mrs. Doubtfire, didn’t like Aladdin.

I always thought that RW’s greatest works were his non-comedic roles, like One Hour Photo and Good Will Hunting.