Robin Williams, RIP

O'Captain, my captain ... you live on ...

ROBIN WILLIAMS committed suicide yesterday and television and the twitter verse is going crazy with tributes and fond memories. He was only 63.

I never met him, but through his work, he was often in my living room on television. He became part of the family, the crazy uncle who was always making us laugh.

He was a brilliant, hilarious man whose comedic frenzy hid the demons he had inside. Like all true great artists he made an impact on peoples' lives through his roles and insights interspersed throughout his manic performances.

And what's the angle? Why am I mentioning him in this blog? Well ...
There's always an angle.

William's second wife is Marsha Garces, a Filipina-American, with whom he had two hapa children, Zelda and Cody. His oldest son, Zachary, is from his first marriage with Valerie Velardi and he has not yet released a statement. 

Marsha and Robin were together for 20 years, the longest of his three marriages. It was through their philanthropic foundation -- the Windfall Foundation -- where Williams donated his time and money to for its good work.

She divorced him in 2010 after another one of his relapses. Her silence at this time speaks volumes about the pain she must be going through.

(THE OTHER CONNECTIONS: And there is Dante Basco who was in the film "Hook," and played Rufio alongside Williams' Peter Pan; and Lea Salonga provided the singing voice for Jasmine in the animated feature, "Aladdin.")

For my daughters' generation, who went through their formative years in the 80's, he is remembered as Mrs. Doubtfire and English teacher John Keating in the "Dead Poets Society."

Good films, like good all good art, have the ability to transform lives when a scene, a quote or an idea hits you in the stomach, you catch your breath, feel the impact, ruminate about it, swirl it, toss it around, place it inside out and upside down, think about it some more - and then you say, "A-ha!."

And then ... and then ... you remember it for the rest of your life.

For me, it was "To Kill A Mockingbird" with Gregory Peck, who played a southern lawyer defending a black man. For those who grew up in the 80s, it might have been this scene from the Dead Poets Society: 

And while we're talking about Williams and Walt Whitman, for those young people growing up today, it might be this commercial in which he provides the voiceover. It may be a commercial for a product, but for me, it was the message, the words, the idea, the question: 

What verse will you contribute?