World farewells a comic genius

ROBIN Williams’ razor wit belied his underlying sadness.

BARACK Obama spoke for audiences across the world yesterday when he said Robin Williams “arrived in our lives as an alien but he ended up touching every element of the human spirit”. Williams’ death, at 63, came far too soon. It was a tragic reminder that comic genius, acting talent and success are no antidotes to depression, an illness in need of extensive research, better treatments and greater understanding for sufferers.

Williams was an unknown television actor when he first delighted viewers of the television sitcom Mork & Mindy 36 years ago. He played Mork, the affable alien assigned to Earth to observe human behaviour, ad libbing the best lines as producers increasingly left gaps in the script for him to fill.

Later, he also excelled in serious roles, especially in Good Will Hunting for which he won an Academy Award. As John Keating, an inspirational English teacher in Dead Poets Society, Williams brought an unforgettable character to life, teaching his students why words and ideas change the world. Language, he told his class of teenage boys, “was invented for one reason ... to woo women — and, in that endeavour, laziness will not do. It also won’t do in your essays.” As an estranged husband impersonating an elderly housekeeper in Mrs Doubtfire, in order to be close to his children, Williams tugged audiences’ heartstrings over family separations while making them roar with laughter. If only the long-awaited sequel had been made ...

Williams tested our sense of humour with his aside that Australians were “English rednecks’’. He was also aware of his own foibles, describing cocaine as “God’s way of saying you’re making too much money’’. He’ll be sadly missed.