true enough. death by hanging is a gruesome sight.

You completely ignore his scripted stand up routines and his television and film acting where very different character traits and a definite need for self control are required and apparent.

.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8mn3nLPSMY

Apparently the fart bit was improvised and you can see the camera start to shake as the cameran laughed with Matt.

I also find it interesting that he dealt with suicide in at least two of his serious movies: Dead Poet’s Society and What Dreams May Come.

Not trying to start a flame war, but…”a strong disregard for those who would find him.”

You’re probably missing due regard for a substantial element of the illness there.

I found him exhausting to watch as well; while I recognized his talent and a real brilliance in the mania, I definitely took it in with more of a feeling of horror than one of laughter. Clearly a lot of my friends found something very special in his work, and I’m happy that he was able to reach into them thus, and I respect their feelings.

To me the surprise isn’t that someone so “funny” would take their own life, but someone so successful in their chosen field. Maybe that’s a shallowness on my part, but I’ve never known a depression to be so bad in someone who was very much making it at what they wanted to make it at in life. Bi-polar, Borderline, perhaps. The violence of the act – the specifics of how he did it – bely a personal torture, and also a strong disregard for those who would find him.

Bigger than the story of his death, and the loss of art, for me, is the monstrous outpouring I’m seeing in social media. It is so much bigger than anything I’ve seen before, after such an event.

And so much mourning. It feels, sometimes, like folks mourning for their loss, not his, or his family’s. It disturbs me, a bit.

I really liked Moscow on the Hudson; not that it was his best, but it was my first glimpse into another side of his art.

That’s beautifully put.

Like you, I liked his quiet, even disturbed roles the best, and think that he had a great capacity as an actor. I have never seen “What Dreams May Come,” and will make a point of it now. Thank you.

The icon that was zany, crazy, silly, manic Robin Williams will be remembered and missed by the all-consuming public. I’m just sad that so few of “us” ever got to know the quiet, gentle, kind father/husband/friend that he was to a privileged few, because surely the neon glow of his public personality dimmed our eyes to the real man within, hence our shock at his unexpected passing.