Robin Williams dead of apparent suicide

[Monique Faulkner]

Robin Williams dead of apparent suicide
Robin Williams was 'compulsively, prodigiously inventive'
Chicago Tribune film critic Michael Phillips remembers the career of actor Robin Williams, who died today at the age of 63 of an apparent suicide.
By Tribune wire reports
MoviesRobin WilliamsSuicideTwentieth Century Fox Film Corp.The Hollywood ReporterMatt DamonSteve Martin
Robin Williams was found dead of an apparent suicide
Actor Robin Williams entered rehab center last month
Chicago-born actor gained fame on 'Mork & Mindy'

Oscar-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams was found dead on Monday from an apparent suicide at his home in Northern California, Marin County Sheriff's Office said. He was 63.

The sheriff's coroner's division said it suspects the death was a suicide due to asphyxia, but the cause of death is still under investigation.

"This morning, I lost my husband and my best friend, while the world lost one of its most beloved artists and beautiful human beings. I am utterly heartbroken," Williams's wife Susan Schneider said in a statement.
Live Blog: Reaction to Robin William's death
Live Blog: Reaction to Robin William's death Open link

Williams, who won an Academy Award for his role as a fatherly therapist in 1997's "Good Will Hunting," had been suffering from severe depression recently, his publicist Mara Buxbaum said.

Williams, who introduced his frenetic style on late 1970s TV series "Mork & Mindy" and had struggled with addiction in the past, had entered a Minnesota rehabilitation center last month to help him maintain sobriety.
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His representatives at the time said Williams was not using drugs or alcohol but had gone to the center to "fine-tune and focus" his sobriety after working a longer-than-usual schedule.

The Marin County Sheriff's office said it received an emergency call about noon local time on Monday, saying that Williams was unconscious and not breathing at his home near Tiburon, north of San Francisco.

Fellow comedic actor Steve Martin said in a tweet: "I could not be more stunned by the loss of Robin Williams, mensch, great talent, acting partner, genuine soul."

Around 11:55 a.m. Monday, sheriff's officials said, a 911 call came in about a man unresponsive in his home in Tiburon. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

[Monique Faulkner]

[Monique Faulkner]

Dubbed “the funniest man alive” by Entertainment Weekly in 1997, Williams brought audiences hours of laughter, putting his imaginative spin on characters in film and television. He was lauded for his serious roles as well, winning a best supporting actor Oscar for his performance as Sean Maguire, the therapist who counsels Matt Damon’s math genius in “Good Will Hunting”(1997), and receiving nominations for “The Fisher King” (1991), “Dead Poets Society” (1989) and “Good Morning, Vietnam” (1987).
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    God Bless, Robin Williams
    Chicage-staff
    at 8:29 PM August 11, 2014

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Williams is scheduled to appear in "Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb" on Dec. 19, playing the statue of Teddy Roosevelt who comes to life at night. Twentieth Century Fox, which will distribute the film, had no immediate comment.

In April, the Hollywood Reporter said that Fox's Fox 2000 division was developing a sequel to his 1993 hit "Mrs. Doubtfire" that would reunite Williams and director Chris Columbus.

In the film, Williams played one of his most enduring roles as a struggling actor and divorced father who assumes the identity of a British nanny to be closer to his children.

The actor was most recently in the CBS television comedy "The Crazy Ones," which was canceled in May after one season.

Born in Chicago in 1951, Williams became one of only two students accepted into John Houseman’s prestigious acting program at Juilliard, the other being Christopher Reeve, who became a lifelong friend.

Williams gained fame as Mork, the bizarre, suspenders-sporting alien on the sitcom “Mork & Mindy,” a spinoff from “Happy Days.” Williams departed from the script so often that producers intentionally left blank moments on page for Williams to have space to indulge his ad-libbing genius.

Reuters, Los Angeles Times

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