Ten Times Robin Williams Opened Our Minds

Overview

O captain, my captain. There are few actors that can make your heart break and your sides hurt in one feel-fuelled moment. Perpetually twinkly-eyed, Oscar-winning actor Robin Williams had done just that for many of us, becoming a sort of surrogate dad for many of our childhoods with his high-pitched Doubtfires, high-fiveable genies and Sesame Street how-tos.

"Robin Williams was an airman, a doctor, a genie, a nanny, a president, a professor, a bangarang Peter Pan, and everything in between. But he was one of a kind. He arrived in our lives as an alien – but he ended up touching every element of the human spirit. He made us laugh. He made us cry. He gave his immeasurable talent freely and generously to those who needed it most – from our troops stationed abroad to the marginalized on our own streets," remarked President Barack Obama this morning.

With the tragic news of the 63-year-old comic genius's passing this morning, we took time to delve into the impact Williams has made on audiences young and old, opening minds through unrivalled slapstick comedy, Academy Award-worthy drama and that loud, lively, unforgettable voice. While an entire, kickass career can't be summed up in a list of ten (special mention to his unbreakable role as Aladdin's genie, the heartbreaking Patch Adams, everyone's favourite Jumanji and the terrifying One Hour Photo), here's a modest snippet of ten ways Robin Williams opened minds, hearts and lamps with his extraordinary talent.

Dead Poet's Society

The quintessential lesson in seizing the day, 1989's Dead Poets Society saw Williams take on unforgettable English teacher John Keating (and nab an Oscar nomination for it). Kicking his students into gear with a love of poetry and a fierce ability to tackle life head on, Williams' Keating is one of those captivating, To Sir With Love-like teacher characters who kicks your own butt into gear along with the characters. And then there's that table-topped scene. We're all standing tall with an "O Captain, My Captain," today.

Williams Gold: "We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?" Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse."

The Birdcage

Making plain the ridiculousness of right-wing conservative homophobia, The Birdcage saw Williams delve into the world of gay cabaret to expose widely shared prejudice and bullshit. Playing South Beach drag club owner Armand Goldman in this remake of the hugely popular French musical farce La Cage aux Folles, Williams and his drag queen partner (Nathan Lane) have to put up a 'straight front' in front of a his son's fiance's narrow-minded parents. Damn good comedic timing from Williams and Lane makes a mockery of disdain and small-minded attitudes, with the subtlety of Williams balanced by the high pitched screams of Lane.

Williams Gold: "Yes, I wear foundation. Yes, I live with a man. Yes, I'm a middle-aged 'fag'. But I know who I am, Val. It took me twenty years to get here and I'm not gonna let some idiot senator destroy that. Fuck the senator, I don't give a damn what he thinks."

Good Will Hunting

The role that earned Williams his Oscar (and rightly so). Teaming up with Matt Damon for a genuinely kickass onscreen partnership, Williams channelled all previous dramatic experience into his role as Sean Maguire, counselling Damon's troubled mathematical genius. Nailing a particularly rousing, almost one-take monologue in the park, Williams' performance cuts to the core of knowledge versus experience, knowing about something as opposed to feeling it. Then there's his delving into "superphilosophy" and Dead Poet's Society-like Take Control speeches.

Williams Gold: "You think I know the first thing about how hard your life has been, how you feel, who you are, because I read Oliver Twist? Does that encapsulate you? Personally, I don't give a shit about all that, because you know what, I can't learn anything from you, I can't read in some fuckin' book. Unless you want to talk about you, who you are. Then I'm fascinated."

Mrs Doubtfire

Tackling divorce in an accessible way for your inevitably young viewers is a masterful skill for any film team — and Chris Columbus's Mrs Doubtfire nailed it. Dragging up in order to secretly spend time with his kids, Williams' wild and wonderful lead role as Daniel Hillard was deliberately appealing to a broad audience, dissolving the stigma attached to divorce at the time by making the simple facts plain (not to mention the Tootsie-like gender role adventure). Groundbreaking for the time, Sally Field (Miranda Hillard) and Williams didn't get back together in the end. So while audiences were chortling over Williams' fiery breasts or whipped cream face mask, the comedic master was giving a lesson in attitude change. High-freakin-five.

Williams Gold: "Sink the sub. Hide the weasel. Park the porpoise. A bit of the old Humpty Dumpty, Little Jack Horny, the Horizontal Mambo, hmm? The Bone Dancer, Rumpleforeskin, Baloney Bop, a bit of the old Cunning Linguistics?"

FernGully: The Last Rainforest

Soaring through the rainforest canopy and throwing down a mean rap, Williams' Batty Koda taught us one important environmental lesson: humans truly suck. Teaching us to respect the natural environment, stop being tossers and Damn the Loggers, FernGully saw the fairy community and the recently-freed-from-animal-testing Batty take on a freakin' terrifying Tim Curry-voiced, human-released menace called Hexxus. Rapping out his terrifying past and constantly 'changing channels' through his human-installed aerial, Batty was one of Williams' most underrated performances — voiced the very same year as his kickass Aladdin genie (every inch worth a spot in our ten, we ran out of room for Williams chockers resume).

Williams Gold: (Best rapped out loud) "I've been brain-fried, electrified, infected, and injectified, vivisectified and fed pesticides. My face is all cut up 'cause my radar's all shut up. Nurse, I need a check-up from the neck up. I'm Batt-ay."

Sesame Street

A constant friend to the imaginary, education-addicted New York City street, Williams opened our minds to many a truth nugget as youngsters. While it's actually quite sad to watch his tutorial on how to tell whether something is alive, his clip unpacking conflict (above) is just adorable. Then there was that time he gave Elmo a stick. For years, Williams trained our silly young'un minds about things that matter, now Sesame Street mourns their lost, loveable friend.

Williams Gold: "You can be playing baseball in the World Series, hit it over the fence and realise "I'M THE ONE." Or maybe you can be playing hockey... or you can be at the Olympics, throwing the javelin... Or you can be doing incredible things like riding a horse through the pass, leading all the wagons through. Or you can have a cane and you're dancing around with Tommy Tune, or it can be a conductor's baton... You can be at the head of the parade, or you can be AN ENGLISH OFFICER MARCHING FOR NO REASON, AROUND, BACK AND FORTH, or you can be playing pool..." (Williams on the uses of a stick.)

Hook

Growing up is overrrated. We all knew this was the main Peter Pan soapbox, until Williams took us through imaginary food fights, insult-slinging and Dustin Hoffman showdowns while keeping his grown-up life (read: family) together. The film that pretty much embodied Williams' anti-growing up lifelong persona, Hook saw Williams lend a new street cred to Pan, one absent in Jeremy Sumpter's poor 2003 effort. Williams opened our minds to the art of insults at the dinner table, a true artform. So if growing up comes with being a fusty, fun-hating adult and losing your ability to silence a regular Rufio, sign us up for a ticket to Williams' Neverland.

Williams Gold: "Rufio, if I'm a maggot burger why don't you eat me! You two-toned zebra-headed, slime-coated, pimple-farmin' paramecium brain, munchin' on your own mucus, suffering from Peter Pan envy! I'll tell you what a paramecium is. That's the paramecium. It's a one-celled critter with no brain, that can't fly. Don't mess with me man, I'm a lawyer!"

Good Morning Vietnam

Shaking things up on breakfast radio is one thing, doing it on a US Armed Services Radio station during the Vietnam War is another. Playing the highly unorthodox DJ , Williams nabbed another Oscar nomination for giving a finger to the system as Adrian Cronauer in Good Morning Vietnam. Diverting from his dull, monotonous radio predecessors, Cronauer's dynamite, wacky morning broadcasts turn real when he experiences first-hand the horrors of war — a broadcast truth that sees him replaced and facing another battle to get back on the air. Williams balances wacky outlandishness with dramatic poignancy, channelling all the Damn the Man finesse with high-fiveable conviction. And if we could wake up every day to Williams respect for microphone technique instead of certain bullshit shock jocks, we'd be outstandingly happy campers.

Williams Gold: "GOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING VIETNAAAAAAAAAAAAM."

Stand-Up

Outspoken on everything from porn to the Vatican (and often blending the two), Williams made no compromises for his stand-up gold. Exposing hypocrisy in the Bible, taking digs at the Pope and slamming homophobia, Williams countless stand-up tours opened minds to prejudice, stupidity and the questionable nature of religious doctrine — made immortal through the biggest catalogue of vocal impressions you've ever seen in one sitting.

Williams Gold: "In the beginning, Genesis, 'let there be light.' Could that be a metaphor for the Big Bang? 'No. God just went click.'"

https://youtube.com/watch?v=v9g1yRXF8I8

Mork and Mindy

"Nanu-Nanu." Less WTF than Bowie's The Man Who Fell to Earth and significantly less heartbreaking than ET, Mork and Mindy made a rambunctious ride out of alien-human relations. One of Williams' first real lead roles, Mork was a spin-off show from his bit character on Happy Days — Williams had impressed producer Gerry Marshall who cast him on the spot, later quipping that Williams was the only alien who auditioned for M&M. A bonafide archive of Williams' comic voices, slapstick and twinkly humour, Mork made us question the weird, wonderful and (most often) trivia parts of human life and the things we take for granted.

Williams Gold: "If my knees knock any louder, I'm gonna look inside my pants and see who's there."

Vale, Robin Williams. You freakin' ruled.

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