RIP Robin Williams

[highvoltage]

I don't think I've ever felt so saddened by a celebrity death as I have today.

[Forsaken]

I don't think I've ever felt so saddened by a celebrity death as I have today.

Very shocking and completely out of the blue. Still taken back a bit by it.

[bacardimayne]

Definitely the biggest shock since Michael.

[PITBOSS]

this is a huge loss, such a talent and one of the greats. rip robin.

some of the funniest people are the saddest ones on the inside.

[Powerage5]

Definitely the biggest shock since Michael.

It's not the most upset I've been about a celebrity death since MJ, but I definitely agree it was the most shocking or unexpected.

[Georgy Zhukov]

[Black Sabbath]

Literally the other day was just thinking about changing my avatar to him. Guess I'll do it now...

"You're only given a little spark of madness... and if you lose that, you're nothin'."

[arnold layne]

Well he can sleep easy now. I admire his courage to end his demons.

[PITBOSS]

Well he can sleep easy now. I admire his courage to end his demons.

Really? I think it's a chicken shit way to deal with your problems and I really feel bad for those he left behind. I was kinda hoping to hear it was an accident or something other than a suicide or maybe by chance he had cancer and he was dying anyway so he did it.

Don't really want to jump to conclusions since I'm not in his shoes and I don't know the exact circumstances.

RIP robin a lot of people are gonna miss you.

[Estranged Reality]

Well he can sleep easy now. I admire his courage to end his demons.

Really? I think it's a chicken shit way to deal with your problems and I really feel bad for those he left behind. I was kinda hoping to hear it was an accident or something other than a suicide or maybe by chance he had cancer and he was dying anyway so he did it.

Don't really want to jump to conclusions since I'm not in his shoes and I don't know the exact circumstances.

RIP robin a lot of people are gonna miss you.

Ugh, bad Takeshi flashbacks right now.

Look, it's a LOT more complex than just writing it off as a "chicken shit way to deal with your problems." Williams dealt with severe depression for most of his life. He also battled alcoholism and stayed clean for a remarkably long time. By saying he took a "chicken shit" route kind of undermines the fact that he still made it many, many years dealing with an illness that is complex and NOT indicative of personal weakness. I don't know. I just hate when people immediately write off suicide as an "easy way out." Sorry, you don't live to 63 battling depression most of your life, and get to have people write that you were a coward. There's just a lot more to it than that.

[WhazUp]

This news has single handedly given this whole day a weird vibe, it doesn't feel right at all. Even just reading the news headlines seeing "Robin Williams dead" doesn't even look right, like they made a mistake or typo. I am still taken aback by it all

[PITBOSS]

Well he can sleep easy now. I admire his courage to end his demons.

Really? I think it's a chicken shit way to deal with your problems and I really feel bad for those he left behind. I was kinda hoping to hear it was an accident or something other than a suicide or maybe by chance he had cancer and he was dying anyway so he did it.

Don't really want to jump to conclusions since I'm not in his shoes and I don't know the exact circumstances.

RIP robin a lot of people are gonna miss you.

Ugh, bad Takeshi flashbacks right now.

Look, it's a LOT more complex than just writing it off as a "chicken shit way to deal with your problems." Williams dealt with severe depression for most of his life. He also battled alcoholism and stayed clean for a remarkably long time. By saying he took a "chicken shit" route kind of undermines the fact that he still made it many, many years dealing with an illness that is complex and NOT indicative of personal weakness. I don't know. I just hate when people immediately write off suicide as an "easy way out." Sorry, you don't live to 63 battling depression most of your life, and get to have people write that you were a coward. There's just a lot more to it than that.

I get it man, and I was trying to be respectful as I loved the guy- he was great. I don't think suicide is something admirable though and I believe it's selfish. What about his 3 kids? How and why would he do that to them? There is a lot more to it I am sure of that, but don't you also hate it when someone great does something like this? Don't they have all the tools and resources well beyond what you and I have to deal with issues? Mental illness is no joke and it may have come off wrong to say it was the "chicken shit way out" but at the same time I don't think it's something admirable.

[arnold layne]

Having children is selfish.

Nobody chooses to be born. People however may choose go die. It seems fair to me.

[Estranged Reality]

I get it man, and I was trying to be respectful as I loved the guy- he was great. I don't think suicide is something admirable though and I believe it's selfish. What about his 3 kids? How and why would he do that to them? There is a lot more to it I am sure of that, but don't you also hate it when someone great does something like this? Don't they have all the tools and resources well beyond what you and I have to deal with issues? Mental illness is no joke and it may have come off wrong to say it was the "chicken shit way out" but at the same time I don't think it's something admirable.

for all we know, the guy had a major alcohol relapse and committed suicide while drunk. he was a hardcore alcoholic and admitted to it. he admitted to a lot of things. listen to the WTF interview i posted... unfortunately, i think he had a moment of weakness. he made it many, many years with his perseverance... but ultimately all it takes is one moment of weakness.

[Georgy Zhukov]

Having children is selfish.

Nobody chooses to be born. People however may choose go die. It seems fair to me.

Make your choice then.

[DR DOOM]

I admire his courage to end his demons.

Ugh, what a fucking abhorrent statement.

[gunsnchains123]

Veteran actor and comedian Robin Williams has been found dead in his California home. He was 63.

It appears the popular performer loved for both his comedic and dramatic roles took his own life.

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Robin Williams.

His publicist, Mara Buxbaum, said Williams had been battling depression recently.

"This is a tragic and sudden loss," Buxbaum said in a statement. "The family respectfully asks for their privacy as they grieve during this very difficult time."

Williams' wife, Susan Schneider, said she is "utterly heartbroken".

We take a look back at the extraordinary career of Hollywood funnyman Robin Williams.

"This morning, I lost my husband and my best friend, while the world lost one of its most beloved artists and beautiful human beings," she said in a statement.

"On behalf of Robin's family, we are asking for privacy during our time of profound grief.

"As he is remembered, it is our hope the focus will not be on Robin's death, but on the countless moments of joy and laughter he gave to millions."

In his final tweet, posted almost a fortnight ago, the actor wished a happy birthday to his eldest daughter and "baby girl" Zelda Rae, posting a black and white photo of him cuddling her when she was a toddler.

#tbt and Happy Birthday to Ms. Zelda Rae Williams! Quarter of a century old today but always my http://t.co/qlsWIu429e

Robin Williams (@robinwilliams) July 31, 2014

US president Barack Obama is one of many who paid tribute to Williams this morning.

In a statement released by the White House, Obama said: "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."

Really poignant, touching Obama statement on the passing of Robin Williams. pic.twitter.com/jt6HABdbmI

Brett LoGiurato (@BrettLoGiurato) August 12, 2014

A statement from the Marin County Sheriffs office coroners division said that an emergency call was received on August 11 about 11.55am, reporting that an adult male had been found unconscious and not breathing inside his house.

Emergency workers arrived five minutes later and pronounced the man dead. He was identified as 63-year-old Robin McLaurin Williams.

An investigation is now underway but, in the statement, the Sheriffs Office said it "suspects the death to be a suicide due to asphyxia".

Legendary director Steven Spielberg, a close friend of Williams, also paid tribute to him. "Robin was a lightning storm of comic genius and our laughter was the thunder that sustained him," Spielberg said in a statement cited by Variety.

"He was a pal and I cant believe hes gone," added Spielberg, who famously phoned Williams to cheer himself up during filming of his harrowing 1994 Holocaust drama Schindlers List.

Australian director George Miller, who worked with Williams on Happy Feet and Happy Feet 2, described him as a genius actor and comic.

"There was a quality in the way that his mind worked so quickly and was able to construct brilliant tour de force pieces, unbidden as it were and perfectly formed," he said. "That was an extraordinary thing to watch.

"And what people may not know was that he was also a magnificent human being. He had a huge heart and that intelligence you saw in his humour was in his normal conversation as well. He could range so widely and deeply on every single topic you could imagine. It was quite breathtaking.

"So in every way, it will be a deeply felt absence."

Miller said Williams worked off a script in the Happy Feet movies but would improvise brilliantly.

"He would go off on his interpretations. It was like comic jazz and without exception he would come up with something better. Youd just let him go and how it came out so perfectly was extraordinary."

From Mork to Oscar glory

Williams rose to fame in the late 1970s after he broke through as a guest star on the iconic sitcom Happy Days, playing the alien Mork. That role won him his own spin-off series, Mork & Mindy.

Williams' co-star on the hit sitcom, Pam Dawber, expressed her grief today. "I am completely and totally devastated," she said in a statement. "What more can be said?"

Williams won an Academy Award for best supporting actor in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting, in which he played a psychologist.

He most recently starred in the CBS comedy The Crazy Ones, which was cancelled after one season. His co-star Sarah Michelle Gellar has tweeted pictures of them together as a tribute.

In an interview with Parade magazine last year, Williams said that regular TV work appealed to him because he had lost a lot of money through two divorces.

"Divorce is expensive," he said. "I used to joke they were going to call it 'all the money,' but they changed it to 'alimony.' It's ripping your heart out through your wallet.

"The idea of having a steady job is appealing ... there are bills to pay. My life has downsized, in a good way. Im selling [my $US35 million dollar home] in Napa. I just cant afford it anymore."

Williams who said he was "shy" as a child until he began studying drama was renowned for his quick wit and gregarious demeanour. In 1973, he was accepted into the Juilliard Academy, where he had several classes in which he and the late Christopher Reeve were the only students and John Houseman was the teacher.

Encouraged by Houseman to pursue comedy, Williams identified with the wildest and angriest of performers: Jonathan Winters, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, George Carlin.

"You look at the world and see how scary it can be sometimes and still try to deal with the fear," he told the Associated Press in 1989. "Comedy can deal with the fear and still not paralyse you or tell you that its going away. You say, OK, you got certain choices here, you can laugh at them and then once youve laughed at them and you have expunged the demon, now you can deal with them. Thats what I do when I do my act."

His most popular films include Good Morning Vietnam (1987), in which he played an army radio DJ; Dead Poets Society (1989); Mrs Doubtfire (1993); The Birdcage (1996), in which he played a gay nightclub owner; and Patch Adams (1998), a biographical comedy about a doctor who uses humour as medicine.

He was last seen in The Face of Love with Annette Bening. His final films include a voice role in the British comedy Absolutely Anything, due to be released next year; Merry Friggin' Christmas, scheduled for November; and a Night At The Museum: Secret of the Tomb in December. He also starred in Boulevard, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival but has not been widely released yet.

A sequel to Mrs Doubtfire had also been announced, with filming expected to begin as early as this year.

Williams collected four Grammy Awards over the years and an Emmy for two television specials.

Comedian and actor Billy Crystal once observed that following Williams on stage was "like trying to top the Civil War".

Williams has spoken openly about his struggles with cocaine and alcohol addiction as a young man. In a stand-up show in Melbourne in 2010, he joked: ''I checked into a centre in wine country, just to hedge my bets.''

Earlier this year, he checked into a renewal facility to "focus on his ongoing sobriety", according to the Hollywood Reporter. This followed a relapse into alcoholism in 2006.

Williams was among the last to see John Belushi before the Saturday Night Live star died of a drug overdose in 1982.

He has been married three times. In 1978, he wed Valerie Velardi, with whom he has a son, Zachary Pym.

In 1989, he married Zacharys nanny Marsha Garces, who was seven months pregnant with his daughter, Zelda Rae. The couple had a son, Cody Alan, two years later.

Williams married Schneider almost three years ago.

[Christinith]

it's not your fault.

Don't do this to me man

[The Glow Inc.]

damn...

[Lithium]

[Lio]

Sad, sad news. I liked him most in his serious roles. Awakenings, One Hour Photo and Dead Poets Society.

Used to think suicide was selfish too (if you put kids on this world, you're there for them as long as you can), but recent experience has taught me that depression can be a deadly disease just like any other. It's just harder to accept, because you don't see the person is ill.

RIP Robin Williams.

[Axls Rocket Queen]

I'm shocked. This is horrible

[grouse]

Ahw crap

[UK SUBS]

NOOOOOOOOOOOO

I kinda would have predicted this years ago but not now after battling depression for sooooooo long. For anyone who's ever suffered depression, you'll be well aware of Robin's own demons and like me, probably took great strength knowing such happiness could shine through! This is so sad for so many reasons

[SoulMonster]

The Fisher King!