News of the passing of the late great comedian and dramatic actor Robin Williams has spread across the world and social with lightening speed since word broke yesterday.
Pam Dawber, the actress who starred alongside Robin Williams in the 1970’s Mork and Mindy, and recently in a role as his former love interest in Williams’ short-lived The Crazy Ones series was brief in her comments about Williams’ passing:
“I am completely and totally devastated. What more can be said?”
Dawber’s husband, NCIS lead actor Mark Harmon, had no comment visible on social media or other sources at press time. However, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Williams’ co-star on The Crazy Ones has eulogized her fellow actor here.
Henry Winkler, who played in the Fonz for over a decade on the 1970’s Happy Days, recalls Robin Williams fondly.
“Here I am playing this man of very few words and I’m watching brilliance explode like fireworks every 10 or 15 seconds… This young man (Robin Williams) comes in and we started rehearsing and I quickly realized I had one job: to keep a straight face. What ever you said, he inhaled out of the air and then threw it back at you. There was not one time it came out the same. There was not one time it was not truly, endlessly and fervently funny. You saw it and your mouth dropped. You couldn’t believe it. I’ve worked with a lot of people and there is and was no one quite like him.”
Winkler recalls that The Happy Days scripts were generally longer than the Mork and Mindy scripts because the writers allowed Robin to improvise much of the show’s comedy.
“After a while, I don’t think they even bothered writing comic pieces for him because he was uncontainable in this universal way,” he said. “He was touched. He was given something.”
Winkler also recalls what it was like witnessing the late great Jonathan Winters – who played Mork and Mindy’s adult son Mearth – alongside Robin Williams:
“These two men together, crowds would come. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t, but it was always better than anything you’ve ever done.”
The thoughts and prayers of the Insidepulse staff are with the family and friends of Robin Williams at this very difficult time.
On a more personal note, from seeing Robin Williams on Happy Days as well as Mork and Mindy on TV as well in films like Good Morning Vietnam, Dead Poets Society, Good Will Hunting and others, while I didn’t know Robin Williams personally, some part of me feels like I did. I felt like I saw him grow up – if Peter Pan can ever grow up – while I did. While his talent will be cherished well beyond his passing, his death leaves us with one less reason to laugh and one more reason to cry.
Rest in peace, finally, Robin Williams.
