![]() Williams came to Hollywood prominence in the late 1970s with his starring role in “Mork & Mindy,” a spin-off of the then-popular “Happy Days.” Williams played an alien baffled by the ways of Earth, the comedy often resulting from the contrast between how he viewed the world and how the world really worked.Īfter the show went off the air in 1982, Williams’ reputation for rapid-fire impersonations - not to mention a seemingly bottomless talent for comic improvisation - landed him a number of high-profile stand-up specials as well as numerous film roles. This summer, he returned to rehab to “fine-tune” his sobriety.īorn in Chicago in 1951, Williams was accepted into John Houseman’s prestigious acting program at Juilliard along with Christopher Reeve, who became a lifelong friend. “The same voice that goes, ‘Just one.’ … And the idea of just one for someone who has no tolerance for it, that’s not the possibility.” Doubtfire” star told ABC News in October of that year. “You’re standing at a precipice and you look down, there’s a voice and it’s a little quiet voice that goes, ‘Jump,’” the “Mrs. ![]() He later explained that drinking had gradually become a problem again after 20 years of sobriety. ![]() The actor spent time on a Hazelden campus in Oregon in 2006. Williams was known for being open about his problems with cocaine and alcohol over the years. He also received nominations for “The Fisher King” (1991), “Dead Poets Society” (1989) and “Good Morning, Vietnam” (1987). 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). He was pronounced dead at the scene.ĭubbed “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. This interview has been edited and condensed.Williams was found unresponsive at his home in Tiburon around noon Monday, sheriff’s officials said. I’ve certainly had that experience, and the episode connects to feelings that I continue to have about some of those losses in a way that was soothing to me. When you get to a certain age, everybody’s life has been touched by the loss of someone that is important to you. That speaks to the depth of feeling everyone had for Lee. That might have been a case where real life would have been too close and would have made us uncomfortable, because it would have felt like we were exploiting this tragedy for dramatic purposes. There wasn’t, mostly because we wanted to be very careful that it didn’t feel exploitive. ![]() Was there ever any thought of introducing depression, bipolar disorder, or even suicide? If the people who loved Lee chose to see it, they would feel that we were honoring his memory. We had one simple principle, which was to make sure that we were honoring Lee and the character of Barry Frost. It was very clear to all of us that we didn’t want there to be a blurry line between Detective Barry Frost’s death and whatever way we were going to treat that death. That leads you to him dying in a tragic accident. The other is that it is something tragic, that isn’t related to the procedural element of the show. One is to have it be a crime that you investigate. When I met with, it became very clear that what they wanted was to make sure that we dealt with Lee’s death in a way that was not just respectful to the actor and the role that he had filled in this company, but also to his character. The character needs to be memorialized some way, and if the character is going to die, then on a TV show that deals with crimes, you have two choices. They had said he’d gone on vacation, and in a situation where an actor had died, that seemed less satisfying. When I realized that they had not actively dealt with it in the Season 4 finale, my own personal instinct was that it needed to be marked in some way. Actors often disappear from shows between seasons, and their absence is sometimes left unmentioned or explained away quite quickly, so I wondered how you decided to deal with it this particular way.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |