NEWS

VIDEO: Comic genius Robin Williams dies; filmed locally

staff and wire reports

SAN RAFAEL, California –

Comedic icon Robin Williams filmed "The World According to Garp" in Millbrook and "The Night Listener" in Kingston. He performed stand-up comedy at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie.

FILE - This Nov. 7, 2007 file photo shows comedian Robin Williams performing at the NY Comedy Festival Event "Stand Up for Heroes: A Benefit for the Bob Woodruff Family Fund,” in New York.

Williams, the Academy Award winner and comic supernova whose explosions of pop culture riffs and impressions dazzled audiences for decades and made him a gleamy-eyed laureate for the Information Age, died Monday in an apparent suicide. He was 63.

Editorial: A funny man, painful talks

Williams was pronounced dead at his home in California on Monday, according to the sheriff's office in Marin County, north of San Francisco. The sheriff's office said a preliminary investigation shows the cause of death to be a suicide due to asphyxia.

"It's a terrible, tragic loss," said Stan Beinstein of LaGrange.

Williams attended a party marking the conclusion of filming 1982's "The World According to Garp" at The Chance in Poughkeepsie.

Beinstein, who attended the party at The Chance, said someone handed Williams a harmonica and he jumped up on stage for an impromptu performance with the band. Beinstein said Williams "blew some really fun harp."

Williams then assumed the persona of a southern preacher, Beinstein said, and began "proselytizing" to the crowd.

Meira Blaustein, executive director of the Woodstock Film Festival, said Williams while in Kingston was "very approachable" and "talked to a lot of people while filming up here."

Williams' wife, Susan Schneider, said: "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. 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."

Williams had been battling severe depression recently, said Mara Buxbaum, his press representative.

From his breakthrough in the late 1970s as the alien in the hit TV show "Mork and Mindy," through his standup act and such films as "Good Morning, Vietnam," the short, barrel-chested Williams ranted and shouted as if just sprung from solitary confinement. Loud, fast, manic, he parodied everyone from John Wayne to Keith Richards, impersonating a Russian immigrant as easily as a pack of Nazi attack dogs.

In 1992, Carson chose Williams and Bette Midler as his final guests.

Like so many funnymen, he had serious ambitions, winning his Oscar for his portrayal of an empathetic therapist in "Good Will Hunting." He also played for tears in "Awakenings," "Dead Poets Society" and "What Dreams May Come," something that led New York Times critic Stephen Holden to once say he dreaded seeing the actor's "Humpty Dumpty grin and crinkly moist eyes."

Williams won three Golden Globes, for "Good Morning, Vietnam," "Mrs. Doubtfire" and "The Fisher King."

His other film credits included Robert Altman's "Popeye," Paul Mazursky's "Moscow on the Hudson," Steven Spielberg's "Hook" and Woody Allen's "Deconstructing Harry." On stage, Williams joined fellow comedian Steve Martin in a 1988 Broadway revival of "Waiting for Godot."

Born in Chicago in 1951, Williams would remember himself as a shy kid who got some early laughs from his mother — by mimicking his grandmother. He opened up more in high school when he joined the drama club and he was accepted into the Juilliard Academy, where he had several classes in which he and 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. Their acts were not warm and lovable. They were just being themselves.

Staff writer John Barry contributed to this report.

INSIDE

For more coverage of Robin Williams' life, turn to pages 1B, 6B.

SUICIDE PREVENTION RESOURCES

• Dutchess County Department of Mental Health help line: 845-485-9700 or www.dutchessny.gov

• Mental Health America of Dutchess County: 845-473-2500 or www.mhadc.com

• American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Hudson Valley Chapter: 914-417-7993 or www.afsp.org