The Academy has paid tribute to Robin Williams at the 2015 Oscars ceremony, following the death of the comic actor last year – and putting right its own fudged tribute at the time, which was seen to glorify suicide.
Following a bout of depression partly brought on by a diagnosis of Parkinson’s, Williams killed himself in August last year, prompting a flood of tributes online from the likes of Steve Martin and Eddie Izzard. The Academy’s own tribute at the time, an image from Aladdin with the caption “Genie, you’re free”, was criticised for framing suicide as an escape.
With its mousetrap suddenness and childlike energy, Williams’s humour was unique and widely loved. He parlayed it first into standup comedy, a discipline he continued throughout his career, and then became a national star as befuddled alien Mork in the 1970s sitcom Mork and Mindy.
A film career eventually followed, with a key breakthrough role being fast-talking radio DJ Adrian Cronauer in Good Morning, Vietnam (1987). There then followed a pair of Terry Gilliam films in The Fisher King and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, the drama Dead Poets Society, and the Steven Spielberg epic Hook, in which Williams played an adult Peter Pan.
Other family-friendly comedy roles came in Disney’s Aladdin, voicing the Genie, and as a cross-dressing divorcee in Mrs Doubtfire, each becoming much-loved. He also dialled down the wackiness for more purely dramatic work. There was an Oscar for his performance as a therapist in Good Will Hunting, and he chilled his warm public image for a pair of roles in 2002: One Hour Photo, playing a creepy photo technician, and Insomnia, directed by Christopher Nolan.
He occasionally drifted towards schmaltz (Bicentennial Man, Jakob the Liar) and tepid comedy (Toys, Old Dogs) but despite a marked decline in heavyweight roles during the last decade, he added piquancy to big studio fare like Night at the Museum and Happy Feet. Absolutely Anything, a film with the Monty Python team in which he voices a dog, is set for release later this year.
The Academy Awards are taking place at the Dolby theatre in Los Angeles and are being hosted by Gone Girl star Neil Patrick Harris.
