Entertainment

Obama's Message in Remembrance of Williams

by Lia Beck

The world was shocked to hear on Monday evening that actor Robin Williams had died at age 63 of an apparent suicide. According to reports, Williams was found at his Tiburon, Calif. home on the morning on Monday, Aug. 11, and as the Marin County Sheriff’s Office Coroner Division reports, it is suspected that "the death [is] a suicide due to asphyxia." Following this tragic news, President Obama has released a statement in remembrance of Williams. It reads,

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. He made us laugh. He made us cry. He gave his immeasurable talent freely and generously to those who needed it most — from our troops stationed abroad to the marginalized on our own streets. The Obama family offers our condolences to Robin’s family, his friends, and everyone who found their voice and their verse thanks to Robin Williams.

Obama's message echoes the sentiments that many fans of Williams feel at this time. Williams had many roles during his nearly 40-year career, and all of us remember at least one of them, if not many. While Williams' did make a mark early on as his martian character on Mork & Mindy, he went on to play a wide variety of characters from the silly to the dramatic. He will be remembered as much for his acting as he will for his spirited personality outside of his movies, and, as Obama says, will no doubt continue to help others find their voice through his extensive work on film.