Robin Williams, the comedian who evolved into the surprisingly nuanced, Academy Award-winning actor, imbuing his performances with wild inventiveness and a kind of manic energy, died on Monday at his home in Tiburon, Calif., north of San Francisco. He was 63. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The Marin County sheriff’s office said in a statement that it “suspects the death to be a suicide due to asphyxia.” An investigation was underway. 
 
 The statement said that the office received a 911 call at 11:55 a.m. Pacific time, saying that a man had been found “unconscious and not breathing inside his residence.” Emergency personnel sent to the scene identified him as Mr. Williams and pronounced him dead at 12:02 p.m. 
 
 Mr. Williams’s publicist, Mara Buxbaum, said in a statement that Mr. Williams “has been battling severe depression.” 
 
 His wife, Susan Schneider, said in a statement, “This morning, I lost my husband and my best friend, while the world lost one of its most beloved artists and beautiful human beings.” She added: “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.” 
 
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 The privileged son of a Detroit auto executive who grew up chubby and lonesome, playing by himself with 2,000 toy soldiers in an empty room of a suburban mansion, Mr. Williams, as a boy, hardly fit the stereotype of someone who would grow to become a brainy comedian, or a goofy one, but he was both. Onstage he was known for ricochet riffs on politics, social issues and cultural matters both high and low; tales of drug and alcohol abuse; lewd commentaries on relations between the sexes; and lightning-like improvisations on anything an audience member might toss at him. His gigs were always rife with frenetic, spot-on impersonations that included Hollywood stars, presidents, princes, prime ministers, popes and anonymous citizens of the world. His irreverence was legendary and uncurtailable. 
 
 “Chuck, Cam, great to see you,” he once called out from a London stage at Charles, Prince of Wales, and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. “Yo yo, wussup Wales, House of Windsor, keepin’ it real!” 
 
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 And yet he never seemed to offend. 
 
 Almost from the moment that he first uttered the greeting “Nanoo, nanoo” as Mork from Ork, an alien who befriends a wholesome young Colorado woman (Pam Dawber), on the sitcom “Mork and Mindy,” Mr. Williams was a comedy celebrity. “Mork and Mindy” made its debut on ABC in September 1978, and within two weeks had reached No. 7 in the Nielsen ratings. By the spring of 1979, 60 million viewers were tuning in to “Mork and Mindy” each week to watch Mr. Williams drink water through his finger, stand on his head when told to sit down, speak gibberish words like “shazbot” and “nimnul” that came to have meaning when he used them, and misinterpret, in startlingly literal fashion, the ordinary idioms of modern life. 
 
 He went on to earn Academy Award nominations for his roles in films like “Good Morning, Vietnam,” in which he played a loquacious radio D.J.; “Dead Poets Society,” playing a mentor to students in need of inspiration; and “The Fisher King,” as a homeless man whose life has been struck by tragedy. He won an Oscar in 1998 for “Good Will Hunting,” playing a therapist who works with a troubled prodigy played by Matt Damon. 
 
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 In a statement, President Obama said of Mr. Williams, “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.” 
 
 Robin McLaurin Williams was born in Chicago on July 21, 1951, and was raised in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and Marin County. He studied acting at the Juilliard School. 
 
 He is survived by a son, Zak, from his marriage to Valerie Velardi, and a daughter, Zelda, and a son, Cody, from his marriage to Marsha Garces. 
 
 Beginning with roles in the 1977 sex farce “Can I Do It ‘Til I Need Glasses?” and “The Richard Pryor Show,” a variety series hosted by one of his comedy mentors, Mr. Williams rapidly ascended the entertainment industry’s ladder. 
 
 Soon after “Mork and Mindy” made him a star, Mr. Williams graduated into movie roles that included the title characters in “Popeye,” Robert Altman’s 1980 live-action musical about that spinach-gulping cartoon sailor, and “The World According to Garp,” the director George Roy Hill’s 1982 adaptation of the John Irving novel. 
 
 He also continued to appear in raucous stand-up comedy specials like “Robin Williams: An Evening at the Met,” which showcased his garrulous performance style and his indefatigable ability to free-associate without the apparent benefit of prepared material. Alongside his friends and fellow actors Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg, Mr. Williams appeared in an annual series of HBO telethons for Comic Relief, a charity organization that helps homeless people and others in need. 
 
 Mr. Williams’s acting career reached a new height in 1987 with his performance in Barry Levinson’s film “Good Morning, Vietnam,” in which he played Adrian Cronauer, a nonconformist Armed Forces Radio host working in Saigon in the 1960s. It earned Mr. Williams his first Oscar nomination. He earned another, two years later, for “Dead Poets Society,” directed by Peter Weir and released in 1989, in which he played an unconventional English teacher at a 1950s boarding school who inspires his students to tear up their textbooks and seize the day. (Or, as Mr. Williams’s character famously put it in the original Latin, “Carpe diem.”) 
 
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 In dozens of film roles that followed, Mr. Williams could be warm and zany, whether providing the voice of an irrepressible magic genie in “Aladdin,” the 1992 animated Walt Disney feature, or playing a man who cross-dresses as a British housekeeper in “Mrs. Doubtfire,” a 1993 family comedy, or a doctor struggling to treat patients with an unknown neurological malady in “Awakenings,” the 1990 Penny Marshall drama adapted from the Oliver Sacks memoir. 
 
 Some of Mr. Williams’s performances were criticized for a mawkish sentimentality, like “Patch Adams,” a 1998 film that once again cast him as a good-hearted doctor, and “Bicentennial Man,” a 1999 science-fiction feature in which he played an android. 
 
 But Mr. Williams continued to keep audiences guessing. In addition to his Oscar-winning role in “Good Will Hunting,” which saw him play a gently humorous therapist, his résumé included roles as a villainous crime writer in “Insomnia,” Christopher Nolan’s 2002 thriller; Teddy Roosevelt in the “Night at the Museum” movies; and Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 2013 drama “Lee Daniels’ The Butler.” 
 
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 Mr. Williams made his acting debut on Broadway in 2011 in “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo,” a play written by Rajiv Joseph and set amid the American invasion of Iraq. (He had starred with Steve Martin in an Off Broadway production of “Waiting for Godot” in 1988.) In 2013, Mr. Williams returned to series television in “The Crazy Ones,” a CBS comedy that cast him as an idiosyncratic advertising executive, but it was canceled after one season. 
 
 Mr. Williams had completed work on several films that have not yet been released, including a third installment of the “Night at the Museum” franchise that Fox has scheduled for December, and “Merry Friggin’ Christmas,” an independent comedy about a dysfunctional family. He also provided the voice of an animated character called Dennis the Dog in a British comedy, “Absolutely Anything,” that is planned for release next year, and appeared in “Boulevard,” an independent movie that was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival but does not yet have theatrical distribution. 
 
 Mr. Williams was an admitted abuser of cocaine — which he also referred to as “Peruvian marching powder” and “the devil’s dandruff” — in the 1970s and ‘80s, and addressed his drug habit in his comedy act. “What a wonderful drug,” he said in a sardonic routine from “Live at the Met.” “Anything that makes you paranoid and impotent, give me more of that.” 
 
 In 2006, he checked himself into the Hazelden center in Springbrook, Ore., to be treated for an addiction to alcohol, having fallen off the wagon after some 20 years of sobriety. 
 
 He later explained in an interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer that this addiction had not been “caused by anything, it’s just there.” 
 
 “It waits,” Mr. Williams continued. “It lays in wait for the time when you think, ‘It’s fine now, I’m O.K.’ Then, the next thing you know, it’s not O.K. Then you realize, ‘Where am I? I didn’t realize I was in Cleveland.’ ” 
 
 In 2009, he underwent heart surgery for an aortic valve replacement at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, an event that Mr. Williams said caused him to take stock of his life. 
 
 “You appreciate little things,” he said in an interview in The New York Times, “like walks on the beach with a defibrillator.” 
 
 More seriously, Mr. Williams said he had reassessed himself as a performer. “How much more can you give?” he told The Times. “Other than, literally, open-heart surgery onstage? Not much. But the only cure you have right now is the honesty of going, this is who you are. I know who I am.” 
 
 Earlier this year, Mr. Williams checked himself into a rehab facility. His publicist told People magazine that he was “taking the opportunity to fine-tune and focus on his continued commitment, of which he remains extremely proud.” ||||| Oscar-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams has died at age 63. 
 
 According to police in Marin County, Calif., Williams was found "unconscious and not breathing" just before noon Monday inside his home in Tiburon, Calif., following a 911 phone call. He was pronounced dead at 12:02 p.m. after emergency personnel arrived. They added that the actor was last seen alive at 10 p.m. Sunday. 
 
 An investigation into the cause of the death is underway, but "the Sheriff’s Office Coroner Division suspects the death to be a suicide due to asphyxia." A forensic examination is scheduled for Tuesday, along with a press conference that will be held at 11 a.m. in San Rafael, Calif. 
 
 Williams' publicist Mara Buxbaum told The Hollywood Reporter that Williams "has been battling severe depression of late. This is a tragic and sudden loss. The family respectfully asks for their privacy as they grieve during this very difficult time." 
 
 His 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." 
 
 Added David Steinberg, his manager of 35 years: "Nobody made the world laugh like Robin Williams. My brother, my friend, my soulmate, I will miss you." 
 
 Williams, a four-time Oscar nominee, won a supporting actor Oscar for Good Will Hunting for his portrayal of a wise and morose psychologist. He most recently starred in CBS' comedy The Crazy Ones, which lasted only one season. He was nominated for a People's Choice Award for his role as an advertising executive on the comedy, in which Sarah Michelle Gellar played his daughter. 
 
 Crazy Ones production company 20th Century Fox TV said in a statement: “Robin Williams was a comedy giant, and although we only knew him personally for a season, he was warm, funny and a true professional. His cast and crew both loved him and loved working with him, and our hearts go out to his family and friends. He was one of a kind.” 
 
 Creator David E. Kelley said: "The talent was legendary. But equally inspiring, perhaps more so, was his kindness and humanity. A gentle soul who touched us all. A very special man, and our hearts are broken." 
 
 Added CBS: “Our world has lost a comic genius, a gifted actor and a beautiful man. We will remember Robin Williams as one of the unique talents of his time who was loved by many, but also as a kind, caring soul, who treated his colleagues and co-workers with great affection and respect. Our heartfelt thoughts and sympathies go out to his family, loved ones and friends.” 
 
 Williams also recently starred in the feature Angriest Man in Brooklyn opposite Mila Kunis, Melissa Leo and Peter Dinklage. His next project is the feature film Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, the third film in the trilogy, which is set to hit theaters Dec. 19 via 20th Century Fox. 
 
 Said the studio in a statement: "There really are no words to describe the loss of Robin Williams. He was immensely talented, a cherished member of our community, and part of the Fox family. Our hearts go out to his family, friends and fans. He will be deeply missed.” 
 
 In addition to his Oscar, Williams won two Emmys, four Golden Globes, five Grammys and two SAG Awards. 
 
 Said SAG-AFTRA president Ken Howard: "I am deeply saddened to hear of Robin Williams' death. He was a performer of limitless versatility, equally adept at comedy and drama, whether scripted or improv. With his incomparable manic style, he could appeal to adult sensibilities in a stand-up comedy routine or elicit giggles from children as the voice of Genie in Aladdin. Outside of his career, he used his considerable talents to raise money for charity. He was not only a talented man, but a true humanitarian. It's such a tremendous loss." 
 
 Williams recently checked in to a renewal facility affiliated with the 12-step program in a move to focus on his ongoing sobriety. The actor has been open about his issues with drinking and cocaine during the early 1980s and sought treatment in 2006 for alcohol abuse. 
 
 "[Addiction] waits. It lays in wait for the time when you think, 'It's fine now, I'm OK.' Then, the next thing you know, it's not OK," he told Diane Sawyer in an interview on Good Morning America at that time. 
 
 Hollywood mourned the actor on Twitter after news broke Monday afternoon. 
 
 A dazzling comic force, Williams' brilliance often intimidated other comedians. His improv skills were unparalleled and stupefying: Williams could wing off the cuff better than any of his peers. He burst through the stand-up world into television, captivating audiences with his portrayal of the endearing extraterrestrial Mork in the late '70s series Mork & Mindy. He first limned the Mork role as a guest star on Happy Days. 
 
 "I will never forget the day I met him and he stood on his head in my office chair and pretended to drink a glass of water using his finger like a straw," Happy Days and Mork & Mindy creator Garry Marshall recalled in a statement to THR. "The first season of Mork & Mindy I knew immediately that a three-camera format would not be enough to capture Robin and his genius talent. So I hired a fourth camera operator and he just followed Robin. Only Robin. Looking back, four cameras weren’t enough. I should have hired a fifth camera to follow him too." 
 
 His rapid-fire delivery bespoke a warp-speed, associative intelligence. “The mystery is in the motion: What miracle of the synapses got him from point A to point Z? At once a satirist, a comedian and a superb actor, this one-man repertory company dashes from mask to mask, voice to voice, like a man possessed by comic demons,” David Ansen wrote in Newsweek in 1986. 
 
 Williams' first comedic film role was the lead in Robert Altman's live-action Popeye (1980), which received mixed reviews. He went on to delight audiences in a long string of big-screen comedies, including 1993's Mrs. Doubtfire and 1996's The Birdcage. He also lent his voice to Disney's animated classic Aladdin (1992), playing the Genie, a part written specifically for him. 
 
 He found success as a dramatic actor as well, delivering stirring performances in such films as Dead Poets Society (1986), where he played an inspirational prep-school teacher who takes on the stuffy administration, and Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), in which he played an irreverent disc jockey on the Armed Forces Radio Network during the Vietnam War. He also portrayed serious and complex characters in Awakenings (1990) and The Fisher King (1991) and tapped into a darker side playing psychologically maladjusted characters in Insomnia and One-Hour Photo. Williams scored Oscar nominations for his roles in Good Morning, Vietnam; The Fisher King; and Dead Poets Society. 
 
 He showed his versatility in a wide range of films including The World According to Garp (1982), Moscow on the Hudson (1984), Hook (1991), Patch Adams (1998), Flubber (1997) and Toys (1992). Given his childlike charm, he played boyish characters in Toys (1992), Jumanji (1995) and Jack (1996). 
 
 He also did a number of movie cameos, including in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989), Dead Again (1991) and The Secret Agent (1996). 
 
 Robin McLaurin Williams was born in Chicago on July 21, 1951. He was raised in affluence, but he was brought up, as he admits, by the maid. He developed comedy to please his mother. The family eventually moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where Williams graduated from high school. 
 
 He studied political science at Claremont Men's College and entered College of Marin to study theater. He won a scholarship to study at Juilliard in New York, where he spent three years under the tutelage of John Houseman and others. He returned to San Francisco before graduating. His goal was to become a dramatic actor but he could not get a foot in the door. He turned to stand-up comedy, supporting himself by tending bar and working at an ice cream parlor. 
 
 Williams moved to Los Angeles and enthralled at open mic nights. He became a regular at such clubs as The Improv and The Comedy Store. He got spots on such TV shows as the Richard Pryor Show and America 2-Night. 
 
 His big break came when the producers of Happy Days decided to add an alien to the show. Williams won an audition. He guest-starred on a 1978 episode that brought in avalanches of fan mail. Based on the outpouring the network decided to create a spinoff series, Mork & Mindy. The sitcom, featuring Williams as a good-natured alien from the planet Ork, afforded him great opportunity to improvise. It was hugely popular, even leading to the production of a talking Mork doll, which spouted such phrases as "nanu-nanu," Orkian for hello. 
 
 Williams' spellbinding delivery vaulted him from a complete unknown to national fame. Self-admittedly, fame arrived too fast, and he careened through a period of drug and alcohol abuse. His first movie role, in Popeye, was disappointing. But in his second role, he showed his charm as a young writer in The World According to Garp. 
 
 He performed in the mid-1980s in a series of mediocre movies including The Survivors (1983), The Best of Times (1986) and Club Paradise (1986). He excelled as a Russian saxophone player who defects in Bloomingdale's in Paul Mazursky's Moscow on the Hudson (1984). 
 
 He hit his movie stride with Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) where his comic versatility as an anti-authority G.I. disc jockey played to his manic, improvisational strengths. 
 
 Like the best of comics, Williams, at heart, was utterly serious. He was a driving force in Comic Relief to benefit the homeless. Many of the specials aired on HBO. 
 
 "Robin Williams graced HBO for so many years with his uncommon gifts," the network said in a statement. "He never failed to elevate his art and did so with a full, generous and loving heart. Always humble and gracious, Robin was a prince and holds a special place in all our hearts." 
 
 Williams was awarded the Chicago international Film Festival's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004. 
 
 More recent film credits include: Deconstructing Harry (1997), Patch Adams (1998), Bicentennial Man (1999), Death to Smoochy (2002), The Final Cut (2004), House of D (2004), The Big White (2005), Everyone's Hero (2006), Man of the Year (2006), Night at the Museum (2006) and its sequel (2009), License to Wed (2007), August Rush (2007), World's Greatest Dad (2009) and Happy Feet (2006) and its sequel (2011). 
 
 He executive produced and starred in Jakob the Liar (1999), a story of life in a Nazi-occupied Polish ghetto. 
 
 He married Schneider, a graphic designer, on Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011, at the Meadowood Resort in Napa Valley. 
 
 It marked the third marriage for Williams, who has three grown children: Zachary, from his first wife, Valerie Velardi, and Zelda and Cody, from his second union, with Marsha Garces, who filed for divorce in 2008. 
 
 The full statement from Marin County police, released Monday, is below. 
 
 On August 11, 2014, at approximately 11:55 a.m, Marin County Communications received a 9-1-1 telephone call reporting a male adult had been located unconscious and not breathing inside his residence in unincorporated Tiburon, CA. The Sheriff’s Office, as well as the Tiburon Fire Department and Southern Marin Fire Protection District were dispatched to the incident with emergency personnel arriving on scene at 12:00 pm. The male subject, pronounced deceased at 12:02 pm has been identified as Robin McLaurin Williams, a 63-year-old resident of unincorporated Tiburon, CA. 
 
 An investigation into the cause, manner, and circumstances of the death is currently underway by the Investigations and Coroner Divisions of the Sheriff’s Office. Preliminary information developed during the investigation indicates Mr. Williams was last seen alive at his residence, where he resides with his wife, at approximately 10:00 pm on August 10, 2014. Mr. Williams was located this morning shortly before the 9-1-1 call was placed to Marin County Communications. At this time, the Sheriff’s Office Coroner Division suspects the death to be a suicide due to asphyxia, but a comprehensive investigation must be completed before a final determination is made. A forensic examination is currently scheduled for August 12, 2014 with subsequent toxicology testing to be conducted. ||||| Williams had antidepressants, caffeine and Parkinson's drugs in his system 
 
 Robin Williams' death was ruled a suicide, Marin County officials confirmed on Friday. Autopsy results revealed Williams' death was caused by asphyxia and hanging. 
 
 The actor died at 63 on Aug. 11 at his home in Tiburon, Calif. in Marin County. Toxicology reports reveal antidepressants, caffeine and levodopa, a drug used to treat Parkinson's disease, in his system. Williams had battled severe depression for years and had recently been diagnosed with Parkinson's, his widow, Susan, revealed after his death. He also had a "recent increase in paranoia," according to a medical history authorities recorded at the scene. 
 
 The night before Williams died, he had placed several wristwatches in a sock and dropped them off with someone (whose name was redacted) because he was worried about the timepieces and "wanted to keep them safe," according to the report. Then at 7:09 p.m. he called Susan to tell her he was picking up magazines for her at the bookstore. 
 
 Read more 5 Scenes That Made Audiences Love Robin Williams 
 
 When he returned home, Williams handed Susan the magazines and seemed "OK," she told investigators. Then he was in and out of their bedroom, rummaging through their closet. He left with his iPad, and Susan said "she recalled thinking it was a good thing he grabbed it, because she assumed he was in a good mood and was going to take time to do some reading; he hadn't read or watched TV in six months." He left the bedroom around 10:30 p.m. — it would be the last time she saw him. 
 
 Twelve hours later, Susan believed her husband was still sleeping and left the house. At about 11:45 a.m. Aug. 11, Williams' assistant grew concerned. He slipped a note under the door, then picked the lock. He found the comedian dressed in a long black T-shirt and belted black jeans hanging by a nylon belt in a closet door frame. The actor, who was being treated for severe depression, also had cuts on his wrist. He wasn't wearing a ring or a watch. 
 
 Williams was found in an empty bedroom belonging to his stepson, who was away visiting his father. The actor slept in a separate bedroom because he was having a hard time sleeping and was "restless due to his Parkinson's and anxiety issues," and talked in his sleep, the investigator's report says. The room had a bunk bed — the top bunk was neatly made — the bottom bunk crumpled and the bedding pulled down. 
 
 Read more Robin Williams in Marin: The Man on the Bicycle 
 
 Near the body, investigators found personal items placed on a chair, including an iPad and two different kinds of anti-depressants: Mirtazapene and Seroquel. Police found an engraved pocketknife with a dried red substance that was later confirmed as Williams' blood. Susan told investigators Williams often received gifts from his USO tours with the military, and that the knife was likely from her husband's collection. 
 
 A pair of black sneakers were next to the chair. In the right shoe was a pair of black socks; in the left, the assumed case of the pocketknife. Williams' iPhone and wallet were found in his pockets. 
 
 By the time police arrived, Williams was clearly dead, the report says. No efforts were made to revive him, and his death was declared at 12:02 p.m. 
 
 Despite a long and well-documented history of depression, Williams' wife and assistant said he never expressed suicidal thoughts or behavior. His pill dispenser had been refilled the day before, but the medications remained undisturbed in their appointed daily slots, Sunday through Saturday. The investigator asked Susan if Robin had ever mentioned suicide "as a solution to a significant health issue." After searching through Williams' iPad, which was near his body, Investigator D. Harris found only web browsers open to information about medications. A sweep of his iPhone revealed no texts or messages that indicated he was suicidal. 
 
 "There were no reflective devices or pornography near the body" the report says. The investigator says he "frankly asked" if Williams had any "history of autoerotic asphyxia. Mrs. Williams stated that he did not." However, one person interviewed said Williams had worked on a movie years earlier in which his character's son accidentally died by autoerotic asphyxiation. That person added that "the scene was very difficult and emotional for Williams" and he may have researched hanging during filming. 
 
 A search of Williams' iPhone, iPad and home computer revealed no search histories for suicide or hanging. However, the investigator writes that he later watched the movie in question — the dark comedy World's Greatest Dad — and said the character's son was found "seated on the floor, learning forward with a ligature around the neck secured by a belt" — very similar to the scene of Williams' death. 
 
 The Marin Sheriff's Office previously drew criticism for releasing candid details about Williams' death but said the disclosure was necessary under the California Public Records Act. The final autopsy report was originally scheduled to be released Sept. 30 but had been delayed twice. 
 
 Read more Robin Williams remembered by critics, close friends 
 
 Williams won the Oscar for best supporting actor for his performance as an avuncular psychologist in Good Will Hunting and earned four Academy Award nominations in a career that straddled film and television. His most recent TV show, The Crazy Ones with Sarah Michelle Gellar, was canceled after one season. 
 
 Email: Soo.Youn@THR.com 
 
 Twitter: @lalasoo 
 
 Oct. 7, 4:03 p.m. Updated with details throughout. ||||| Fate threw me in Robin Williams' path more than once, and I never forgot any of the encounters. He was such a wired, complex, brilliantly funny individual, no connection with him was anything like ordinary. 
 
 Though Williams, who died Monday at age 63, appeared in dozens of films, getting Oscar nominated for four performances and finally winning for 1997's "Good Will Hunting," it was as a dazzling, unknown stand-up comedian that I first met him. In a pair of linked meetings, he made an impression on me that in an unnerving way connects in my mind to the tragic way his life ended. 
 
 The year was 1978, I was a freelance journalist newly arrived in Los Angeles when an editor I knew at Rolling Stone called me with a quick last-minute assignment. 
 
 A TV show called "Mork & Mindy" was being filmed, and though it hadn't aired yet, the word was already out that its star, a young comedian named Robin Williams, was going to break out. 
 
 In addition to filming the show, Williams was doing occasional stand-up at the Comedy Store on Sunset Boulevard. Would I catch one of his shows, do a brief interview and write a small story for the magazine? Who could say no to that? 
 
 Asphyxia from an apparent suicide is what officials are initially saying is the cause of death for 63-year-old comedian Robin Williams, ahead of an official coroner's report. Asphyxia from an apparent suicide is what officials are initially saying is the cause of death for 63-year-old comedian Robin Williams, ahead of an official coroner's report. See more videos 
 
 The Comedy Store was half-asleep and half-empty that night, Williams was the last performer on the bill, and did he wake the place up. The astounding routine he went into would defy description even if I could remember it word for word. 
 
 He took on different characters with different accents, roamed to all kinds of locations, both physical and metaphysical, made lightning-fast comic connections in time and space that were at once hysterically funny and like nothing I had ever experienced before. It was no surprise people in the know were buzzing about Robin Williams, no surprise at all. 
 
 After the show Williams and I had a quick bite in a bustling place on the Strip called the Copper Kettle. It was jammed with people, and absolutely no one cared or even looked up when he walked into the room. How are you going to handle it, I asked him, when your show airs and everyone knows your name, when you won't be able to walk into a place like this without causing a firestorm. 
 
 Oh no, Williams insisted, stubbornly — or perhaps nervously, at this point I can't be sure — refusing to acknowledge the tsunami everyone around him knew was headed his way. That's not going to happen, he said, confidently shaking his head, nothing like that is ever going to happen. 
 
 Cut to several months later. "Mork & Mindy" is the hottest show on television, and Williams is the talk of the town. I was covering the AFI Life Achievement Award for the Washington Post and, by pure chance, walked into the hotel entrance right behind Robin and his date. 
 
 I tapped him on the shoulder, he turned around and gave me a big surprised grin. So, I asked him, as the line to the ballroom snaked forward, how has this celebrity business turned out for you? He was about to say something when we turned a corner and the mass phalanx of photographers caught sight of him. 
 
 "Robin, Robin, look this way, Robin, over here," they screamed in a "Day of the Locust" frenzy as waves of flashbulbs flashed in unison. Robin smiled, waved and mugged and then all of a sudden turned back to me. With the brilliant improvisational mind that defined him, he said something in a stage whisper that was immediately recognizable as a riff on the terrifying plea for help that closes the 1950s science fiction classic "The Fly." 
 
 "Help me, Ken," he said in a perfect imitation of the film's tiny, doomed fly voice. "Help me." Then he turned back to the photographers and was gone. 
 
 Because it was as stand-up of genius that I first encounter Williams, that's how I always thought of him, even when he transformed into a formidable actor Oscar-nominated for "Good Morning, Vietnam," "Dead Poets Society" and "The Fisher King" before his "Good Will Hunting" triumph. 
 
 It always seemed to me that the restlessness, the search for experience and knowledge that characterized his comedy as well as his very physical presence compelled him to go into drama, to take on not only comic roles but also dark ones. Roles that in some ways seemed out of character with his stand-up voice but from another point of view fit right in. 
 
 I ran into Williams one more time, several years later at a press lunch at the Cannes Film Festival where he was in full performance mode, keeping a table full of journalists roaring with laughter at the frenzied nimbleness of his attack. But even at those high-octane moments, even when he won his Oscar, I could never get that "Help me" moment out of my mind. When word came in Monday about his death, the thought of it made me shudder, it really did.
– Oscar-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams was found dead today in his house in Tiburon, Calif., of a suspected suicide, says the Hollywood Reporter. Details remain sketchy, but according to a sheriff's office statement, a 911 call came in at 11:55am this morning describing a man "not breathing inside his residence." The sheriff's office and two fire departments were dispatched to the house north of San Francisco where Williams, 63, lived with his wife. Williams was "pronounced deceased" at 12:02pm, and investigators suspect "the death to be a suicide due to asphyxia." A forensic examination is expected tomorrow. The actor's publicist said in a statement that Williams had been suffering from acute depression, the New York Times reports. He'd also been open about his past substance-abuse battles and recently admitted himself into a preventative treatment facility to confirm what his rep called his "continued commitment" to staying off drugs and alcohol, E! Online reports. Called the "funniest man alive" by Entertainment Weekly in 1997, Williams made his mark as an alien on the sitcom Mork & Mindy and went on to win the best supporting actor Oscar for his role in Good Will Hunting (1997), the LA Times reports. Widely celebrated for his improvisatory comedy, he also starred in Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Dead Poets Society (1989), and The Fisher King (1991). (Click to see Williams' final post to Instagram: a touching family photo.)