6 of Robin Williams’ Best Performances

It’s a sign of Robin Williams’ greatness that it’s nearly impossible to pick a defining or even favorite role. His famously elastic personality—which hiccuped through a truly marvelous array of characters, accents and personalities from film to film and even sentence to sentence—could slide into any script he was offered. He could play a zany manchild, a kindly mentor and a cold loner with equal, hypnotic zeal. He deserved Oscars for all of them.

And yet, through it all, he was unmistakably Robin Williams, with a mischievous gleam and a warm, doughy voice cracked with just a hint of sadness.

That sadness was something Williams had spoken candidly about many times, though none of his millions of fans suspected just how dark his struggle with depression truly was. The manner in which Williams was taken from us was tragic, and it serves as a reminder that we truly never know the battles others are fighting. Depression is a monster.

Williams, like the best of our artists, drew from his pain for many of his finest performances. Though he first entered the public spotlight as a manic, madcap comedy chameleon, his earliest performances always hinted at untold layers beneath the surface. As his career matured, he showed a truly dizzying array of talents, building one of the most diverse resumes in all Hollywood.

He was America’s court jester, who frequently offered a shoulder to cry on (or a desk to stand on) and, in the end, could not internalize the joy and laughter he brought to millions. And so timeless is the body of his work—so vital—that it will doubtless delight and comfort millions yet to come. Here’s a look at just a few of his finest turns.