Robin Williams: One of A Kind

When Robin Williams hit the airwaves as one of the stars in the sitcom "Mork & Mindy," his was a talent like nothing else. Williams had a way of leaping into a role, or a riff, in a way that got creative sparks flying: Rapid-fire, lateral associations and razor sharp timing characterized his style.

That was his signature, and you'd see it on talk show appearances and movie roles from "Good Morning Vietnam" and Terry Gilliam's "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" to his side-splitting routines in Disney's animated film "Aladdin." But Williams also had a dramatic side, as he proved with Peter Weir's "Dead Poets Society" and "The Fisher King" (the latter also directed by Gilliam).

Williams wasn't afraid to play gay, and he did so in both comic and dramatic modes. He shone opposite Nathan Lane in Mike Nichols' "The Birdcage," an American re-make of the French farce "La Cage au Folles." A decade later, he paired up with hottie Bobby Cannavale in Patrick Stettner's film adaptation of Armistead Maupin's "The Night Listener." (Cannavale played the ex-boyfriend of William's character, Gabriel Noone.)

Williams never completely lost touch with his TV roots, appearing from time to time in guest roles on shows like "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and "Wilfred." Just last year, Williams made a much-touted return to series television in "The Crazy Ones," including an episode that reunited him with "Mork & Mindy" costar Pam Dawber. The show lasted only one season, but William's film schedule remained busy; 2014 saw him on the big screen in two films so far, and IMDB lists a further three credits in still-unreleased movies.

Williams possessed a compendium of attributes that added to his comic zest: A rubbery, kindly face; a slightly nasal tenor voice that retained a bright, juvenile quality; a quicksilver mind and changeable physical demeanor that could telegraph hesitancy or project confidence as needed. His star waxed and waned, but it never set. And though he played characters of many vocations (including more than one doctor), his one true calling was the one he pursued so brilliantly. To say he was one in a million would be overstating the case. Robin Williams might fairly have drawn comparisons to a rarefied few comics -- to Jonathan Winters, who also co-starred on "Mork & Mindy" late in the show's run; or to Andy Kaufman, who also had a sizzling aura of antic genius -- but truly, essentially, he was one of a kind.