Apparent suicide.

Depression.

- - -

Speechless . . .

That's sad.

The first time I ever seen him on TV was on happy days.

RIP

Let this be a lesson ... depression can kill.

If you think this is happening to you ... get help now!!

Talk to someone. (A "suicide-prevention hotline" is an excellent and well-trained place to start.)

Don't think that you can battle Depression by-yourself and win. It is, truly, a disease, often with purely-physiological underpinnings. Treat it as such. Treat it seriously. Dead seriously.

RIP.

I haven't heard of him in a while, but I remember some of his earlier movies.

May he rest in peace.
Back in the mid 1970s he was performing in a neighborhood "open theater" (read, free) and we, the wife and I, caught his act one evening. By the time it was over the entire audience was laughing so hard we all had tears running down our faces. He also performed at a bar across the street and down the block from the theater, called The Holy City Zoo. Two or three years later he was on TV and, as they say, the rest is history.

Yeah, he seemed like a happy guy, maybe only on the outside ? Sad...

"An investigation into the cause, manner and circumstances of the death is currently underway" He's had trouble with drugs. Overdose is not exactly suicide.

I read (if even believable) online things about him after his show was canceled a few months ago. Seems his personal life was quite different than his professional persona. In the wacky world of Hollywood anyone would be tested to their limits and beyond I'd think.

shazbot

"Suicide due to asphyxia"

A la David Carradine? Basically doped out guys trying to get it high while solo!?! Probably not able to cope with declining roles or the aging process?

OK

Robin Williams, the news here in Australia just said, hung himself.

David Caradine's death was a bit different. Autoerotic asphyxiation was the apparent cause of his death and also, as claimed by Paula Yates, was the cause of Michael Hutchence's death as well.

More oxygen for the rest of us...

Well said, Jefro. Fame and money definitely don't guarantee happiness or fulfillment. Like other entertainers, I think he tried to cope with his own unhappiness by trying to make others happy; he didn't know how to make himself happy, but he thrived on putting smiles on people's faces and getting them to laugh and to forget about their problems. That's just me speculating though.

He could have chosen different path but instead he chose to try to make the world a better place, using the gifts God gave him. I think of him as a giving person, who, throughout his career (afaik), acted humanely, generously, and selflessly.

Unfortunately, a very heartless thing to say. It has come to light that Robin had been battling clinical depression all his life, including the effects of the drugs used to treat it. "Suicidal thoughts," blacker than the blackest night, are one of the most-destructive symptoms of this terrible, terrible disease. Unfortunately, we will never know.

The tragedy of clinical depression is that it messes with your fundamental thought-processes, by mucking with the electro-chemical workings of your brain, itself. If this happens, you cannot see the situation clearly. You are not "rational," because your ability to be rational is more-or-less short circuited.

As you can guess, I've spent time volunteering at suicide-prevention hotlines, I've had some of the training, and I've met and talked to some people who are battling this disease. The fortunate ones are the ones who realize that something "foreign" is happening to them.

The most chilling comment that a perfectly intelligent and rational man, who had Depression (and knew it), once said to me was, "Oh my God, if I can't trust my brain (and I know now that I can't), then who am I?" The only thing I could think of to say was, "Good point. Damn good point." He is a survivor. But his wife is well-trained and is basically careful not to let him out of her sight ... by mutual agreement, of course. "When an attack comes on," he said (and he called it 'an attack'), "it's kind of like turning into a werewolf, or something."

I agree that depression is a huge problem. Very high suicide rate even with treatment. Also, some prescription drugs have the rare side effect of extreme suicidal ideation.

I'm not sure where the animosity of some people here came from. Did this comedian ever do you wrong ? WTF ppl.