Why Actor Robin Williams Committed Suicide

Robin Williams, the comic and actor known for his fast delivery and improvisational humor, died at age 63 of suspected suicide.

He was pronounced dead yesterday at his home in Tiburon, California, according to a statement from the Marin County Sheriff’s Office, which listed asphyxia as the probable cause of death. Williams had been battling severe depression, according to a statement from his publicist,Mara Buxbaum.

Williams started as a stand-up comic and gained fame with the 1970s TV comedy “Mork & Mindy.” On film, he won an Academy Award for his supporting role as the therapist in the 1997 release “Good Will Hunting.” He was also nominated three times for Oscars for leading roles, for 1987’s “Good Morning, Vietnam” and later in “Dead Poets Society” and “The Fisher King.” He provided the voice of the wacky genie in the 1992 Walt Disney Co. animated feature “Aladdin.”

“This morning, I lost my husband and my best friend, while the world lost one of its most beloved artists and beautiful human beings,” Williams’s widow, Susan Schneider, said in a statement. “I am utterly heartbroken.”

It was Williams’s ABC TV role as an alien who came to study Earth that launched his Hollywood career. He garnered a dozen Golden Globe nominations and won six times, including for playing Mork, from the planet Ork.

Friends in Hollywood expressed their shock at word of Williams’s death.

“I could not be more stunned by the loss of Robin Williams,” fellow comedian Steve Martin said on Twitter. “Mensch, great talent, acting partner, genuine soul''

Marin County Communications received an emergency call at 11:55 a.m. local time yesterday concerning an unconscious man inside a home in Tiburon, according to the statement from the sheriff’s coroner division. The actor was pronounced dead at 12:02 p.m. He was last seen alive at his home at 10 p.m. on Aug. 10.

The actor also won two Emmy awards, in 1987 and 1988, for roles in variety shows. In all, he was nominated eight times for Emmys, including for “Mork & Mindy.”

Williams had three children, Zachary, Zelda and Cody, from two previous marriages, according to his publicist’s office. He and Schneider were wed in October 2011, US Weekly reported at the time.

“On behalf of Robin’s family, we are asking for privacy during our time of profound grief,” Schneider said in the statement. “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.”

Rob Golum