This Article is From Aug 12, 2014

In Robin Williams' 1998 Oscar Speech, What His Father Once Told Him

In Robin Williams' 1998 Oscar Speech, What His Father Once Told Him

Robin Williams with his Oscar backstage at the 1998 Academy Awards. Image courtesy: AP

Highlights

  • The late Robin Williams, best-known and loved for his comic work, nevertheless won his only Oscar for a dramatic performance. In 1998, he edged out Anthony Hopkins, Burt Reynolds, Greg Kinnear and Robert Forster to win the Best Supporting Oscar for his role as therapist to a troubled math genius in Good Will Hunting.
  • His Oscar speech, delivered in typical Robin Williams-fashion, collected many laughs. He thanked his co-stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (who also won a collective Oscar for writing the film), joking that he'd "still like to see some ID"; director Gus Van Sant for "being so subtle you're almost subliminal"; and his father, "the man who, when I said I wanted to be an actor, said, wonderful, just have a back-up profession like welding."
  • He closed his speech with "God bless you," and received warm hugs from presenter Mira Sorvino and show host Billy Crystal.
  • Robin Williams, star of acclaimed films such as Dead Poets Society and Good Morning, Vietnam, and blockbusters like Aladdin and Mrs Doubtfire, died yesterday at home in a suspected suicide.
  • Watch Robin Williams' Oscar speech from 1998:
New Delhi: The late Robin Williams, best-known and loved for his comic work, nevertheless won his only Oscar for a dramatic performance. In 1998, he edged out Anthony Hopkins, Burt Reynolds, Greg Kinnear and Robert Forster to win the Best Supporting Oscar for his role as therapist to a troubled math genius in Good Will Hunting.

His Oscar speech, delivered in typical Robin Williams-fashion, collected many laughs. He thanked his co-stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (who also won a collective Oscar for writing the film), joking that he'd "still like to see some ID"; director Gus Van Sant for "being so subtle you're almost subliminal"; and his father, "the man who, when I said I wanted to be an actor, said, wonderful, just have a back-up profession like welding."

He closed his speech with "God bless you," and received warm hugs from presenter Mira Sorvino and show host Billy Crystal.

Robin Williams, star of acclaimed films such as Dead Poets Society and Good Morning, Vietnam, and blockbusters like Aladdin and Mrs Doubtfire, died yesterday at home in a suspected suicide.

Watch Robin Williams' Oscar speech from 1998:

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