Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society.

The media houses were dominated by one main story earlier this week: the untimely death of film legend Robin Williams.

As is the wont of the great monster that is the internet machine, the whole world and its sister came out in full force dispensing pearls of wisdom about complex issues such as depression and alcoholism, both of which are reputed to have affected the actor’s life.

It’s amazing how effortlessly and rapidly people who don’t know the first thing about either are happy to throw around inane advice.

Most of the advice was well-meaning, but, unfortunately, came across as naive, or had the effect of downplaying the seriousness of both issues.

But that’s enough about the circumstances that led to the loss of Williams.

It is time to celebrate his stellar career, his multiple awards and all those unforgettable moments he gave us on the big screen (and the small).

I first discovered Williams, much like everyone else in my age group, thanks to Mork and Mindy.

Who doesn’t remember the catchphrase “I am Mork from Ork, nanu nanu”? Although my memories of the series are extremely fuzzy, I suspect that that was the first time I fell in love with non-cartoon characters.

Mork and Mindy was the perfect launch pad for Williams’s career, one that happily for us failed to typecast him in the way similar roles ended up typecasting other good actors.

I next came across Williams in Dead Poets Society and, young as I was, I could hardly believe the transformation in the man I’d gotten used to as Mork.

When I saw the film on Italian television, a couple of years after its cinema release, I was one moody teenager in the full throes of a love affair with authors like Jane Austen, Edgar Allan Poe, Simone de Beauvoir, Emily Bronte, Flaubert, Oscar Wilde and the like.

My tastes were eclectic and I devoured any reading material I came across, even when I didn’t always understand it all.

These choices didn’t make me exactly popular (geek love had yet to be born). Dead Poets Society helped me realise that this was okay, and if literature made me happy, who cared what others thought?

The film, which Williams totally made his, was also responsible for introducing me to one of my all-time favourite film quotes:

“Avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose.

“Language was invented for one reason, boys – to woo women – and, in that endeavour, laziness will not do. It also won’t do in your essays.”

Language was invented for one reason boys, to woo women. And in that endeavour, laziness will not do it. It also won’t do in your essays

I have lived by that quote ever since. Well, a couple of ‘veries’ may have slid through, but always with a silent apology to Williams.

Because such was the strength of Williams’s performance that he became the character, the story.

After Dead Poets Society I was a devoted Williams fan. I cried my heart out during Mrs Doubtfire – I never filed that film under ‘comedy’. The sadness of the character’s situation got to me too much.

You could say I’ve loved every single film the actor was in, from the fantastical Jumanji to the deeper masterpieces like Good Will Hunting, Jakob the Liar, Bicentennial Man and more.

Mr Williams, it’s been intense. We salute you.

ramona.depares@timesofmalta.com