Robin Williams: the sadness of a clown that couldnt be fixed | Simon Jenkins

Williams, like many others, struggled with addiction and personal demons. Mental illness is a great leveller but is still too little understood

Robin Williams found dead in California home aged 63

The sadness of the clown is an old showbusiness irony. The death of the clown is even sadder. But Robin Williams was no ordinary clown, he was a clown in the round, a master of the one-liner, of verbal riff, mimicry, disguise, facial distortion, fury and hilarity. He made them laugh and he made them...