13 Times Robin Williams, The Nicest Guy Ever, Got Dark For A Role (And Nailed It)

Seymour Parrish, better known as "Sy," works in the film-developing department of a big-box store. Over the years, he develops photos of the Yorkin family and creates an obsession with them. He even copies their photos for a shrine he keeps in his home. After developing a roll of film proving Will is having an affair, Parrish decides to notify Mrs. Yorkin and step up his obsession. He becomes an unemployed stalker forcing Will and his mistress to pose for pictures at knifepoint.

In director Christopher Nolan's first big studio movie, Walter Finch is a local crime writer who decided to take his research up a notch by killing a local fan. When police detective Will Dormer, played by Al Pacino, is brought in from Los Angeles to help solve the murder, Finch decides to play a game of cat and mouse with him, having witnessed Dormer in a compromising situation. As insomnia from endless sunlight messes with Dormer's perception and actions, Finch continues to taunt the detective in an attempt to fool the police and go free. All the while, he's leading Dormer further into a trap. It's a subtle, unshowy performance from Williams, highlighting his character's quiet insidiousness and evil rather than going over the top and exclamatory.

In the ninth season of the long-running Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Williams portrays Merritt Rook, a sound technician who loses his family. After a lifetime of anti-authority behaviors like arson and burglary, Rook goes off the deep end when his wife and infant son die during childbirth. He harasses and tortures the physician he sees as responsible for the deaths until Dr. Slifkin takes his own life. Rook then moves on to a crime that leads the Special Victims Unit to his doorstep - manipulating someone into performing a strip search on their employee.

In the future, everyone has implants that record their lives, and it's the job of "cutters" to create a movie of each person's life to play at their funerals. Alan Hakman is a cutter, and he's so good that he only takes high-profile clients whose actions in life were questionable, deleting horrible actions and showing only the good. He refuses to turn over memories of the recently deceased Charles Bannister, who was engaged in the molestation of his daughter. Hakman also uses his access to memory implants to manipulate people or delve into their pasts. He also finds out he has an implant of his own - a violation for cutters.

After finding his son, Kyle, dead from autoerotic asphyxiation, Lance Clayton writes out a fake suicide note and stages the scene. The note finds its way into publication via the school newspaper, and Clayton is empowered by the outpouring of sympathy, as well as the quality and depth of the writing attributed to his son. Instead of settling for leaving his misanthrope son's legacy a little shinier, Clayton decides to pen a fake diary "written" by his son. The exploitation of his son continues to push more and more accolades Kyle's way - unearned as they are - as Clayton accumulates friends and admirers.

Evan Taylor is an orphan with an unbelievable talent for music. Chasing his dream and hopefully his birth parents, Taylor finds himself in New York City. There he meets Maxwell "Wizard" Wallace, a man who surrounds himself with homeless children he teaches to busk on the streets. Once he finds out about Taylor's talent, Wallace tears down missing posters of the boy and purposely stops him from meeting his biological mother. He even intends to smuggle the child throughout the country to profit from Taylor's musical gifts. Wizard is truly a villain in many ways.

In this 1994 episode of the television drama Homicide: Life on the Street, Williams portrays Robert Ellison, a tourist who sees his wife murdered in from of him and their children. As expected, the entire show - and Williams's role - are imbued with a dark hopelessness. Ellison couldn't protect his wife in life, so he constantly berates officers for joking about the case while the murder is still unsolved. In the end, he decides it's only a matter of time before senseless tragedies happen to people just trying to live their lives.

Rainbow Randolph is a children's show host who loses his job after being exposed as a bribe-taking alcoholic who makes shady business deals. His replacement, Sheldon Mopes as Smoochy the Rhino, becomes the target of his misplaced anger at his own failures as a human being. Rather than deal with his own issues, Randolph attempts to frame Mopes as a racist, break up his relationship, and maybe kill him for good measure.

The perpetually angry and explosive Henry Altmann rages his way to the hospital after an accident involving the taxi he's riding in. There, he finds out he has a brain aneurysm only 90 minutes before it bursts. Altmann storms his way around town, finds out his wife is having an affair, and attempts to make amends for his past actions. Throughout the film, Altmann switches between unbridled anger and heartrending sentimentality before choosing one path for himself.

In this strange, twisty, and confusing film, Williams plays Dr. Cozy Carlisle, a friend of the main character Mike Church. Although Dr. Carlisle gives Church sound advice, it turns out the psychiatrist lost his license for unprofessional reasons. Although Dr. Carlisle loves his profession and often waives payments, he slept with some of his psychiatric patients, undoing the good will he had built up throughout his career.

Shakes the Clown is a black comedy that follows an alcoholic clown framed for the murder of the man who raised him. Every character is super dark in nature, from the coke-addicted children's show clown to Jerry the Mime (Williams) in a small part. Jerry rages at his mime class for making sounds when they clap and punishes Shakes for entering his session late. He berates, grabs, and insults Shakes throughout the class, and his vocal changes make one wonder just what kind of person he is beneath the makeup.

The television show Wilfred is about Ryan Newman, whose mental psychosis causes him to see the neighbor's dog Wilfred as a talking man in a dog suit. Wilfred is often able to convince Newman to do things for his benefit. In the episode "Progress," Dr. Eddy (Williams) assists Newman with his strange condition after a several-month stay in a mental hospital. Throughout, Dr. Eddy appears to be assisting Newman but turns out to be just another hallucination, like Wilfred's speaking.

This film is a strange and dark journey, from Garp's conception - in which his mother takes advantage of a mentally damaged soldier - to the story's devastating ending. Throughout, Garp faces life events that might completely shatter any other person. His wife is having an affair, and Garp rushes home with his children to catch her in the act. Unfortunately, his car rear-ends the one holding his wife and her lover, killing one of their sons and taking the eye of the other. The lover dies, and his wife breaks her jaw. Moments like these peppered throughout the plot make this a very different movie for Williams, but its brighter moments seem to explain why he's perfect for the role.