He was in one of the best sports/football movies of all time:”The Best of Times” actor Robin Williams gone at age 63 and looks like suicide

Had to be one of the best actors and comedians of our time with the Mork and Mindy TV sitcom, the movie “Good Morning Vietnam”, you had to love “Mrs. Doubtfire” and many more, but the best and I mean ‘the best’ for me was a film Robin Williams starred in called of all titles, “The Best of Times”…I have talked to people over the years who saw this football movie and they weren’t exactly sure of the title of this movie or what they had just seen, but the loved it….

“The Best of Times”, with Robin Williams, one of the best sports/football movies of all time, in my humble opinion…The movie is set in Bakersfield, California and Williams plays the part of Jack, a wide receiver on his old high school football team, that couldn’t make the catch in the big game and for years after his high school days are over, he wants to play that ‘Big Game’ over again, to get the second chance, to make the ‘Big Catch’, and help his team win the ‘Big Game’….

Robin Williams’ quarterback is Kirk Russell and his name in the movie is Reno….Russell/Reno was a super QB in high school and he got the ball to Jack, but Jack/Robin Williams could not hold on to the ball and make the key reception, to win the ‘Big Game’….

So Robin Williams gets the opposing team/town to agree to re-play the game, and they would love to break Jack(Robin Williams) in half again, and these men are now in their late 30’s and early-to-mid 40’s and they are ready to kick Jack’s butt again, but Jack thinks given one more chance and just one more try, just one more shot, he can catch the game-winning pass and win this high school football game, 20 years down the road, from when they played it the first time…

Reno/Kirk Russell doesn’t want to play the game over and he refuses in the beginning, but Jack/Robin Williams finally talks him into it…Reno gets his old white shoes out and re-laces them and gets ready to join Jack and the rest of the Bakersfield team on the field for the re-match…

At the first of the movie and at the first part of the re-match you see this old man entering the football stadium with an umbrella and you wonder, what’s this old man doing with that umbrella???

About an hour into the movie and into the game, you realize why the old man had the umbrella…A huge thunderstorm breaks out and another thing about that old man, he was wearing a jacket when he entered the high school football stadium and it had ‘Kid Galahad’ or something like that on the jacket and the old man was an accomplished boxer from years ago and he had that boxing jacket on…

The rains come pouring down and it makes the re-match game a little different…At the start of the game, Robin Williams/Jack can’t catch a cold, but as the game goes and Bakersfield needs that one play with time running out and the weather now a major factor, Jack tells Reno to get him the ball…”No way”, says Reno/Kirk Russell….Jack pleads with Reno to get him the ball and Jack/Robin Williams is almost crying, he is almost in tears…

“OK”, says Reno, “what have I got to lose”…”We’ve been waiting 20 years to lose this game again Jack, so you may as well blow it again”…”I will make the catch”, says Jack and Reno throws him the ball on what will be the last play of the game and with Jack/Robin Williams streaking up the field, Reno lets the pass rip…As you would expect, the ball hangs suspended in the air, for what seems like forever, then at the 20 yard-line Jack gets his hands on the ball and starts fumbling around with it, trying to haul it in and at about the 10-yard line he pulls it in securely and runs into the end zone for the TD and Jack’s Bakersfield, California team wins the game and Jack and Reno have something to celebrate this time, 20 years after they fell flat on their face and now Jack’s wife and his father-in-law can be proud of him….

If you can find this movie, pop it into your machine and watch it, or you may be able to order it on-line….Get and if you don’t like it, I’ll do 50 forty’s this week at the football field…

“The Best of Times”….Robin Williams was one of the best of our times….I will try and add some Wikipedia info on this one later…

The news that came in today…..

from www.msn.com:
Legendary actor and comedian Robin Williams died on Monday, a suspected suicide. He was 63.

At 11:55 a.m., the Marin County Communications department received a 9-1-1 call reporting a male adult was found in his residence unconscious and not breathing.

“Robin Williams passed away this morning. He has been battling severe depression of late,” said spokeswoman Mara Buxbaum. “This is a tragic and sudden loss. The family respectfully asks for their privacy as they grieve during this very difficult time.”

Here is what Wikiepedia(www.wikipedia.org) was saying about the ‘Best of Times’:(Some of the same stuff that we were saying.)
The Best of Times is a 1986 American comedy film directed by Roger Spottiswoode and written by Ron Shelton. It stars Robin Williams and Kurt Russell as two friends attempting to relive a high school football game.

Plot:Jack Dundee (Williams) is a banker obsessed with what he considers the most shameful moment in his life: dropping a perfectly thrown pass in the final seconds of the 1972 high school football game between Taft and their arch rivals, Bakersfield, which ended in a scoreless tie.

Since that game, Jack has found it impossible to forget this event. He works for his father-in-law, The Colonel, Bakersfield’s biggest supporter, who reminds him of the event almost daily.

Thirteen years later, Jack coerces Reno (Russell), quarterback of the fateful game, and now a financially struggling garage owner in debt to Jack’s bank, into helping him replay the game. He convinces supporters in both towns to re-stage the game and in the process revitalizes Taft, as well as his and Reno’s marriages. The game is replayed and at the critical moment Reno throws another perfect pass to Jack. He catches it, and Taft defeats Bakersfield.

2 thoughts on “He was in one of the best sports/football movies of all time:”The Best of Times” actor Robin Williams gone at age 63 and looks like suicide

  1. Here is a comment from a Yahoo site on Robin Williams:

    While in college, Christopher Reeve had a roommate. During this time, Christopher and his roommate made a pact with each other that if either one ever got into any kind of financial trouble, the other would help the other out.

    Roughly between 2003 and 2004, until his death, Christopher Reeve had astronomical medical bills. As promised, Christopher’s roommate came forth and paid ALL his bills for him.

    His roommate? …. Robin Williams.

  2. This has been in the back of my mind all day. This happens so often in Hollywood it is almost not news anymore but this one cuts deep. Very sad.

Comments are closed.