a celebrity , everybody wants a piece of you .” The exchange underscores latent sadness in Robin Williams , an individual uncomfortable being alone with himself .
In 1982 , after four seasons , which culminated in Mork and Mindy ’ s marriage and Mork ’ s having a baby Mearth , played by adult actor Jonathan Winters , the series ran out of steam and was cancelled . Pam Dawber went on to star in another television series , My Sister Sam , which ran from 1986 to 1988 . Williams , too , appeared frequently on television , clowning on Saturday Night Live , being interviewed on David Letterman and other talk shows , appearing in guest spots and even his later forgotten series The Crazy Ones , and filming sequences for Sesame Street , including one titled “ What is Alive ?” in which he teaches children what it is to be alive : eating , breathing , and growing . However , Williams found his greatest opportunities not in television but in film .
All told , Williams appeared in roughly seventy-five films , becoming one of Hollywood ’ s biggest stars . Interestingly , some of his most memorable roles seem to emanate from Mork and Mindy , when his character was learning what it was like to be alive on Earth , to be human , and to have emotions . Perhaps Williams ’ s first film to suggest this was Dead Poets Society ( 1989 ), in which he played John Keating , a brilliant , inspiring , but decidedly unconventional teacher at an elite 1950s boarding school . In key scenes in Dead Poets Society , John Keating shocks his young charges by encouraging them to rip pages out of their textbook ’ s boring , pompous introduction and jump atop their desks to see things from a different perspective . “ Carpe , carpe . Carpe diem ,” the former Rhodes Scholar and lover of poetry shouts to his students in Latin , urging them to live in the moment . “ Seize the day , boys . Make your lives extraordinary .” Recalling his mantra , Williams says , “ ‘ I like the point of the movie , . . . of trying to find the passionate thing in your life , finding some sort of passion ” ( qtd . in Weber ). His mercurial performance reflects the essence of what makes one human . As one writer , Megan Gibson , reflects on Dead Poets Society , “ To this day , I still can ’ t resist Williams ’ line , ‘ But poetry , beauty , romance , love , these are what we stay alive for ’” ( Gibson ). Dead Poets Society became one of the highestgrossing films of the year and won Williams an Academy Award nomination for best actor .
Several of Williams ’ s subsequent films show him thrust into new worlds , discovering life and emotion anew . In Hook ( 1991 ), Williams plays Peter Banning , a workaholic lawyer out of touch with his wife , his children , and his own inner child . When on a trip to London to visit his mother Wendy for a charity event for orphans , Peter discovers that his children have been kidnapped by Captain Hook and learns that he is the real Peter Pan but that
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