Robin Williams Movies, Ranked

Half of them made you laugh, half made you cry, and the good ones did it in the same scene.

Entries
10
Category
Film
Updated
  1. A carved wooden board game open on an attic floor, dice mid-roll, jungle vines creeping out from between the floorboards.

    10. Jumanji

    Joe Johnston · 1995

    Alan Parrish has been stuck inside a board game for 26 years and comes out with a beard and no patience. ILM wrote new software for the stampede and the monkeys. It made about $263 million. Kids of the 90s still hear drums when they open a closet.

  2. A 1960s hospital day room with rows of wheelchairs facing a window, a tossed ball and a vial of pills on a tray.

    09. Awakenings

    Penny Marshall · 1990

    Williams plays a shy doctor based on Oliver Sacks who uses L-DOPA to wake catatonic patients in a 1969 Bronx hospital, De Niro first among them. Best Picture nominee, four stars from Ebert. It opened second, behind Home Alone, which says something about December 1990.

  3. A photo lab counter in a fluorescent-lit big-box store, a wall of developed family snapshots pinned in a perfect grid.

    08. One Hour Photo

    Mark Romanek · 2002

    Williams as Sy, a lonely photo technician at a big-box store who makes extra prints of one family's life for himself. Jack Nicholson turned it down for being too much like The Shining. Ebert called Sy another of his smiling madmen. You will never forget your film again.

  4. A vast train station concourse at rush hour, a single red rose on the marble floor, a red knight's helmet half in shadow.

    07. The Fisher King

    Terry Gilliam · 1991

    A grieving homeless man hunting the Holy Grail in Manhattan, pursued by a Red Knight only he can see. The best scene is a Grand Central rush hour that turns into a waltz. Williams got an Oscar nomination; Mercedes Ruehl won one. Gilliam made a movie with a happy ending, once.

  5. A pink South Beach nightclub with a lit stage and feather boas draped over velvet chairs, a formal dinner table set nearby.

    06. The Birdcage

    Mike Nichols · 1996

    Elaine May's remake of La Cage aux Folles, and Williams generously takes the quieter role so Nathan Lane can go everywhere at once. Gene Hackman plays the conservative senator coming to dinner. Number one for three weeks, and the cast won the SAG ensemble award.

  6. A flowered housedress, a gray curly wig and a cardigan laid over a kitchen chair, a frying pan with a pastry on the stove.

    05. Mrs. Doubtfire

    Chris Columbus · 1993

    A divorced dad disguises himself as an elderly Scottish nanny to see his kids. Columbus shot with several cameras just to catch the cast reacting to the improv, and said there was enough for an R-rated cut. It made $441.3 million and won the makeup Oscar. Nobody saw through it.

  7. A military radio booth with a big chrome microphone, stacks of vinyl records and an on-air light glowing red, jungle heat outside.

    04. Good Morning, Vietnam

    Barry Levinson · 1987

    Loosely based on Armed Forces radio DJ Adrian Cronauer, with most of the broadcast scenes improvised. Levinson basically pointed a camera at a microphone and let go. Golden Globe, Oscar nomination, and What a Wonderful World back on the charts 20 years late.

  8. A tarnished brass oil lamp on a cave floor heaped with gold coins, a puff of blue smoke curling from its spout.

    03. Aladdin

    Ron Clements and John Musker · 1992

    He did the Genie for $75,000 scale instead of his usual millions, improvised something like 52 characters, and got a special Golden Globe. Disney then broke its promise not to market with him, and he joked that's why the mouse has four fingers. Highest-grossing film of 1992.

  9. A row of wooden classroom desks in a wood-paneled 1959 prep school, one desktop scuffed with shoe prints, a poetry book open on it.

    02. Dead Poets Society

    Peter Weir · 1989

    An English teacher at a 1959 Vermont prep school tells boys to rip up their textbook and seize the day. It made $235.8 million on $16.4 million and won the screenplay Oscar. After he died, people stood on desks online for him. Teachers have been dealing with it since 1989.

  10. A therapist's office with two worn armchairs, a bookshelf, and a watercolor painting of a lone rowboat on a stormy sea.

    01. Good Will Hunting

    Gus Van Sant · 1997

    Williams plays Sean, the therapist who finally gets through to Matt Damon by saying the same short sentence until it lands. It won him his Oscar. He improvised enough on set that one of his additions became the film's last line. Miramax's biggest hit ever, at the time.

Honorable mentions

  • A treehouse hideout in a pirate cove, a gold-trimmed hook hanging from a nail beside a child's wooden sword.

    Hook

    Steven Spielberg · 1991

    Williams as a grown-up Peter Pan who forgot he could fly, opposite Dustin Hoffman's Hook. Critics were cool, and Spielberg himself later said he painted over his insecurity with production value. Five Oscar nominations and a generation that still yells for Rufio.

Dishonorable mentions

  • A red rubber clown nose resting on a hospital chart on a white bedsheet, a stethoscope coiled beside it.

    Patch Adams

    Tom Shadyac · 1998

    A medical student cures patients with a red rubber nose. It made $202 million anyway. Ebert gave it a star and a half and compared its tear extraction to liposuction. The real Patch Adams told him he hated the movie. That's a medical opinion.

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