For whatever reason, I felt such shock at the news. It even surprised me and I'm rather blase about such news when it happens.
Since he was in recovery, didn't know that he had lapsed in the past few years, it seemed as if he wouldn't have such darkness going on.
But we never know the thoughts of others, huh?
No one seems to mention his role in "The World According to Garp," which was just a great movie. One of the few movies that actually are as good as the book, which was fantastic.
From what I've read, he was upbeat when his show "The Crazy One's" was picked up. Then he was hit hard when he heard it was being cancelled. Wonder if this is what caused him to go over the edge.
One of my favorite bits was on a Carol Burnett show. Not the series but some kind of reunion show a few years back. She was a widow and he was doing his best to comfort her in his most manic way (complete with inappropriately loud tie). It was funny as hell and then Carol came out and said that Robin wanted to do it again. Live with ad libs. The audience said sure, what the hell... So it began again, we knew the set up or we thought we did. The unflappable Ms. Burnett starts to break up and this click ends suprisingly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfDyTUiL8xs