Robin Williams: 5 Awesome Performances & 5 That Sucked

3. Sean McGuire - Good Will Hunting (1997)

Looking back over Williams' career, some of his films take on added poignancy in retrospect thanks to the manner of his death. While his straight roles initially looked simply like genius character creations with incredibly deep layers, the personal tragedy of the comic's life add further emotional piquancy, which is particularly the case with Good Will Hunting - a performance that rightly led to a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. McGuire is the ultimate Williams wounded animal creation: he is sparklingly intelligent, brilliantly engaging and inspirational (just as the actor was in Dead Poet's Society, which is almost a spiritual prequel for the character) and yet scratch the surface and he bleeds raw, electric pain. The fact that you don't even need to see too many of those outbursts to be utterly convinced of their perpetual presence is down to Williams' performance, which is a mirror of Matt Damon's own wounded anti-hero. The performance is liberating, touching and brilliantly disarming, and it deserves every accolade that came its way.