Summer. Williams first captured americas attention in the late 70s, the role of alien mork made him a break out star. Good morning vietnam and his comic mania carried into movies, playing a wartime dj in good morning vietnam bought him a golden globe. So tt role played largely in drag, mrs. Doubtfire. Williams im provozational style. But the julliar trained actor excelled in roles including good will hunting. In all williams films grossed more than 5 billion worldwide at the box office. The actors wife released a statement saying, quote, as he is remembered, it is our hope that the focus will not be on robins death, but on the countless moments of joy and laughter he gave to millions. A gifted actor and genius whose sudden passing mean those who knew him and those who watched him heart broken. Stephanie stanton, nbc news, hollywood. Joining us now, david poland, editor of city news. Com. He is a new york film editor for variety. Obviously, collectively, the entire nation is talking about this, david and ramen. And theres been so much commentary and the twittersphere, for good or for bad, i already feel like everybody weighing in, is there more to talk about, david . I guess there is, right . Well, i mean, williams really was the coppock and the comic personality that took us out of the nixon era. When it comes down to it. Late 70s. Cynicism and anger was all the range and this guy came out and was this amazing bund of energy and intelligence. He always had something to say but he also was incredibly sincere. Its ironic that 32 years ago, he was there the nice belushi died. I think thats the last time we had somebody that seminole in comedy pass away. Thats the chateau of a very sad, weird foreshadowing. Well, its just unfortunately, drugs and thats something that ive grappled with, ramen, you know, you dont want to point to addiction, but and whether maybe personalities are predisposed to it, whether the addiction itself causes or brings on depression. Its a horrific chicken and egg thing. But to be in that much pain, i think all of us collectively realize that we wish someone could have been aware to reemp out and i mean, theres a famous quote that Robin Williams says right into the camera, suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Once again, it highlights if youre in pain, its just you wish you could get help for people that are in pain. The thing with robin was is that he did get a lot of help. He had gone to rehab a number of times. He had that in itself, david, to keep going and then to slip again. And then, you know, to maybe go on and probably the feeling after another bing or whatever, i have no idea what he went through. He was very open with his struggles. And he was sober for many years starting in the 80s. And he went back to rehab recently. He was in rehab over the summer. But i think what we should do today is really remember and honor him. It wasnt just for people out of the nixon era. Robin williams was a comedic icon throughout the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, many millennials on twitter were remembering him for roles in jumanji , hook, president obama issuing a statement yesterday. Even though he struggled and he was very open about his struggles, many people were very aware of his struggles. But sometimes when youre dealing with addiction and depression, its a very, very difficult battle. Youre right. Youre talking 70s, 80s, 9 0s, 2000s. I went to the university of colora colorado. In the 1978, mork mindy put the Downtown Boulder sign street and we were sort of even though it wasnt i dont think it was filmed there, but it put boulder on the map. Thats what i remember first. I remember him coming into happy days. As mork. And i was a little kid and thought, who is this person . He is interesting. I mean, just startling. You were going to Say Something, david . He did his first hbo comedy special in 78. That was kind of the beginning for hbo. Robert cline had done one, but he was the seminole figure for hbos comedy push. That was so different from what he was doing on mork mipdy. And it turned out that he wasnt a great actor at that point, but he became a great actor. He really could do almost anything. And it took a while to find that out. But it was a remarkable thing. It was what belushi had wanted to do. Its what a lot of bull murrays wanted to do. Very, very great people could do that only. Bull murray comes on the show when we were in pebble beach. He stayed for an hour afterwards. And the point he made was if you can do comedy, you can do drama. And it seems like one would be not tied to the other. I think it would be the hardest art form. He said it was easitory make the move from comedy to drama. The other way around the much harder. Much harder. How important do you think it was for Robin Williams to be known as a serious actor . Even though he made his move in comedy, he made the transition well enough to win the october car as a serious role. Particularly that 78 special last night which has not been available from hbo for years. And he was doing he did a piece welcome to the mind of a comic which is crashing. And he did the id and the ego and the iper child and the emotions, he did the entire range of emotional life in a standup comedian. He wasnt a traditional tell a joke comedian at all. He was a living, breathing actor from the very beginning. He used mind training, everything. There has been no one quite like him. A lot of times, being of service for people that are having personal problems, thats enough to give life enough meaning to you know, to preclude some of its still apparently wasnt enough. Which is another indication of what the man has been going through, right . Absolutely. He was very open about it and he joked about his so brighty in an effort to help other people. But, you know, again, i think we should look tow career that he had. All the roles weve talked about, he was the voice of the jeanie in aladin. I was remember a magazine from mork mindy. They would do a scene six times, and the crypt says robin adlibs here. His costar said he was as funny every single time he did it even though it was completely different. And a skill set that was incredible. And thats what a lot of people were surprised on the set of mork mindy. He did improvise heavily. So for robin to create a character that was on lunchboxes and posters and, you know, that was such a popular character in the 70s, the alien. Inspired by jonathan winters, too. As he said many times, he was able to do the same thing. I wasnt aware that he robin had grown up in a privileged home, he said he had parents that were he felt raised by the maid to some extent and played with toy soldiers and was alone talking to himself a lot, i think. He was a very quiet guy. It was almost like you at times he seemed to fragile that you didnt quantity to bother him. But there was always a smile there. There was a great deal of happiness for all the concern about how unhappy he was in this place that is sad and horrible, it only took a second for him to be quiet, reserved separate robin to having something funny to say and a different way of looking at the world. He was a unique individual. Every time you saw him in a private situation, he was, you know, very much there was an energy that was different. Jonathan was much more tough in real life and robin was always kind of you know, he was separate, but he was also happy in a way. Were going to get a chance to see more of Robin Williams work in the months, i guess, and few years ahead, correct . He did leave some film projects behind. He did leave some film projects behind. Hes going to be seen in most notably the new night of the museum film. One movie that he will not finish, the sequel to mrs. Doubtfire, i think one of his biggest hits of his career, he was set to begin production on that shortly. And there was an issue the studio issued a statement saying that the film will not be Going Forward at this time. Well see. It would be hard to imagine a sequel to mrs. Doubtfire without Robin Williams in the starting role. The impact of movies that he did make, in cannes at the film festival, there was somebody doing mrs. Doubtfire, people doing character, people were taking pictures of him wandering around the restaurant. Thats how popular he is, even years later. An enduring character, for sure. Gentlemen, thanks for your time and analysis. Just your feelings. Appreciate it. Its a big loss. Thank you. Thank you. Robin williams, Phillip Seymour hoffman not that long ago. Another tremendously tallaned actor i know many of us saw his films. He completed some work, too. Yeah, including a film thats currently made us a spy. The eternal question is the depression that leads you to the abuse, is it the abuse that leads to depression . If you are depressed, imagine, we talk so much about the issues of Mental Illness in this country. You have all the money that you could need in order to seek help. Youve got people around you. And yet still not to be able to overcome your demons, to show an incredible pain and the struggle. Are you deftined to it . And does it fooel feed your comedy . And thats the thing. Another comic. A lot of comics seem have a very, dark, dark core. What i took away from it is that happiness should be shared. If youre imminently happy, you shouldnt take it for granted, probably, i would think. It looks like theres going to be some sort of News Conference coming out of the west coast regarding mr. Williams death at 11 00 a. M. Pacific time. Im sure well learn more of the details surrounding this specific incident. So coming up, the chaos in iraq. In baghdad, theres a power struggle. The Prime Minister and the president in the north, the kurdish crash with isis. The u. S. Is providing air support. What is the next move for the white house . Plus, were front and center on todays Market Action. Futures are higher at this hour after a meandering day yesterday. The averages are slumping. Well run it down next. In jobs and infrastructure. F do thanks to startup ny, businesses can operate tax free for 10 years. No property tax. No business tax. And no sales tax. Which means more growth for your business, and more jobs. Its not just business as usual. See how new york can help your business grow, at startup. Ny. Gov welcome back. German Economic Sentiment dropping sharply in august. The key industry reading hitting its lowest level since december 2012. The euro adding to losses against the dollar after the zew which is an indication of german confidence in Business Community and likely related to the increase in the russian sanctions. You can see there is a buck 33 and weve been watching to see what happens in the german tenyear yield. 1. 06 is where it stands right now. This is aftera pretty disappointing Industrial Production number of last week . Late last week . Yeah, last week. So there are concerns at this point. For sure. Beyond italy, beyond some of these other economies that the most important and ig best one a stall wart. Is petering. Absolutely. And then recession and you have this whole does anyone ever take a step back and say im going to give you 10,000 is in euros or since its germany. But im going to give you that and you give me 1 and you get it for ten years . And yep yet people do it. It makes me worry about the prospects and everything else. Recently there was a story about the 50year french bond. Because of paris and my we had a guest who said people arent going to stop going there. You better hope that some country is doing okay. But well visit their great country. Its not internally generated. No, its all external. Yet i want to go there and i envy their we work the we lived to work or work to live . We live to work, they work to live. I was there at the beginning of the summer. Why . Rome and the coast. No way. Positano . Yes. Where did you stay in a room . Near the borguese edge. Nice. I said that yesterday. Thats true. I can live for free in my parents living room if i can live in italy. Would you . Thats what you said, yeah. But you would have no idea and you always thats like a exactly. Thats a dig, though. You throw it in like they dont know any better. I think they do know better. 28 dollar croissant, right . And thats if you dont get caught. Google. Lets show you whats going on with european stocks. Nostalgic. You should lay off the pasta. Is germany flat to lower, these are all flat markets, except for italy which continues its rebound by 0. 75 after the massive selloff that we saw. The dow would open higher by 32 points, nasdaq by 9 and the s p 500 by 6. A convoy in ukraine from russia is heading into ukraine on a humanitarian relief mission. The red cross says the has no information on what these trucks from russia are carrying or where there are going. They could be a point of concerns. Ewe kraeb is saying theyre not going to allow any of russias cop voi with these humanitarian aids into the country. Here is the russian stock market rebounding slightly today, around 0. 3 . Its been a very bad july as those tension ves heated up. Iraqi Prime MinisterNuri Al Maliki refuses to step aside, this even though the countrys new president has named a replacement. The Obama Administration is calling for the new government to unite. The new iraqi leadership has a difficult challenge. It has to regain the confidence of its citizens by governing inclusively, but also by taking steps to demonstrate their resolve. Nbcs duncan golisani joins us now with the latest. Duncan. Hi. So the question is are we heading into some kind of political showdown in baghdad . This new Prime Minister has been appointed. That appointment has been welcomed by the United States as we just heard. And by the united nations. The question is, did Nuri Al Maliki go quietly . So far, every indication weve been getting is hes going to try to dig in and hold on to power. Yesterday we were hearing about Security Forces loyal to him move across the streets of baghdad and his party said his point lacks legitimacy and some ignore a close political ally that they will challenge this in the courts. That is exactly what the United States does not want to hear. They need some kind of upty in baghdad, a government that can bring sunnis, kurdes and shiites together. Because as far as many countries are concerns, this is the only way this fight with isis is going to be won. You could overrun them on the ground if you want to put International Troops here, but not many countries want to do that. At the moment, the focus is on some kind of unity government. Back to you. Thank you very much, duncan. As long as he doesnt sit down and we end up with some kind of shia on shia battle, a civil war is it more likely at this point . The question is does he bring in his independent militia and try to fight to hold on to power . The reason i bring that up is because the shia on the conference in the south, thats where you could start to see oil prices move. Thats the big concern. All the Oil Production is in the south. There are no indications that he is going to leave quietly. Duncan raises the question if right. Twice he could malign the whole process and hes not leaving. Lets get a turnout on cnbcs chief washington correspondent john harwood with more on the global issues hanging over capitol hill and right before i i look at all the different blogs and stuff, john. Im by partisan that way. Huffington post, drudge, do you think the president said criticism of the syria policy by hillary is horse shih tzu without the tzu at the end, john . I didnt see that. What does that mean . President obama got angry at lawmakers that seshd have armed the Syrian Rebels criticism is so unheard of in your mind that i have to describe any of it to you for you to understand what im saying . Joe, i couldnt understand what youre saying. But who is quoting the president as saying that . This is in the daily by beast, its on drudge. Obama told lawmakers the criticism of his syria policy is horse blank. Not with reference to hillary specifically. It wouldnt surprised me if he said that. Lawmakers or hillary the criticism that he should have armed Syrian Rebels and i saw his comments on that, to think that he could have done back and picked just the right group in the early days when it was coalescing. I see the merit in his argument there to think that were smart enough to handpick and we tried to get people to pick weapons to in afghanistan. It always comes back to haunt you. They get used against you eventually, dont they, john . Whether he said it or not, im sure thats how he females about the criticism. What do you think of hillary i mean, thats well, look, hillary the clintons dont think everything is calculated, but i think the clintons calculate every single that they do unless its a mistake. Well, look, it appears that shes running for president and her independence critical running for president is that she was president obamas secretary of state. The world is now blowing up. So that is a big problem for her. And so shes going to be looking for ways to separate herself from the current Foreign Policy issues. She did that to Jeffrey Goldberg of the atlantic where she said the failure to arm those northern factions in syria left a void that the gee whatdies built. When i interview her a couple of weeks ago, she said you happen, i asked her about her responsibility for the best in the world. And she said well any administration has to read and manage things as best they can and we did that in the first term. In the first term. Were now in the second term. And i think you can expect to see a series of things Going Forward where shes going to try to separate herself from the administration, as anybody would running in her circumstance because voters are very reluctantly to give the same party a third term in office. Obamas ratings are low. Shes going to look for a way to make her mark. She did this on russia, as well, she said the reset worked with russia, but then when putin came back, i told the president we needed to change tactics, and now here we are. She did and room nigh did. He doesnt really listen. Annoy, supposedly theres some spicy