Robin Williams Starred In Two Vastly Different Fantasy Movies In The Same Year

Robin Williams started his standup career in 1976, specifically at the Holy City Zoo, a bar in San Francisco where he sometimes worked as a bartender. His rise through the world of comedy was meteoric, and he was already playing clubs in Los Angeles and getting specials on HBO. By 1978, he was appearing on TV, notably playing a character named Mork on a 1978 episode of "Happy Days." This led to a 1978 spinoff series called "Mork & Mindy," which is well-known to the general public. Throughout the 1980s, Williams became not only a comedy superstar and a regular TV presence, but a legit Hollywood giant as well. He turned out multiple comedy flicks before getting an Oscar nomination for his performance in 1987's "Good Morning, Vietnam." He received a second nomination in 1989 for "Dead Poets Society," proving that there was nothing he couldn't do. 

In 1991, Williams starred in four notable films. He had a small role playing a mime in Bob Goldthwait's alcoholic clown movie "Shakes the Clown," a cult classic if ever there was one. He also had a notable role as a bitter ex-psychiatrist in Kenneth Branagh's hypnotism thriller "Dead Again," one of the best films of its year. For the purposes of this article, however, we shall zoom in on Williams' two fantasy films that he made in 1991. Curiously, both of them were nominated for five Academy Awards, although mostly in different categories. The first, released on September 30, was Terry Gilliam's intense and sensitive mental health odyssey "The Fisher King." The other, released on December 11, was Steven Spielberg's misguided kid-flick "Hook," a reboot of the Peter Pan story. Williams received his third Oscar nomination for "The Fisher King." 

"The Fisher King," for those who have missed it, follows the sad life of a shock jock named Jack Lucas, a man poised on the brink of amazing success. Jack flippantly mocks a caller on his call-in radio show one night, talking about how the yuppie class was scum, and suggested constantly that they deserved to be victims of violence. Jack was shocked to discover that his words inspired the caller to go to a high-end Manhattan restaurant with a shotgun and kill multiple people there at random. Jack's life fell apart after the incident, and he took to drinking and working in a video store. The drinking came to the chagrin of his long-suffering girlfriend Anne (Oscar winner Mercedes Ruehl). 

Into Jack's life comes a homeless man named Parry (Williams), who tries to embrace all the small pleasures of life, but who also appears to be suffering from an undiagnosed mental illness. Parry tells Jack a story of the Fisher King, a mythic knight tasked with retrieving the Holy Grail, but who is constantly carrying around a wound of pride. Parry also has eyes on a local woman played by Amanda Plummer, but he can't bring himself to talk to her. Jack will eventually find that Parry was traumatized after witnessing his wife be murdered the night of Jack's caller's rampage. Williams pushed himself to the limits for this film. 

Although a soulful drama, Terry Gilliam infuses "The Fisher King" with various fantasy elements, most notably a gigantic Red Knight that seems to be dressed entirely in blood-red ribbons. "The Fisher King" was nominated for the Oscar for Production Design, although it lost that year to "Bugsy." 

Steven Spielberg's "Hook," by contrast, is a colorful, childish trifle. Those who saw "Hook" as children might declare it to be a whimsical childhood classic, but the film also has a bad script, weird ideas, and a very busy, unattractive production design. "Hook" is a sequel to J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan" story, positing that Peter eventually left Neverland to grow up in the real world. The theory was that Peter fell in love with the original Wendy's granddaughter (Caroline Goodall), and they are raising two children together. The original Wendy is played by Maggie Smith. One of the conceits of "Hook," too, is that Peter Pan lost his memory when he left Neverland, blanking out his centuries as a flying elf boy. He now thinks he is a lawyer named Peter Banning (Williams). 

Naturally, Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman) still has a score to settle, and kidnaps Peter and brings him back to Neverland. All the ageless Lost Boys (led by their new leader Rufio, played by Dante Basco) are shocked to find that he is an adult now. The film explored Peter's attempts to reclaim and remember his lost childhood as Peter Pan. Tinker Bell (Julia Roberts) reveals that she's in love with the adult Peter. It won't be long before Captain Hook also kidnaps Peter's kids, as it wouldn't be a Steven Spielberg movie without multiple scenes of children in peril. 

"Hook" made over $300 million at the box office, but it wasn't well-liked by critics; it has a 37% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 138 reviews. Many love "Hook," but you'll find that, in 2026, they are all exactly 45 years old. Even Spielberg didn't have much faith in the project.