Robin Williams, the comedian and Academy Award-winning actor, died on Monday at his home in Tiburon, California, north of San Francisco. He was 63.

Mr. Williams's publicist, Mara Buxbaum, said in a statement that Mr. Williams "has been battling severe depression."

He earned Academy Award nominations for his roles in films like"Good Morning, Vietnam", in which he played a loquacious radio D.J.; "Dead Poets Society", playing a mentor to students in need of inspiration; and "The Fisher King", as a homeless man whose life has been struck by tragedy. He won an Oscar in 1998 for "Good Will Hunting", playing a therapist who works with a troubled prodigy played by Matt Damon.

 From his film Dead Poets Society we took this Whalt Whitman poem from 1865, originally dedicated to Abraham Lincoln´s dead.

O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done;

The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:

But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! My Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up--for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths--for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

Here captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You've fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;

Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.