The world lost a true treasure when Robin Williams died.
He was a beloved comedian and entertainer like no other. Williams died by suicide in 2014 after being wrongly diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
It’s hard to believe that next year will mark ten years without the star of Jumanji and Mrs. Doubtfire. His death left a huge gap in the entertainment industry, and millions of people around the world miss him deeply.
One of the saddest parts of Williams’ death, which became more known after he passed, was how much he struggled. Despite always putting on a brave face and making others laugh, he had been fighting personal demons for a long time.
In his memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?, fellow actor Sam Neill described Williams as the “loneliest man on a lonely planet”….
Jurassic Park star Sam Neill has shared details about his personal relationship with the late Robin Williams, and it’s truly heartbreaking.
In his memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?, Neill talked about working with Williams on Bicentennial Man (1999) and how they became close friends during filming.
Neill, who recently revealed he’s battling stage three cancer, said in the book that Williams was the “funniest” and “saddest” man he had ever met.
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In excerpts from his memoir published by People, Neill wrote: “We would talk about this and that, sometimes even about the work we were about to do.”
He described Williams as “irresistibly, outrageously, irrepressibly, gigantically funny.”
But Neill also talked openly about the pain he saw behind Williams’ comedic facade.
Neill wrote: “He had fame, he was rich, people loved him, great kids—the world was his oyster. And yet I felt more sorry for him than I can express.
“He was the loneliest man on a lonely planet.”
Neill also said that Williams was “inconsolably solitary and deeply depressed” and that he could sense a “dark space inside” from the moment he met him.
Williams was struggling with forces that seemed determined to ruin his life. In 2014, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, but after his death, it was found that he actually had Lewy body dementia.
Susan Schneider Williams, who married Robin in 2011, said: “Nearly every region of his brain was under attack. He experienced himself disintegrating.”
She described his condition as “a disease for which there is no cure.”
“The devastation on Robin’s brain from Lewy bodies was one of the worst cases medical professionals have ever seen, yet throughout all of this, his heart remained strong.”
My heart breaks every time I hear stories about Robin Williams and his struggles. He was a great man and incredibly inspiring.
Were you a fan of Robin Williams? Let us know in the comments.
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