Robin Williams' comedic genius and acting chops earned him a lot of love from his fans.
However, away from the spotlight, his final year was defined by his struggle against a
mysterious illness. This is what the last 12 months of Robin Williams' life were like.
Robin Williams made a return to TV with his sitcom, The Crazy Ones, on CBS in September
2013. While there was plenty of anticipation around the show when it first aired, it failed
to take off and was discontinued after the first season. This was extremely disheartening
for the actor, as the show had been touted as his comeback.
His co-star, Sarah Michelle Geller, remembered the actor after his demise, telling People,
"My life is a better place because I knew Robin Williams [...] To my children he was
Uncle Robin, to everyone he worked with, he was the best boss anyone had ever known, and
to me he was not just an inspiration but he was the father I had always dreamed of having."
Robin was under immense pressure to revive his career and was working on films like A
Merry Friggin' Christmas, The Angriest Man in Brooklyn, and Night at the Museum: Secret
of the Tomb.
"Theodore Roosevelt. President of the United States of America."
"I have no idea what that means."
He didn't receive interesting movie offers while he was struggling to deliver commercially
successful projects, and many believe that this added stressor made matters worse for
the actor.
Robin Williams was still reeling from changes in his personal life, namely his divorce and
his new life with his wife, Susan Schneider Williams. The couple got married in 2011.
According to a Vanity Fair report containing an excerpt from the biography Robin by David
Itzkoff, Williams was living away from his family in a rented Los Angeles apartment while
filming The Crazy Ones.
Williams was spending a lot of time by himself. Additionally, some suggest that Williams was
still feeling guilty over his separation from his second wife, Marsha Garces, whom he had
been with for 21 years, and was finding ways to cope.
After suffering unexplained symptoms for several months, Robin Williams was diagnosed with
Parkinson's disease in May 2014. Susan wrote about this diagnosis and what it meant for
the family in a paper titled, "The terrorist inside my husband's brain." It was published
in September 2016 in the American Academy of Neurology and looked at Robin's journey
through a myriad of disturbing symptoms and his struggle to understand what was happening
to him.
In referring to the Parkinson's diagnosis, Susan wrote,
"We had an answer [...] My heart swelled with hope. But somehow I knew Robin was not buying
it."
Indeed, Williams had several questions for his neurologist, such as whether he was showing
signs of Alzheimer's, dementia, or schizophrenia. The answer was no to all of those. Susan later
understood why Robin was full of questions, writing,
"It is apparent to me now that he was most likely keeping the depth of his symptoms to
himself."
Heartbreakingly, the Parkison's diagnosis turned out to be incorrect. What Robin actually
had was diffuse Lewy body disease, a condition that affects roughly 1.5 million people in
the U.S. Susan wrote that Robin's case was recognized as an extreme one. She wrote,
"All 4 of the doctors I met with afterwards and who had reviewed his records indicated
his was one of the worst pathologies they had seen [...] He had about 40% loss of dopamine
neurons and almost no neurons were free of Lewy bodies throughout the entire brain and
brainstem."
Robin Williams, who had been transparent about his battle with addiction, entered rehab in
the summer of 2014. According to a piece by The Hollywood Reporter, Robin had decided
to make the move for his well-being, as well to continue working on his sobriety. Williams'
rep was quoted in the piece, saying,
"He has been working hard and now has a break in his schedule, so wants to come back and
be the best that he can be [...] This is his version of a retreat."
The retreat in Minnesota offered a 12-step program to residents in a bid to help them
on their long-term recovery. Robin's decision to join the program was simply a way to continue
paying attention to his well-being as opposed to dealing with addiction-related issues.
Additionally, Williams had been fairly open about his journey with addiction in the past.
In 2006, while speaking to journalist Diane Sawyer, he reflected on being addicted to
cocaine and alcohol in the early 1980s. However, he made a decision to stop after losing his
friend, John Belushi, to an overdose.
While he managed to stay clean for around two decades, he had a relapse in 2004 and
decided to seek help when he realized he couldn't fight it on his own.
"But you were sober for 20 years."
"I was."
"What happened?"
"I drank."
Robin Williams spent his final months battling several issues, such as depression, anxiety,
and paranoia, coupled with physical symptoms including heartburn, insomnia, trouble urinating,
and indigestion. He even suffered a panic attack in April 2014 while filming Night at
the Museum: Secret of the Tomb in Vancouver, according to The Mercury News.
Williams kept his struggles to himself. His friend, Billy Crystal, spoke about having
some idea of the pain Robin was going through but not knowing the full extent, revealing,
"He wasn't feeling well, but he didn't let on to me all that was going on [...] I didn't
know what was happening, except he wasn't happy."
Crystal and his wife, Janice, met up with Robin in the fall of 2013 for a movie and
dinner. Crystal couldn't help but notice that his friend was not himself. Crystal recalled,
"I hadn't seen him in about four or five months at the time, and when he got out of the car
I was a little taken aback by how he looked [...] He was thinner and he seemed a little
frail."
Williams also ended up tearing up at the end of the night as he hugged his friends goodbye,
telling them how good it was to see them.
As Robin Williams' symptoms worsened over the months, doing what he enjoyed doing became
filled with difficulties, such as remembering lines on set and being at his best while performing.
As Williams' makeup artist Cheri Minns recalled,
"He was sobbing in my arms at the end of every day. It was horrible. Horrible."
Minns suggested to Robin that he should return to his roots and explore stand-up comedy again,
but he broke down in tears, telling her, quote, "I don't know how to be funny." Susan Schneider
Williams later spoke about Robin's constant battle to People in 2015, telling the magazine
that depression alone did not cause her husband to take his own life. As Schneider told People,
"Depression was one of let's call it 50 symptoms and it was a small one."
Despite everything he was experiencing, Robin Williams persisted with attempts to beat his
illness and did not give up. As detailed by Vanity Fair, he tried various measures, including
therapy, regular workouts, experimenting with self-hypnosis with the help of an expert at
Stanford University, and more.
Susan nevertheless noticed how the battle was getting tougher for her husband, who often
spent restless nights in bed, fidgeting restlessly, unable to fall asleep. Eventually, Susan and
Robin started spending their nights in separate rooms. Meanwhile, some of Robin's friends
began to reach out to him in a bid to help.
For instance, actor and comedian Eric Idle tried to convince Williams to come to London
for one of his shows and put in a guest appearance. Williams refused. As Idle later reflected,
"And all the time I was getting e-mails from him, and he was going downhill [...] Then
he said he could come, but he didn't want to be on stage. I said, 'I totally get that.'
Because he was suffering from severe depression."
During his final year, Robin Williams was transparent about several aspects of his past,
including his heart surgery, his divorces, his return to television, and more. Right
before the premiere of The Crazy Ones, Robin spoke to Parade about why he was choosing
to make a comeback. As he explained,
"The idea of having a steady job is appealing [...] I have two [other] choices: go on the
road doing stand-up, or do small, independent movies working almost for [minimum union pay].
The movies are good, but a lot of times they don't even have distribution. There are bills
to pay. My life has downsized, in a good way."
Robin had undergone heart surgery in 2009, which he opened up about in interviews as
well. In an interview with CBS This Morning, Williams said,
"You get a big second chance. [...] Your whole system reboots and you appreciate everyone
and everything. Every day above ground as they say."
For Robin Williams, battling his worsening symptoms became a real struggle as he tried
to find ways to keep going. While there was a lot of medical help at hand, Susan and Robin
couldn't figure out what could help keep his symptoms at bay. Much later, after finding
out that Robin was struggling with Lewy body disease, Susan finally understood why there
were so few answers for Robin, saying,
"I know now the doctors, the whole team was doing exactly the right things [...] It's
just that this disease was faster than us and bigger than us. We would have gotten there
eventually."
Lewy body disease is known to cause symptoms such as memory impairment, sleep problems,
and visual hallucinations. In her paper, Susan described the obstacles her husband faced
on a daily basis. Susan wrote,
"Having been by my husband's side for many years already, I knew his normal reactions
when it came to fear and anxiety [...] What would follow was markedly out of character
for him. His fear and anxiety skyrocketed to a point that was alarming."
She added that it was only after his real illness was revealed that she learned that
prolonged fear and anxiety is sometimes recognized as an early sign of Lewy body disease.
Robin Williams was lonely and spending more time by himself. His son, Zak Williams, spoke
to Vanity Fair about how his father had some support from his assistant, Rebecca Erwin
Spencer, and her husband, Dan, telling the magazine,
"They were very open and did love him very much — they were pretty good about keeping
us in the fold [...] I think there was inclusivity up until a point when things started getting
a little weird."
At that point, Robin had started working on The Crazy Ones and was living in a Los Angeles
apartment as a result. His son wished he would have stayed with his father around that time
and kept him company. Zak Williams said,
"I'm kicking myself for not visiting him during that time [...] Because I think that was a
very lonely period for him. In retrospect, I feel like I should have been there, spending
time with him. Because someone who needs support was not getting the support he needed."
On Robin Williams' last night, things didn't seem amiss to Susan. Robin seemed to be having
a good day as he spent time with his wife. Susan spoke to People about her final moments
with her husband and even revealed his final words to her:
"I was getting in bed and he came in the room a couple of times ... and he said, 'Goodnight,
my love.' And then he came back again. He came out with his iPad and he looked like
he had something to do. And that was like, 'I think he's getting better.' And then he
said 'goodnight, goodnight.' That was the last."
Tragically, it was discovered the next day that he had taken his own life to escape the
ravages of the disease.
Susan said that his illness was debilitating for Robin and called it, quote, "chemical
warfare" in his brain. She also went on to say,
"This disease is like a sea monster with 50 tentacles of symptoms that show when they
want [...] And we can't find it until someone dies definitively. There is no cure."
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255).