HIS LEGACY
Remembering Robin Williams six years after his shock death
For almost four decades, comic genius Robin Williams inspired and entertained audiences around the world. His mother, Laurie, once said her son “was put on earth to make us laugh”. Fans and friends were united in shock and grief with news of his death by suicide six years ago. “He was the brightest star in a comedy galaxy,” said his friend and collaborator Billy Crystal. “But while some of the brightest of our celestial bodies are actually extinct now … their beautiful light will continue to shine on us forever, and the glow will be so bright it’ll warm your heart.”
On the small screen, the sitcom Mork & Mindy first catapulted Williams to stardom during its run from 1978 to 1982. On the big screen, he made a slew of hit comedies, as well as having some of his more serious roles honoured (he took home an Oscar for Good Will Hunting and a Golden Globe for Good Morning, Vietnam).
Aside from his professional legacy, his three children, Zachary, 37, Zelda, 31, and Cody, 28, continue to honour his memory – with a fitting sense of humour. Zelda marked her dad’s July 21 birthday by donating to charities in an amount the actor would’ve approved of.
“Today would’ve been Dad’s 69th birthday, so to honour him (& that glorious number), I will be donating $69.69 to as many local homeless shelters as I can,” the actress tweeted. “Join me if you like, but regardless, know I am wishing you all at least one hearty, immature belly laugh on Dad today.”
After her father’s death, Zelda said she learned to cope with her new reality one day at a time. “I just kept going, ‘OK, well, today I’m going to get up and love what I do.
And then tomorrow I’m going to wake up and be happy and love what I do. And then the next day,’” she explained.
Perseverance through tough times is a lesson that was also hard-earned by her father. The public knew him for his zany and over-the-top energy, but he suffered at times from addiction and depression.
After his death at 63 on August 11, 2014, Williams’ wife Susan shared how it was not depression that killed her husband but rather a disorder called diffuse lewy body dementia (LBD). Having suffered for years from many mystery ailments, Williams was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in May 2014. “I never heard him afraid like that before,” Crystal told New York Times reporter Dave Itzkoff, the author of the 2018 biography Robin.
“This was the boldest comedian I ever met … But this was just a scared man.”
An autopsy would later reveal the LBD diagnosis, an aggressive and incurable brain disorder that has an associated risk of suicide. “Robin was losing his mind and he was aware of it. Can you imagine the pain he felt as he experienced himself disintegrating?” Susan would later write for the journal Neurology in 2016.
Susan’s still trying to keep her husband’s legacy alive, participating in the doco Robin’s Wish that is set for US release on September 1. “This is Robin’s story, it’s our story, and in some ways, it’s a universal one,” she said in a statement.