For some, one of the greatest tragedies in Hollywood was Robin Williams’ passing.
But for those who knew him and worked with him through his illustrious career, there’s so much more to celebrate about his life than his passing.
Some artists and film staff shared their experiences with the actor which painted a picture of a beautiful actor, friend, and colleague he was.
Lisa Jakub shared how Williams helped her not to be expelled.
Jakub, his eldest daughter in Mrs. Doubtfire, was tagged as “disruptive” for missing too many classes because she was shooting the film. She was bound to be expelled, but Williams showed up in her trailer and gave her a letter for the principal.
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Later in life, she also looked up to Williams as he was her confidant during a mental health crisis. She eventually left Hollywood to pursue a more peaceful career.
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Did the letter work? Jakub shared with TODAY, “The school framed the letter, hung it in the main office, and did not ask me to come back.”
Dante Basco also considered him a great mentor.
Basco played Rufio alongside Williams in the movie Hook. He shared with The Hollywood Reporter that he wrote poetry a lot and that Williams took note of it.
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He gifted him a leather-bound copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. More than that, Basco shared that Williams taught him the importance of kindness and compassion – lessons that he carries with him until today.
Williams got Ethan Hawke his first agent.
Hawke, who played Todd Anderson in Dead Poets Society, spoke about the actor in his interview on Conan. He shared that he took his role “very seriously” which was difficult since Williams loved clowning around between takes.
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When he noticed that Hawke wasn’t laughing, he “mercilessly” directed his joke toward him. At the end of the movie, Hawke received a call from Williams’ agent. It was the very first agent Hawke had in his acting career.
Speaking of clowning around between sets, Minnie Driver has her own experience.
She said that while they were filming Good Will Hunting, Williams made an impromptu stand-up comedy routine that made people come out of their buildings.
“At the end of lunch, there were about 300 people. He was a good man.” She said in an interview with Andy Cohen.
Patients in the movie Patch Adams shared how he made them laugh.
In the movie, Williams played a doctor who cured people through laughter. Cameron Brooke Stanley was seven years old when the movie was filmed, and like other patients, she was fighting cancer.
“Not just when the cameras are on, when they’re off, he just wants to be someone’s friend, like a best friend. He wants to make someone laugh that’s sad. He was just so wonderful,” Stanley said to ABC.
Lastly, he knows how to make an impression.
In a memoir, Garry Marshall said that Williams’ “audition” for Mork and Mindy was something else. He walked into him sitting on his office’s couch upside down, stood straight up when he saw him and pretended to drink a glass of water with his finger. Marshall knew at that moment that he was special.
It was a short life but Williams knew how to put meaning into it. And in his short stay, he left a profound lesson not only to the people he met but to all of us,
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