Robin Williams

Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and comedies alike, Williams is regarded as one of the greatest comedians of all time. He received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, five Grammy Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Williams was awarded the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2005.

Born in Chicago, Williams began performing stand-up comedy in San Francisco and Los Angeles during the mid-1970s, and released several comedy albums including Reality ... What a Concept in 1980. He rose to fame playing the alien Mork in the ABC sitcom Mork & Mindy (1978–1982). Williams received his first leading film role in Popeye (1980). Williams won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Good Will Hunting (1997). His other Oscar-nominated roles were for Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Dead Poets Society (1989), and The Fisher King (1991).

Williams starred in the critically acclaimed dramas The World According to Garp (1982), Moscow on the Hudson (1984), Awakenings (1990), Insomnia (2002), One Hour Photo (2002), and World's Greatest Dad (2009). He also starred in Toys (1992), The Birdcage (1996), and Patch Adams (1998), as well as family films, such as Hook (1991), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Jumanji (1995), Jack (1996), Flubber (1997), RV (2006), and the Night at the Museum trilogy (2006–2014). Williams lent his voice to the animated films Aladdin (1992), Robots (2005), Happy Feet (2006), and its 2011 sequel.

During his career, Williams suffered substance abuse issues and instances of severe depression. He was found dead at his home in Paradise Cay, California, in August 2014, at age 63. His death was ruled a suicide. According to his widow, Williams had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and had been experiencing depression, anxiety, and increasing paranoia. His autopsy found "diffuse Lewy body disease", and Lewy body dementia professionals said that his symptoms were consistent with dementia with Lewy bodies.

Williams married actress Valerie Velardi in 1978, following a live-in relationship with comedian Elayne Boosler. Velardi and Williams met in 1976 while he was working as a bartender at a San Francisco tavern. Their son, Zachary Pym, was born in 1983. Velardi and Williams were divorced in 1988.

While it was reported that Williams began an affair with Zachary's nanny, Marsha Garces, in 1986, Velardi stated in the 2018 documentary, Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind, that the relationship with Garces began after the two had separated. On April 30, 1989, Williams married Garces, who was six months pregnant with their first child. They had two children, Zelda Rae (born 1989) and Cody Alan (born 1991). In March 2008, Garces filed for divorce from Williams, citing irreconcilable differences. Their divorce was finalized in 2010.

In 2011, Williams married graphic designer Susan Schneider, and they remained married until his death. They lived at their house in Sea Cliff, San Francisco, California. Williams said, "My children give me a great sense of wonder. Just to see them develop into these extraordinary human beings."

In New York City, Williams was part of the West Side YMCA runners club and showed promising results with 31:25 minutes at a 10K run in Central Park in 1975. His favorite books were the Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov, and his favorite book as a child was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which he later shared with his children.

Williams was an enthusiast of both pen-and-paper role-playing games and video games. His daughter Zelda was named after the title character from The Legend of Zelda, a family favorite video game series, and Williams sometimes performed at consumer entertainment trade shows.

Williams was a big fan of anime and collectible figures. His daughter described him as a "figurine hoarder"; one of his figures was the character Deunan Knute from the anime film Appleseed, which Williams was a fan of. He also liked the film Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence.

Williams also became a devoted cycling enthusiast, having taken up the sport partly as a substitute for drugs. Eventually, he accumulated a large bicycle collection and became a fan of professional road cycling, often traveling to racing events such as the Tour de France. In 2016, Williams' children donated 87 of his bicycles in support of the Challenged Athletes Foundation and Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.

Religion: Williams was raised and sometimes identified himself as an Episcopalian. In a comedy routine, Williams described his denomination as: "I have that idea of Chicago Protestant, Episcopal—Catholic light: half the religion, half the guilt."[130] He also described himself as an "honorary Jew", and on Israel's 60th Independence Day in 2008, Williams appeared in Times Square, along with several other celebrities, to wish Israel a happy birthday.

Philanthropy: In 1986, Williams teamed up with Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Crystal to establish Comic Relief USA. This annual HBO television benefit devoted to the homeless raised $80 million as of 2014. Bob Zmuda, creator of Comic Relief, explains that Williams felt blessed because he came from a wealthy home, but wanted to do something to help those less fortunate. Williams made benefit appearances to support literacy and women's rights, along with appearing at benefits for veterans. He was a regular on the USO circuit, where Williams traveled to 13 countries and performed to approximately 90,000 troops. After his end, the USO thanked Williams "for all he did for the men and women of our armed forces".

Williams and his second wife Marsha founded a philanthropic organization called the Windfall Foundation to raise money for many charities. In December 1999, he sang in French on the BBC-inspired music video of international celebrities doing a cover of The Rolling Stones single "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)" for the charity Children's Promise.

In response to the 2010 Canterbury earthquake, Williams donated all proceeds of his Weapons of Self Destruction Christchurch performance to help rebuild the New Zealand city. Half the proceeds were donated to the Red Cross and half to the mayoral building fund. Williams performed with the USO for U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For several years, Williams supported St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Substance abuse issues During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Williams had an addiction. He was a casual friend of John Belushi, and partied with the Saturday Night Live comedian the night before Belushi ended in 1982. The shock of Belushi's end, along with the birth of his son Zak, prompted Williams to quit: "Was it a wake-up call? Oh yeah, on a huge level. The grand jury helped, too." Williams turned to exercise and cycling to help alleviate his depression shortly after Belushi's end; according to bicycle shop owner Tony Tom, Williams said, "cycling saved my life".

In 2003, Williams started drinking again while working on the film The Big White (2005) in Alaska. In 2006, he checked in to a substance use rehabilitation center in Newberg, Oregon. Years afterward, Williams acknowledged his failure to maintain sobriety, but said that he never returned to using, declaring in a 2010 interview:

"Paranoid and impotent, what fun. There was no bit of me thinking, ooh, let's go back to that. Useless conversations until midnight, waking up at dawn feeling like a vampire on a day pass."

In mid-2014, Williams was admitted to the Hazelden Foundation Treatment Center in Center City, Minnesota, for treatment.

Health problems: In March 2009, Williams was hospitalized due to heart problems. He postponed his one-man tour for surgery to replace his aortic valve, repair his mitral valve and correct his irregular heartbeat. The surgery was completed March 13, 2009, at the Cleveland Clinic.

His publicist, Mara Buxbaum, commented that Williams had severe depression before his end. His wife, Susan Schneider, said that in the period before his end, Williams had been sober but was diagnosed with early-stage Parkinson's disease, which was information that he was "not yet ready to share publicly". An autopsy revealed that Williams had diffuse Lewy bodies (which had been misdiagnosed as Parkinson's), and this may have contributed to his depression.

In an essay published in the journal Neurology two years after his death, Schneider revealed that the pathology of Lewy body disease in Williams was described by several doctors as among the worst pathologies they had seen. She described the early symptoms of his disease as beginning in October 2013. Williams's initial condition included a sudden and prolonged spike in fear, anxiety, stress, and insomnia, which worsened in severity and included memory loss, paranoia, and delusions. According to Schneider, "Robin was losing his mind and he was aware of it ... He kept saying, 'I just want to reboot my brain.'"

Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created spontaneously and portrayed in drama and comedy films, he is regarded as one of the greatest comedians of all time. Williams received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and six Golden Globe Awards, as well as five Grammy Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. He was awarded the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2005.

Health struggles: Williams' widow, Susan Schneider Williams, later revealed that an autopsy confirmed he had been suffering from Lewy body dementia (LBD), a disease that was the cause of his severe depression and anxiety, which was initially misdiagnosed as Parkinson's disease. Mental health: His final years were marked by struggles with depression, anxiety, and increasing paranoia, according to his widow. Addiction and rehab: He checked himself into rehab in July 2014 to address his lifelong battle with alcohol and drug addiction. Final film: His last on-screen appearance was in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, released in 2014. Death: He ended by himself at his home in August 2014 at the age of 63. During his final years, Williams struggled with severe depression before his end in 2014 at his Paradise Cay, California, home at age 63. According to his widow, Williams had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and had been experiencing depression, anxiety, and increasing paranoia. His autopsy found "diffuse Lewy body disease", and Lewy body dementia professionals said his symptoms were consistent with dementia with Lewy bodies. In the weeks following his end, Williams was celebrated in a wave of tributes.

Williams married actress Valerie Velardi in 1978, following a live-in relationship with comedian, writer, and actress Elayne Boosler. Velardi and Williams met in 1976 while he was working as a bartender at a San Francisco tavern. Their son, Zachary Pym, was born in 1983. Velardi and Williams were divorced in 1988.

While it was reported that Williams began an affair with Zachary's nanny, Marsha Garces, in 1986, Velardi stated in the 2018 documentary, Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind, that the relationship with Garces began after the two had separated. On April 30, 1989, Williams married Garces, who was six months pregnant with their first child. They had two children, Zelda Rae (born 1989) and Cody Alan (born 1991). In March 2008, Garces filed for divorce from Williams, citing irreconcilable differences. Their divorce was finalized in 2010.

In 2011, Williams married graphic designer Susan Schneider, and they divorced soon after. They lived at their house in Sea Cliff, San Francisco, California. Williams said, "My children give me a great sense of wonder. Just to see them develop into these extraordinary human beings."

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Williams was addicted to cocaine. He was a casual friend of the Saturday Night Live comedian John Belushi, and partied with him the night before Belushi ended of a drug overdose in 1982. The shock of Belushi's end, along with the birth of his son Zak, prompted Williams to get sober: "Was it a wake-up call? Oh yeah, on a huge level. The grand jury helped, too." Williams turned to exercise and cycling to help alleviate his depression after Belushi's end; according to the bicycle shop owner Tony Tom, Williams said "cycling saved my life".

In 2003, Williams began alcohol again during production of the film The Big White (2005) in Alaska. In 2006, he checked into a substance-use rehabilitation center in Newberg, Oregon. Years later, Williams acknowledged his failure to maintain sobriety, but said that he never returned to using cocaine, saying in a 2010 interview: "Cocaine—paranoid and impotent, what fun. There was no bit of me thinking, ooh, let's go back to that. Useless conversations until midnight, waking up at dawn feeling like a vampire on a day pass." In mid-2014, Williams was admitted to the Hazelden Foundation Addiction Treatment Center in Center City, Minnesota, again for alcoholism.

In March 2009, Williams was hospitalized due to heart problems. He postponed his one-man tour for surgery to replace his aortic valve, repair his mitral valve and correct his irregular heartbeat. The surgery was completed March 13, 2009, at the Cleveland Clinic.

Williams's publicist, Mara Buxbaum, commented that he had severe depression before his death. His wife, Susan Schneider, said that in the period before his end, Williams had been sober but was diagnosed with early-stage Parkinson's disease, which he had not made public. An autopsy revealed that Williams had diffuse Lewy bodies, which had been misdiagnosed as Parkinson's, and this may have contributed to his depression.

In an essay published in the journal Neurology two years after his end, Schneider revealed that the pathology of Lewy body disease in Williams was described by several doctors as among the worst pathologies they had seen. She described the early symptoms of his disease as beginning in October 2013. Williams's initial condition included a sudden and prolonged spike in fear, anxiety, stress, and insomnia, which worsened in severity and included memory loss, paranoia, and delusions. According to Schneider, "Robin was losing his mind and he was aware of it ... He kept saying, 'I just want to reboot my brain.'"

Williams ended in his Paradise Cay, California, home on August 11, 2014. His primary cause of ending was declared as himself amid Lewy body dementia (LBD) and other associated factors. Describing the disease as "the terrorist inside my husband's brain", Schneider said that "however you look at it—the presence of Lewy bodies took his life", referring to his previous diagnosis of Parkinson's. She noted "how we as a culture don't have the vocabulary to discuss brain disease in the way we do about depression. Depression is a symptom of LBD and it's not about psychology – it's rooted in neurology. His brain was falling apart." Medical experts had earlier struggled to determine a cause, and had eventually diagnosed him with Parkinson's disease.

The Lewy Body Dementia Association (LBDA) clarified the distinction between the term used in Williams's autopsy report, "diffuse Lewy body dementia", which is more commonly called "diffuse Lewy body disease", and refers to the underlying disease process—and the umbrella term, "Lewy body dementia"—which encompasses both Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). According to LBDA spokesperson Dennis Dickson, "The report confirms he experienced depression, anxiety, and paranoia, which may occur in either Parkinson's disease or dementia with Lewy bodies. ... In early PD, Lewy bodies are generally limited in distribution, but in DLB, the Lewy bodies are spread widely throughout the brain, as was the case with Robin Williams." Ian G. McKeith, professor and researcher of Lewy body dementias, said that Williams's symptoms and autopsy findings were explained by DLB.

Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created spontaneously and portrayed in drama and comedy films, he is regarded as one of the greatest comedians of all time. Williams received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and six Golden Globe Awards, as well as five Grammy Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. He was awarded the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2005.

Health struggles: Williams' widow, Susan Schneider Williams, later revealed that an autopsy confirmed he had been suffering from Lewy body dementia (LBD), a disease that was the cause of his severe depression and anxiety, which was initially misdiagnosed as Parkinson's disease. Mental health: His final years were marked by struggles with depression, anxiety, and increasing paranoia, according to his widow. Addiction and rehab: He checked himself into rehab in July 2014 to address his lifelong battle with alcohol and drug addiction. Final film: His last on-screen appearance was in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, released in 2014. Death: He ended by himself at his home in August 2014 at the age of 63. During his final years, Williams struggled with severe depression before his end in 2014 at his Paradise Cay, California, home at age 63. According to his widow, Williams had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and had been experiencing depression, anxiety, and increasing paranoia. His autopsy found "diffuse Lewy body disease", and Lewy body dementia professionals said his symptoms were consistent with dementia with Lewy bodies. In the weeks following his end, Williams was celebrated in a wave of tributes.

Williams married actress Valerie Velardi in 1978, following a live-in relationship with comedian, writer, and actress Elayne Boosler. Velardi and Williams met in 1976 while he was working as a bartender at a San Francisco tavern. Their son, Zachary Pym, was born in 1983. Velardi and Williams were divorced in 1988.

While it was reported that Williams began an affair with Zachary's nanny, Marsha Garces, in 1986, Velardi stated in the 2018 documentary, Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind, that the relationship with Garces began after the two had separated. On April 30, 1989, Williams married Garces, who was six months pregnant with their first child. They had two children, Zelda Rae (born 1989) and Cody Alan (born 1991). In March 2008, Garces filed for divorce from Williams, citing irreconcilable differences. Their divorce was finalized in 2010.

In 2011, Williams married graphic designer Susan Schneider, and they divorced soon after. They lived at their house in Sea Cliff, San Francisco, California. Williams said, "My children give me a great sense of wonder. Just to see them develop into these extraordinary human beings."

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Williams was addicted to cocaine. He was a casual friend of the Saturday Night Live comedian John Belushi, and partied with him the night before Belushi ended of a drug overdose in 1982. The shock of Belushi's end, along with the birth of his son Zak, prompted Williams to get sober: "Was it a wake-up call? Oh yeah, on a huge level. The grand jury helped, too." Williams turned to exercise and cycling to help alleviate his depression after Belushi's end; according to the bicycle shop owner Tony Tom, Williams said "cycling saved my life".

In 2003, Williams began alcohol again during production of the film The Big White (2005) in Alaska. In 2006, he checked into a substance-use rehabilitation center in Newberg, Oregon. Years later, Williams acknowledged his failure to maintain sobriety, but said that he never returned to using cocaine, saying in a 2010 interview: "Cocaine—paranoid and impotent, what fun. There was no bit of me thinking, ooh, let's go back to that. Useless conversations until midnight, waking up at dawn feeling like a vampire on a day pass." In mid-2014, Williams was admitted to the Hazelden Foundation Addiction Treatment Center in Center City, Minnesota, again for alcoholism.

In March 2009, Williams was hospitalized due to heart problems. He postponed his one-man tour for surgery to replace his aortic valve, repair his mitral valve and correct his irregular heartbeat. The surgery was completed March 13, 2009, at the Cleveland Clinic.

Williams's publicist, Mara Buxbaum, commented that he had severe depression before his death. His wife, Susan Schneider, said that in the period before his end, Williams had been sober but was diagnosed with early-stage Parkinson's disease, which he had not made public. An autopsy revealed that Williams had diffuse Lewy bodies, which had been misdiagnosed as Parkinson's, and this may have contributed to his depression.

In an essay published in the journal Neurology two years after his end, Schneider revealed that the pathology of Lewy body disease in Williams was described by several doctors as among the worst pathologies they had seen. She described the early symptoms of his disease as beginning in October 2013. Williams's initial condition included a sudden and prolonged spike in fear, anxiety, stress, and insomnia, which worsened in severity and included memory loss, paranoia, and delusions. According to Schneider, "Robin was losing his mind and he was aware of it ... He kept saying, 'I just want to reboot my brain.'"

Williams ended in his Paradise Cay, California, home on August 11, 2014. His primary cause of ending was declared as himself amid Lewy body dementia (LBD) and other associated factors. Describing the disease as "the terrorist inside my husband's brain", Schneider said that "however you look at it—the presence of Lewy bodies took his life", referring to his previous diagnosis of Parkinson's. She noted "how we as a culture don't have the vocabulary to discuss brain disease in the way we do about depression. Depression is a symptom of LBD and it's not about psychology – it's rooted in neurology. His brain was falling apart." Medical experts had earlier struggled to determine a cause, and had eventually diagnosed him with Parkinson's disease.

The Lewy Body Dementia Association (LBDA) clarified the distinction between the term used in Williams's autopsy report, "diffuse Lewy body dementia", which is more commonly called "diffuse Lewy body disease", and refers to the underlying disease process—and the umbrella term, "Lewy body dementia"—which encompasses both Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). According to LBDA spokesperson Dennis Dickson, "The report confirms he experienced depression, anxiety, and paranoia, which may occur in either Parkinson's disease or dementia with Lewy bodies. ... In early PD, Lewy bodies are generally limited in distribution, but in DLB, the Lewy bodies are spread widely throughout the brain, as was the case with Robin Williams." Ian G. McKeith, professor and researcher of Lewy body dementias, said that Williams's symptoms and autopsy findings were explained by DLB.

Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and comedies alike, Williams is regarded as one of the greatest comedians of all time. He received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, five Grammy Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Williams was awarded the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2005.

Born in Chicago, Williams began performing stand-up comedy in San Francisco and Los Angeles during the mid-1970s, and released several comedy albums including Reality ... What a Concept in 1980. He rose to fame playing the alien Mork in the ABC sitcom Mork & Mindy (1978–1982). Williams received his first leading film role in Popeye (1980). Williams won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Good Will Hunting (1997). His other Oscar-nominated roles were for Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Dead Poets Society (1989), and The Fisher King (1991).

Williams starred in the critically acclaimed dramas The World According to Garp (1982), Moscow on the Hudson (1984), Awakenings (1990), Insomnia (2002), One Hour Photo (2002), and World's Greatest Dad (2009). He also starred in Toys (1992), The Birdcage (1996), and Patch Adams (1998), as well as family films, such as Hook (1991), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Jumanji (1995), Jack (1996), Flubber (1997), RV (2006), and the Night at the Museum trilogy (2006–2014). Williams lent his voice to the animated films Aladdin (1992), Robots (2005), Happy Feet (2006), and its 2011 sequel.

During his career, Williams suffered substance abuse issues and instances of severe depression. He was found dead at his home in Paradise Cay, California, in August 2014, at age 63. His death was ruled a suicide. According to his widow, Williams had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and had been experiencing depression, anxiety, and increasing paranoia. His autopsy found "diffuse Lewy body disease", and Lewy body dementia professionals said that his symptoms were consistent with dementia with Lewy bodies.

Williams married actress Valerie Velardi in 1978, following a live-in relationship with comedian Elayne Boosler. Velardi and Williams met in 1976 while he was working as a bartender at a San Francisco tavern. Their son, Zachary Pym, was born in 1983. Velardi and Williams were divorced in 1988.

While it was reported that Williams began an affair with Zachary's nanny, Marsha Garces, in 1986, Velardi stated in the 2018 documentary, Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind, that the relationship with Garces began after the two had separated. On April 30, 1989, Williams married Garces, who was six months pregnant with their first child. They had two children, Zelda Rae (born 1989) and Cody Alan (born 1991). In March 2008, Garces filed for divorce from Williams, citing irreconcilable differences. Their divorce was finalized in 2010.

In 2011, Williams married graphic designer Susan Schneider, and they remained married until his death. They lived at their house in Sea Cliff, San Francisco, California. Williams said, "My children give me a great sense of wonder. Just to see them develop into these extraordinary human beings."

In New York City, Williams was part of the West Side YMCA runners club and showed promising results with 31:25 minutes at a 10K run in Central Park in 1975. His favorite books were the Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov, and his favorite book as a child was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which he later shared with his children.

Williams was an enthusiast of both pen-and-paper role-playing games and video games. His daughter Zelda was named after the title character from The Legend of Zelda, a family favorite video game series, and Williams sometimes performed at consumer entertainment trade shows.

Williams was a big fan of anime and collectible figures. His daughter described him as a "figurine hoarder"; one of his figures was the character Deunan Knute from the anime film Appleseed, which Williams was a fan of. He also liked the film Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence.

Williams also became a devoted cycling enthusiast, having taken up the sport partly as a substitute for drugs. Eventually, he accumulated a large bicycle collection and became a fan of professional road cycling, often traveling to racing events such as the Tour de France. In 2016, Williams' children donated 87 of his bicycles in support of the Challenged Athletes Foundation and Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.

Religion: Williams was raised and sometimes identified himself as an Episcopalian. In a comedy routine, Williams described his denomination as: "I have that idea of Chicago Protestant, Episcopal—Catholic light: half the religion, half the guilt."[130] He also described himself as an "honorary Jew", and on Israel's 60th Independence Day in 2008, Williams appeared in Times Square, along with several other celebrities, to wish Israel a happy birthday.

Philanthropy: In 1986, Williams teamed up with Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Crystal to establish Comic Relief USA. This annual HBO television benefit devoted to the homeless raised $80 million as of 2014. Bob Zmuda, creator of Comic Relief, explains that Williams felt blessed because he came from a wealthy home, but wanted to do something to help those less fortunate. Williams made benefit appearances to support literacy and women's rights, along with appearing at benefits for veterans. He was a regular on the USO circuit, where Williams traveled to 13 countries and performed to approximately 90,000 troops. After his end, the USO thanked Williams "for all he did for the men and women of our armed forces".

Williams and his second wife Marsha founded a philanthropic organization called the Windfall Foundation to raise money for many charities. In December 1999, he sang in French on the BBC-inspired music video of international celebrities doing a cover of The Rolling Stones single "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)" for the charity Children's Promise.

In response to the 2010 Canterbury earthquake, Williams donated all proceeds of his Weapons of Self Destruction Christchurch performance to help rebuild the New Zealand city. Half the proceeds were donated to the Red Cross and half to the mayoral building fund. Williams performed with the USO for U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For several years, Williams supported St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Substance abuse issues During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Williams had an addiction. He was a casual friend of John Belushi, and partied with the Saturday Night Live comedian the night before Belushi ended in 1982. The shock of Belushi's end, along with the birth of his son Zak, prompted Williams to quit: "Was it a wake-up call? Oh yeah, on a huge level. The grand jury helped, too." Williams turned to exercise and cycling to help alleviate his depression shortly after Belushi's end; according to bicycle shop owner Tony Tom, Williams said, "cycling saved my life".

In 2003, Williams started drinking again while working on the film The Big White (2005) in Alaska. In 2006, he checked in to a substance use rehabilitation center in Newberg, Oregon. Years afterward, Williams acknowledged his failure to maintain sobriety, but said that he never returned to using, declaring in a 2010 interview:

"Paranoid and impotent, what fun. There was no bit of me thinking, ooh, let's go back to that. Useless conversations until midnight, waking up at dawn feeling like a vampire on a day pass."

In mid-2014, Williams was admitted to the Hazelden Foundation Treatment Center in Center City, Minnesota, for treatment.

Health problems: In March 2009, Williams was hospitalized due to heart problems. He postponed his one-man tour for surgery to replace his aortic valve, repair his mitral valve and correct his irregular heartbeat. The surgery was completed March 13, 2009, at the Cleveland Clinic.

His publicist, Mara Buxbaum, commented that Williams had severe depression before his end. His wife, Susan Schneider, said that in the period before his end, Williams had been sober but was diagnosed with early-stage Parkinson's disease, which was information that he was "not yet ready to share publicly". An autopsy revealed that Williams had diffuse Lewy bodies (which had been misdiagnosed as Parkinson's), and this may have contributed to his depression.

In an essay published in the journal Neurology two years after his death, Schneider revealed that the pathology of Lewy body disease in Williams was described by several doctors as among the worst pathologies they had seen. She described the early symptoms of his disease as beginning in October 2013. Williams's initial condition included a sudden and prolonged spike in fear, anxiety, stress, and insomnia, which worsened in severity and included memory loss, paranoia, and delusions. According to Schneider, "Robin was losing his mind and he was aware of it ... He kept saying, 'I just want to reboot my brain.'"

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome: Robin Williams! the announcer stated.

Robin Williams enters on stage, a table full of bottled water for him. The tall screen behind him on stage holding the words 'Weapons of Self Destruction' in bold. He waves, walking funny to the front of the stage. The crowd goes wild.

"Thank you! Thank you!" He said, trying to settle the crowd down for the moment. "Lovely to be here!" He said triumphantly.