THE WORLD WAS ROBBED
ROBIN Williams was one of the world's best-loved actors and comedians at the time of his sudden and unexpected death.
The talented American would have turned 70 years old on Wednesday, July 21, 2021. This year marks the seventh anniversary of his death.
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How did Robin Williams die?
Robin Williams died at the age of 63 at his home in Paradise Cay, California in 2014.
The Chicago-born actor died by suicide after being misdiagnosed with Parkinson's and falling into a state of depression.
No illegal drugs or alcohol traces were found in his system, only "therapeutic" levels of prescription drugs.
Robin had been suffering from diffuse Lewy body dementia, a neurodegenerative disorder which causes slowed responses, physical rigidity and sometimes depression, many believe that his misdiagnosis led to the suicide.
His ashes were scattered at San Francisco Bay on August 12, 2014.
Barack Obama was one of the many people who paid tribute to the star back then and said he touched "every element of the human spirit" in his career.
Just before Robin died he had admitted himself to a rehab centre in Minnesota for alcohol addiction.
Robin's publicist had said her client was suffering from "severe depression" prior to his death.
His widow Susan Schneider said the first symptoms of the disease appeared in October 2013 and included fear and anxiety, constipation, urinary difficulty, heartburn, sleeplessness and insomnia, a poor sense of smell, stress, and a slight tremor in his left hand.
Eventually, he suffered problems with his memory, and with intense paranoia, with Susan commenting: "Robin was losing his mind and he was aware of it... He kept saying, 'I just want to reboot my brain'."
His tragic final days were revealed in a book that explained how his mind and body faded from an incurable brain disorder the actor was unaware he had.
"He was sobbing in my arms at the end of every day," makeup artist Cheri Minns said in Dave Itzkoff's book, Robin.
She went on: "It was horrible... I said to his people, 'I'm a makeup artist. I don’t have the capacity to deal with what’s happening to him.'"
When did Robin Williams son Zak say about his misdiagnosis?
In July 2021, Robin's son, Zak Williams, opened up on The Genius Life podcast, alongside host Max Lugavere, about the effects of his father's misdiagnosis on what would've been his 70th birthday.
"What I saw was frustration," Zak said "What he was going through didn't match one to one [with what] many Parkinson's patients experience," he continued. "So, I think that was hard for him."
It was not discovered until after his death that Robin was misdiagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
"There was a focus issue that frustrated him, there were issues associated with how he felt and also from a neurological perspective he didn't feel great," adding, "He was very uncomfortable."
Zak added in that his father's suicide also led to his own problems surrounding mental health.
"I was heavily drinking to manage my mental health where it created very harmful issues. For me personally, I was having health issues. I was experiencing some psychosis and when I spoke with a psychiatrist I was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder," he shared.
Zak currently works as a mental health advocate and has become good friends with Prince Harry.
What was Robin Williams' background and how did his career begin?
Robin McLaurin Williams was born on July 21, 1951, and had two older half-brothers.
He claims to have used humor to gain his mother's attention during childhood, and his school friends have said he was very funny in class.
He was named "Most Likely Not To Succeed" and "Funniest" in his 1969 high school graduation book.
He dropped out of his political science degree to study acting and his first role at college was as Fagin in Oliver!.
He then studied at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York alongside Christopher Reeve, who became a long-time friend of Robin, and William Hurt.
In the mid-1970s, he began performing a "manic" style of stand-up, which got him noticed in 1977, and he landed a spot on the TV show Laugh-In.
Robin says the stress of stand-up triggered his alcohol and drug dependency early in his career.
Other TV work included The Richard Pryor Show, comedy special Off The Wall, Happy Days and his own spin-off show from Happy Days called Mork & Mindy, which was incredibly popular.
Then came his first major movie role, as the lead in 1980 film Popeye, and his Hollywood career took off after that.
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What are Robin's best-known movie roles?
After Popeye, Robin's big breakthrough movie hit was Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) which saw him play a maverick radio DJ broadcasting to soldiers.
Robin improvised much of his performance and won a Golden Globe for it, losing out to Michael Douglas in the Best Actor Oscars section.
Then, in 1989, he played another inspirational figure - an English teacher in Dead Poets Society, whose unorthodox methods and speeches about life inspire his miserable prep school pupils.
A few years later he starred in two Disney movies - Hook, as a grown-up version of Peter Pan who'd forgotten about his childhood, and Aladdin, as the genie.
But his best-known and perhaps best-loved role was in Mrs Doubtfire in 1993, in which he plays a father desperate to stay in his kids' lives, and pretends to be a female housemaid in order to do so.
He continued his string of family-friendly hits with Jumanji (1995), and the sci-fi caper Flubber (1997).
In the same year as Flubber, Good Will Hunting was released, in which Robin co-starred with young actor Matt Damon as his therapist.
This earned him his first and only Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
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After that, he played a rebellious robot in Bicentennial Man (1999), before taking on his most distinctive and surprising role as a troubled supermarket worker in thriller One Hour Photo (2002).
He also appeared in Christopher Nolan's Insomnia, and later in life voiced a character in both the Happy Feet movies, and played Theodore Roosevelt in three Night At The Museum movies.
His final role was in Terry Jones' Absolutely Anything, voicing Dennis The Dog.
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