Fan Fest News

News for Fans, By Fans!

Sam Neill Reflects on the Life and Legacy of Beloved Actor and Friend, Robin Williams

Get your hankies ready, because this one is sure to bring a few tears. Sam Neill, star of Jurassic Park, has just released his personal memoir Did I Ever Tell You This which takes us on an in-depth journey throughout his illustrious career while highlighting the meaningful connections and relationships he formed along the way – even delving into his battle with stage three blood cancer (which he thankfully appears to have conquered).

According to Deadline, one of the most devastating revelations was about Robin Williams, who passed away in 2014 at age 63 due to Lewy body dementia. This debilitating illness robbed him of his ability to act as he once could and ultimately led him to take his own life.

Sam Neill Reflects on the Life and Legacy of Beloved Actor and Friend, Robin Williams

Neill worked with Williams on 1999’s Bicentennial Man, and singles their friendship out as something special. The pair would visit each other’s trailers, with Neill saying “We would talk about this and that, sometimes even about the work we were about to do” and describing his co-star as “irresistibly, outrageously, irrepressibly, gigantically funny.”

But there was a dark side to Williams, with Neill summing him up as “The saddest person I ever met.”

“He had fame, he was rich, people loved him, great kids—the world was his oyster. And yet I felt more sorry for him than I can express. He was the loneliest man on a lonely planet … inconsolably solitary and deeply depressed.”

Neill believes that Williams used his comedic abilities as a form of therapy for himself, saying that “funny stuff just poured out of him,” and that he was only truly happy when making other people laugh: “everybody was in stitches, and when everybody was in stitches, you could see Robin was happy.”

It looks like Neill isn’t stopping anytime soon – he’s got four movies in the pipeline, including The Portable Door, The Assassin Club, Scarygirl and Bring Him to Me, with a role lined up for Peacock’s limited series Apples Never Fall. Furthermore, keep an eye out on his social media accounts as he updates almost daily from New Zealand about taking care of all kinds of cute animals!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *