Robin Williams was a legendary actor, but it was his legacy off-screen that continues to endure all these years after his death. Take this story from the set of Mrs. Doubtfire. Williams came to the aid of his co-star Sally Field when her father died suddenly.
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Williams and Field starred opposite of each other in the film. When her father passed, she didn't want to disrupt the filming of the movie. That's when Williams stepped in to make sure that Field got the time off that she needed.
"I never shared this story before," Field said. "I was in the camper outside of the courtroom where we were shooting the divorce scene. My father had a stroke a couple of years before, and was in a nursing facility. I got a phone call from the doctor saying my father had passed — a massive stroke. He asked if I wanted them to put him on the resuscitator. I said, 'No, he did not want that. Just let him go. And please lean down and say, 'Sally says goodbye.'"
Robin Williams Came To Sally Field's Aid
The actor said that she was "beside myself" upon learning that her father had passed. She tried to mask her feelings. She said, "I came on the set trying with all my might to act. I wasn't crying. Robin came over, pulled me out of the set, and asked, 'Are you okay?'" Williams was more than understanding when he learned about Field's personal tragedy. He made sure that she took the time she needed.
"Oh my God, we need to get you out here right now," he reportedly responded. "And he made it happen — they shot around me the rest of the day," Field stated. "I could go back to my house, call my brother and make arrangements. It's a side of Robin that people rarely knew: He was very sensitive and intuitive."
Williams ended up passing away by his own hand after being diagnosed with Lewy body dementia. Williams' widow, Susan Schneider Williams, addressed the diagnosis.
"We had unknowingly been battling a deadly disease," she said in the doc. "A disease for which there is no cure. The devastation on Robin's brain from Lewy bodies was one of the worst cases medical professionals have ever seen, yet throughout all of this his heart remained strong."
