Hi guys, this is Hannah, and we’re going
to talk about some serious stuff here…
this is something I’ve always wanted to
talk about…
I haven’t seen anyone who linked this in
order to explain their thoughts towards Robin’s passing.
Let’s go back to 2002.
Robin was promoting a movie called One Hour Photo,
and this interview was conducted by Lawrence Grobel,
who is an excellent interviewer,
and previously he interviewed Robin for Playboy,
which was also a great interview.
He’s one of the few interviewers in the world
who was able to make Robin sit down and talk serious.
And for this 2002 piece for Autograph magazine,
Larry Grobel did 83 rapid-fire QnA with Robin.
Now, there are two questions out of 83 of
them that caught my attention
and changed my view towards Robin permanently.
One of them is the main reason why I’m doing this video.
When Larry Grobel asked,
what is your worst fear?
And Robin answered,
“losing your mind, your memory, your ability to think.”
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened
at the end of his life.
He was straightforwardly saying he was afraid
of some form close to dementia.
There are some reasons why this had a big
impact on me.
One thing was that he knew pretty well about
diseases
that happen in the brain and the nervous system.
Not in the professional sense, of course,
but his knowledge was above average.
He was a friend to a neuroscientist/doctor/writer
named Oliver Sacks.
They met for one of Robin’s movies,
called Awakenings,
which also starred Robert de Niro.
Robin played Malcolm Sayer,
who was based on Sacks.
Oliver wasn’t as close friend as Robin’s
other best friends,
like Billy Crystal, Billy Connolly, Eric Idle,
and Bobcat Goldthwait,
but they sometimes met up to chat about neuroscience.
Robin was not only familiar with Oliver’s
work
and his patients including Parkinsonian patients
due to movie prepping for Awakenings,
but also he was very much interested in science,
especially physics and biology.
One of Robin’s all-time heroes was Albert
Einstein,
and he used to have Einstein’s autograph.
You deserve a little taste of reality now,
so...
Look at that.
A. Einstein.
It’s not Alfred there, it’s Albert.
Albert Einstein.
Very special man, wasn’t he, Mr. Williams?
Very.
Yeah, it's yours now.
You’re gonna be the keeper of the flame.
[JOKING] You afraid of getting burned or something? Here. There you go.
You keep it for a while,
And you give it to your little one,
They grow up, give it to someone special,
and it keeps going on.
He was also a friend to Michael J. Fox,
and attended several events held by TeamFox,
which is a research institution
specialized in Parkinson’s disease.
Robin understood and witnessed
what happens to a person with dementia or Parkinson’s disease.
Whereas, most people have a hard time understanding
dementia
until one of their loved ones actually have
them.
I want to share my insight for understanding,
especially Lewy Body Dementia,
which is different from Parkinson’s.
Parkinson’s make you have tremors,
and that ends up spreading through your body,
making your whole body shake out of control.
And there are other things,
like something close to dementia,
such as losing your memory,
hallucinations and mood difficulties.
Nowadays, Parkinsonian patients
are provided with better treatment,
which enhanced their life expectancy
to 10 – 20 years or even more.
It is believed Parkinsonian patients will
not die from the disease itself,
but from a fatal fall or pneumonia.
Parkinsonian patients tend to have motor disturbances
first
and then dementia comes after,
while Lewy Body’s is the other way around.
For Lewy Body Dementia,
it’s the one of the most frequently misdiagnosed form of dementia.
It’s only after autopsy
people find out the person had Lewy Body Dementia.
Robin was misdiagnosed for Parkinson’s disease.
And unfortunately,
he noticed hints that it wasn’t Parkinson’s.
He asked more questions after the doctor diagnosed
him,
asking if this is Alzheimer’s or schizophrenia
instead.
To all of them, the doctor said no.
Lewy Body dementia’s symptoms can vary.
But what happens is – I’ll put it simply.
You can’t sleep.
You have nightmares.
You often have miscalculations with the normal
things.
For example, you stand in front of a door
for half an hour,
not knowing what to do.
You freeze up motionlessly,
slipping in and out of consciousness, constantly.
You lose memories.
You forget what you just did,
and you forget what you were about to say.
You see inexistent things you don’t want
to see.
You become paranoid and even feel guilty for
everything.
These symptoms are what Robin’s widow, Susan,
said Robin experienced.
Eventually, you lose complete control over
your physical and mental self.
And the life expectancy is way shorter than
Parkinson’s,
being only 5-7 years or less.
After Robin’s autopsy,
doctors who reviewed his files all said
his case was one of the worst pathologies
they had ever seen,
and perhaps Robin would have had less than
3 years to live.
Not only that, he was prescribed
with antipsychotic medications to help his anxiety,
which can potentially lead Lewy Body Dementia patients to a fatal condition called
neuroleptic malignant syndrome,
leading up to fever and kidney failure.
I apologize for sidetracking,
but what I wanted to say was
Robin knew what he was afraid of,
and he experienced the terrifying reality
of his worst nightmare coming true.
Another reason why Robin’s answer to the
question had an impact on me was…
he had that same question asked by many different
interviewers
for the past decade.
Billy Connolly’s wife, Pamela Stephenson,
did a TV interview with Robin,
one time asking the same question.
What was shocking is that Robin answered them the same way every single time.
Losing your mind, your memory, your ability
to think.
What do you worry about?
Incontinence, no.
Like what just happened.
I think it’s just the idea of losing your
mind.
When you see that…
Hopefully the research will kick in, by the
time I get older…
That the idea that the mind will go away.
When you really want to keep reading,
learning and learning,
And then you realize at a certain point…
It’ll start to go out the way it came in.
It means Robin had a clear idea
what he was most afraid of.
He was, contrary to what most people think,
an introvert.
He not only loved communicating with the audience,
but he also loved to think by himself,
listen to other people, and read good books.
He was an introspective thinker and a good
listener.
He must have thought about it again and again,
and he must have come to the conclusion of
what he was most afraid of.
Think about the emotional impact
Lewy Body Dementia must have had on him.
He could have had depression for his whole life due to his introspective and sensitive nature.
But as far as I know, the first time Robin
was getting serious medical help
for severe depression was after Lewy Body
Dementia happened to him.
The only friend of Robin’s who, I think,
truly understood what Robin possibly went through is Glenn Close.
Last year, at Christopher Reeve Foundation,
she gave a speech, paying tribute to Chris Reeve,
but at the same time, to Robin as well, by saying,
“I am convinced that if Chris were still with us, Robin would be too.”
They would have understood each other,
even deeply by incurable degenerative diseases
that rigidified their physical body,
and they would have lifted each other up to the end.
My first connection to Christopher Reeve was
through Robin Williams, when we were shooting
The World According to Garp.
Their friendship - their connection - is the
stuff of legend.
It not only endured but became a life-giving
force sustaining them both.
I am convinced that if Chris were still with
us, Robin would be too.
We’re getting towards the end of this video
and I don’t want to leave you feeling uncomfortable,
so…
there is one more question Robin answered.
Larry Grobel asked, “what would you like
to be known for?”
Robin said, “the benevolent fool.”
“Fool” - He was a fool because of his
profession.
Comedians are clowns and fools, and we are
proud to have them in our society.
“Benevolent” – if Robin thought he could
be a help, he did it.
The USO tours he did in Afghanistan and Iraq.
But…uh-oh!
[MUSIC]
[PEOPLE APPLAUSE]
I’m not gonna forget that.
I’ve never had an entire audience go,
“Forget you!”
“You have no idea!”
Comic Relief.
He not only did those, he also visited children’s
hospitals anonymously,
donated a fortune to numerous charities,
and he rarely walked off anyone who wanted his autograph.
He knew what he wanted to be.
And he acted upon it.
That’s a nice name, isn’t it?
“The benevolent fool.”
