When the Laughter Stops. Robin’s Wish (a review)

Robin Williams took his own life in 2014. Why would somebody so gifted and beloved do that? Robin’s Wish is a documentary produced by family and friends, attempts to explain why.

I grew up with Robin Williams. I remember watching Mork and Mindy every Saturday at tea-time. This guy, from a different planet, hurtling through my world at electric, breakneck speed. I believed he really was from a different planet and I wanted to be his friend. He was there as I grew up; in Good Morning Vietnam (1987), Hook (1991), Aladdin (1992) and Mrs Doubtfire (1993). But he wasn’t just a noisy clown, he spent years training as an actor at New York’s Juilliard School of acting. He regularly appeared in some powerful, thought provoking films: Dead Poets Society (1989), Awakenings (1990), The Fisher King (1991), Good Will Hunting (1997), What Dreams May Come (1998) and One Hour Photo (2002), reminding us what an incredibly talented actor he was.

I have always been interested in comedians and the art of being funny. I have studied the lives of Andy Kaufman, Mel Brooks, Steve Martin, Rik Mayall, Eric Idle and Billy Connolly in an attempt to learn how being funny actually works. Unfortunately, being a great comedian, like any other great artist, success requires a lot of hard work, good friends, great timing and a little luck. You might start with raw talent, but often there is a dark force driving you on – an overwhelming need to run towards or away from something.

Emily Herbert’s thoughtful biography: Robin Williams: When the Laughter Stops 1951 – 2014 (2014) explains how difficult it is for a young comedian to balance fame and burnout, especially when addicted to drugs and battling depression. Similar to his friend, Richard Pryor, Robin used to weave his own bitter experiences into his routines. As the audience, we just see the times when being funny works, there is a connection with us. Sometimes the connection just isn’t there a comedian is left alone on that tightrope. When that happens, great comedians just keep going.

Like following a trail of breadcrumbs laid especially for me, it is so pleasing when one area of interest send me off down a totally different and interesting rabbit hole. Robin’s friendship with Christopher Reeve is mentioned quite often prominently. I recently reflected on the autobiography of Christopher Reeve, Still Me (1999) as I was very interested in how he came to terms with a life changing disability. Robin’s friendship and support was very important to him and as he began a new life with quadriplegia. To celebrate how well his friend was doing, Robin threw a party for Reeve every year on the anniversary of the accident.

Robin took his own life in 2014. He had struggled with depression and drugs throughout his life, but final chapter of When the Laughter Stops (2014) does not cover his last years in much depth. In the frenzied tabloid aftermath of his death, it emerged that Robin and his wife, Susan Schneider Williams, had been sleeping in separate rooms for some time. Something had gone very wrong, but nobody knew exactly what.

Six years after his death, Robin’s Wish adds this missing piece to his story. Produced by family and friends to recount Robin’s turbulent last few years as he faced a progressive, incurable condition without a proper diagnosis, it is a very hard watch. Robin’s official cause of death is asphyxia, but the documentary wants to make it clear that he died with Lewy body dementia.

According to Dementia UK, “Lewy body dementia is a progressive, complex and challenging condition” and “is caused by abnormal clumps of protein (called Lewy bodies) gathering inside brain cells. These Lewy bodies can build up in many parts of the brain but particularly in the areas responsible for thought, movement, visual perception and regulating sleep and alertness.” The cognitive effects of the condition are especially chilling. Although “memory is often less affected than with other types of dementia, people may be at more risk of mood and behaviour changes such as apathy, anxiety, depression, delusions and paranoia”.

I feel some empathy here, as I have been facing down my own incurable and progressive condition since 1990. Of course, there are some big differences: I have a diagnosis, a prognosis to follow. I have always known what challenges will coming and have been able to plan for them. However, my symptoms are physical, not cognitive. Secondly, the progression of my condition is very slow, it has given me time to have children, a good career, a full life in voluntary work and to write a book. Robin went from having tests to gradually losing his grip on reality and ending his life in just three years. Robin did had the very good example set for him by Christopher Reeve, but his great friend had died in 2004. I believe that with a proper diagnosis and support, Robin would have had much better options.

His diagnosis of severe Lewy body dementia was made after his death. He had been tested extensively and incorrectly diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Although he had the love and support of family and friends, Robin did not understand what was happening to him and would face it alone. In the documentary, Walter Koroshetz MD explains how depression is perceived as the sole responsibility of the individual – setting up the loneliest of struggles. Robin must have felt his world unravelling every day, he was losing the thing that most defined him, his quick witted, improvisational a style – and he didn’t know why.

In his last film, Night at the Museum 3 (2014), you can see Robin has a slightly bewildered look as he follows the other characters from scene to scene. This doesn’t look out of place and could be down to good acting. He gets all his lines out, but that’s it. None of his trademark riffing or improvisation. In the documentary, the director, Shawn Levy, explains how difficult Robin was finding the acting and how he was calling him in the early hours to ask for reassurance. Levy knew something was wrong and had to work hard when editing the film to compensate for this.

Robin is still inspiring me. His last words selected for this documentary blew my mind. He explains that true happiness is found in people, this is something that I believe and it chimes nicely with a key message of my forthcoming book, Disability Is Other People: My Superhero Story.

Robin may have lost his final battle with dementia, but he succeeded in his lifelong goal – To make people less afraid. That was Robin’s wish. If he had a proper diagnosis, I have no doubt he would have fought on to bring about a societal acceptance of Dementia, to make people less afraid of it. Thanks to this documentary, we know that Robin was the man we all knew and loved to the very end.

Richard C Brown MBE – May 2024