Actor and Comedian Robin Williams Found Dead at 63 of Apparent Suicide
Image by Getty Images
Oscar-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams was found dead on Monday from an apparent suicide at his home in Northern California, Marin County Sheriff’s Office said. He was 63.
The sheriff’s coroner’s division said it suspects the death was a suicide due to asphyxia, but the cause of death is still under investigation.
“This morning, I lost my husband and my best friend, while the world lost one of its most beloved artists and beautiful human beings. I am utterly heartbroken,” Williams’s wife Susan Schneider said in a statement.
Williams, who won an Academy Award for his role as a fatherly therapist in 1997’s “Good Will Hunting,” had been suffering from severe depression recently, his publicist Mara Buxbaum said.
Williams, who introduced his frenetic style on late 1970s TV series “Mork & Mindy” and had struggled with addiction in the past, had entered a Minnesota rehabilitation center last month to help him maintain sobriety.
His representatives at the time said Williams was not using drugs or alcohol but had gone to the center to “fine-tune and focus” his sobriety after working a longer-than-usual schedule.
Though he grew up Episcopalian in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, the comedian had an affinity for Jews which came through in many of his roles.
In March, Williams even tweeted a photo of himself wearing a yarmulke, on the set of “The Crazy Ones.”
Too late for a career change? Rabbi Robin? #CrazyOnes #zachmitzvah pic.twitter.com/9ByhcQz5tG
— Robin Williams (@robinwilliams) February 28, 2014
Thanks, everyone! #CrazyOnes #zachmitzvah pic.twitter.com/AGUXND97Gq
— Robin Williams (@robinwilliams) February 28, 2014
The Marin County Sheriff’s office said it received an emergency call about noon local time on Monday, saying that Williams was unconscious and not breathing at his home near Tiburon, north of San Francisco.
Fellow comedic actor Steve Martin said in a tweet: “I could not be more stunned by the loss of Robin Williams, mensch, great talent, acting partner, genuine soul.”
I could not be more stunned by the loss of Robin Williams, mensch, great talent, acting partner, genuine soul.
— Steve Martin (@SteveMartinToGo) August 11, 2014
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
