As he stepped out on stage last year to hawk his big TV comeback in
front of advertisers, comedy great Robin Williams joked it was 'nice to
have a job where the checks will clear.'
After making his name as
the eccentric and beloved alien on 1970s TV hit Mork and Mindy, Robin
transferred his attentions to Hollywood with a stream of box office
hits.
But after acclaim and an Oscar, the movie career started to
dry up and the actor signed up for CBS show The Crazy Ones, a
small-screen comedy about a 'renowned and slightly unhinged' advertising
genius/madman.
While undoubtedly a coup for the network - CBS
President Nina Tassler called him 'the biggest get of the season,
actually many seasons' and 'one of the defining comedy voices of our
time' - Robin was quick to admit he took the gig for cash.
The
star's off-the-cuff joke to the room of TV executives, it turned out,
was not so funny - in fact, he was being serious. Behind the grin, Robin
was dogged by 'serious money troubles' from two divorces that had
prompted him to put a Napa home up for sale, and was struggling with
depression.
In September 2013, Robin told
Parade magazine:
'The idea of having a steady job is appealing. I have two [other]
choices: go on the road doing stand-up, or do small, independent movies
working almost for scale [minimum union pay].
'The movies are
good, but a lot of times they don’t even have distribution. There are
bills to pay. My life has downsized, in a good way. I’m selling the
ranch up in Napa. I just can’t afford it anymore.'
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Maintaining his sobriety: On June 29 Robin Williams was spotted at a
Dairy Queen in Minnesota, not far from Hazelden, where he was receiving
treatment
Rehab: Robin Williams went the Hazelden just weeks before his death.
It is located in Minnesota and their Lodge department specializes in
helping patients achieve long-term sobriety
Third time's a charm: Robin Williams with his third wife Susan
Schneider at the Old Dogs premiere in LA in 2009. He later said he did
the film to pay the bills
The ranch he referred to was the 640-acre Napa Valley property that
he originally quietly listed in 2012 for $35 million, but was officially
put up for sale in April this year for $29.9 million.
Dubbed
Villa Sorriso
- Villa of Smiles - the estate is tucked into the Mayacamas Mountains
between Napa and Sonoma. Today, a source confirmed to MailOnline the
property has not yet been sold and remains on the market.
And yes,
there were bills to pay. Robin's two divorces - his first from Valerie
Velardi in 1988 and the second from Marsha Garces in 2008 - had
reportedly wrecked his finances and cost him $30 million, according to
sources including ABC News.
When asked if he had lost all his
fortune, the father-of-three told Parade: 'Well, not all. Lost enough.
Divorce is expensive. I used to joke they were going to call it ‘all the
money,’ but they changed it to ‘alimony.’ It’s ripping your heart out
through your wallet. Are things good with my exes? Yes. But do I need
that lifestyle? No.'
And asked why he had chosen to star in films
like Patch Adams and Old Dogs, he said: 'It paid the bills. Sometimes
you have to make a movie to make money...You know what you're getting
into, totally. You know they're going to make it goofy. And that's OK.'
In
The Crazy Ones, Robin starred alongside Buffy actress Sarah Michelle
Gellar, who played his uptight daughter, and the pair took to the stage
in May 2013 to sell the show to advertisers at the annual TV Upfronts.
The
actor soon had advertisers eating out of the palm of his hand as the
session descended into one of his trademark frenetic stand-up routines.
He
joked about strippers and likened the upfronts to the Westminster
Kennel Club dog show 'but with more agents, and a little less
ass-sniffing'.
As Robin reminded them, 'It’s been a long time
since I’ve been on TV, 30 years, when there were much simpler upfronts -
and a mound of coke.'
Lavish: The stunning Napa Valley estate Robin Williams put up for
sale for $29.9 million in April. It remains on the market, without a
buyer
On the market: Robin Williams told last year how he was being forced
to sell his Napa Valley ranch to pay the bills - and that he was
'downsizing' his life
Sprawling: Robin Williams' Napa estate, called Villa Sorriso - Villa
of Smiles - boasts a private cinema. The property is still on the market
for $29.9 million
Cutting back: Robin Williams quietly listed the property for sale in
2012 for $35 million, but the priced went down when it was officially
listed in April this year
As filming started on The Crazy Ones, Robin seemed to be back on form, posting pictures from the set on Twitter and Instagram.
The
series debuted to stellar ratings, with 15.6 million viewers it was the
most-watched series premiere of the fall. However, viewers deserted the
show and on May 10, CBS announced it was not picking up the show for a
second season.
This news is believed to have left Robin reeling.
Today, a source told
Radar:
'Robin slipped into a deep depression. He felt embarrassed and
humiliated that the show had been a failure. It was very hard for Robin
to accept. Here he was in his sixties, and forced to take a role on
television for the money. It’s just not where he thought he would be at
this point in his life.'
'There was also frustration that Robin
expressed at having to take television and movie roles he didn’t want to
take, but had to for the paycheck,” the source said, referencing his
recently announced decision to film Mrs. Doubtfire 2. 'Doing sequels was
never Robin’s thing, and he wasn’t that excited at having to reprise
the role of Mrs. Doubtfire, which was scheduled to start filming later
this year.'
Indeed, weeks after the show was cancelled, Robin, who
had struggled with alcoholism for decades and battled cocaine abuse in
the 1980s, checked into rehab at the Hazeldon Addiction Treatment Center
in Minnesota.
At the time, his spokeswoman said, 'After working
back-to-back projects, Robin is simply taking the opportunity to
fine-tune and focus on his continued commitment, of which he remains
extremely proud.'
Today, a source told
TMZ that
his stint in rehab came too late, saying; 'Just before he checked in
[to rehab] it was obvious ... he had not gotten treatment for so long he
was too far down the road.' While another said he had been
'internalizing all the pain of addiction and it was obvious to anyone
who was around him.'
On July 21, in what could be the last picture of the comedy giant,
Robin Williams posted this photograph to Instagram on his birthday of
himself and his Night at the Museum co-star, Crystal the monkey, who
will also be familiar to viewers of the Hangover trilogy
Devastated: Robin Williams' suicide has left his family - including his daughter Zelda Williams - inconsolable
A fortune: Robin's two divorces - his second from wife Marsha in 2008
- cost him a rumored $30 million. Williams and Marsha are seen at the
premiere of Jumanji in December 1995 with their son Cody
The $30 million wives: Robin Williams was said to be in financial
straits following his divorces from his ex-wives, Marsha Garces, left,
and Valerie Velardi, right
In his 2013 interview with Parade, the star told how he had relapsed
into drinking in 2003 - 20 years after getting sober - while filming
The Big White on location in Alaska.
He recalled: 'One day I
walked into a store and saw a little bottle of Jack Daniel’s. And then
that voice - I call it the ‘lower power’- goes, ‘Hey. Just a taste.
Just one.’ I drank it, and there was that brief moment of ‘Oh, I’m
okay!’ But it escalated so quickly. Within a week I was buying so many
bottles I sounded like a wind chime walking down the street. I knew it
was really bad one Thanksgiving when I was so drunk they had to take me
upstairs.'
And he revealed that his family had stepped in in 2006
and told him to go to rehab, admitting: 'It was not an intervention so
much as an ultimatum. Everyone kind of said, ‘You’ve got to do this.’
And I went, ‘Yeah, you’re right.’'
In an outtake from the interview, he
discussed attending Alcoholics Anonymous, saying, 'I felt so good about
the first AA meeting I attended that I went out and drank the next day.'
He was persuaded to come back after a friend encouraged him, saying,
'Hey, we don't shoot our wounded. Come back.
He described how feelings of loneliness and fear that pushed him back towards alcohol at that time, telling
The Guardian
in September 2010: 'I was in a small town where it's not the edge of
the world, but you can see it from there, and then I thought: drinking. I
just thought, hey, maybe drinking will help. Because I felt alone and
afraid. It was that thing of working so much, and going f***, maybe that
will help. And it was the worst thing in the world.'
Asked about
that first drink he said: 'You feel warm and kind of wonderful. And then
the next thing you know, it's a problem, and you're isolated.'
TV comeback: Robin Williams with Sarah Michelle Gellar in The Crazy Ones. The CBS show was cancelled after one season
Reunited: Pam Dawber made a guest appearance on The Crazy Ones with
her former co-star in what was to be Robin Williams' final TV role
Asked whether it was the death of his longtime friend, Superman actor
Christopher Reeve in October 2004, that sent him back to drink, Robin
said: 'No, it's more selfish than that. It's just literally being
afraid.
'And
you think, oh, this will ease the fear. And it doesn't." What was he
afraid of? "Everything. It's just a general all-round arggghhh. It's
fearfulness and anxiety.'
It had been previously been reported
that the star paid for all of Reeve's medical bills after the actor was
left a quadriplegic after being thrown from a horse during an equestrian
competition in 1995. However, Robin continued to deny this, saying in
1999: 'We bought Chris a van and a generator. It was really frightening
because where Chris and his family live in Connecticut the winters are
very harsh.
'One night the generator they had for Chris crapped
out, so there was Chris's wife Dana outside in the middle of the night
trying to hand-crank the thing. Now Chris has his own income because of
his book, his record and various other sources so he's financially
independent and pays his own bills.'
Robin didn't take up cocaine
again, he claimed: 'because 'I knew that would kill me....No. Cocaine -
paranoid and impotent, what fun. There was no bit of me thinking, ooh,
let's go back to that. Useless conversations until midnight, waking up
at dawn feeling like a vampire on a day pass. No.'
He quit drugs before the birth of his oldest son Zachary, now 31, saying: 'I didn’t do rehab or AA. I just stopped.
'I
didn’t want to be coked out, going, ‘Here’s a little switch – Daddy’s
going to throw up on you!’ I wanted to be a participating parent.'
When
he relapsed back into alcoholism, however, he said, it only took a week
of drinking before he knew he was in trouble, admitting: 'For that
first week you lie to yourself, and tell yourself you can stop, and then
your body kicks back and says, no, stop later. And then it took about
three years, and finally you do stop.'
Patrol: A Marin County sheriff drives by the home of actor and
comedian Robin Williams on August 11, 2014 in Tiburon, California after
the Academy Award-winning actor and comedian was found dead in his home
on Monday
Despite saying he had no plans to marry again, insisting: '‘Instead
of getting married again, I’m going to find a woman I don’t like and
just give her my house.' he wed Susan Schneider in 2011. Upon his death,
she referred to him as her 'best friend'.
Robin's net worth at
the time of his death was reportedly around $50 million, according to
Celebrity Net Worth, although it has been estimated as high as $130
million. His home in Tiburon, California, where he took his life
yesterday is said to be worth $10 million.
Wary of his issues with money, the
entertainment legend made sure his kids would be financially stable when
he created a trust in 2009 which outlined a series of money
disbursements to his three kids,
TMZ reports.
Payment did not
rely on whether Robin died because the document detailed a series of
individual payments his children would begin receiving when they each
turned 21-years-old.
Once 21, each child would receive 1/3 of the
share, followed by a payment at 25-years-old of half the money that
remained in the trust. At 30, they would each get their entire share in
full.
Best buddies; Christopher Reeve and Robin Williams - pictured in New
York in 1981 - met as students at Juilliard and pledged to look after
each other
Close: Robin Williams and Christopher Reeve at the Celebrity Sports
Invitational Awards Dinner and Auction to benefit the American Paralysis
Foundation in San Juan, Puerto Rico
Zachary has already received his
entire sum, while his sister Zelda, 25, and brother Cody, 22, have yet
to be paid the rest of their money from the trust, according to TMZ.
It
is unclear how much money was set aside for his kids, but Robin is
believed to have kept a considerable amount of his wealth outside of the
trust, which his current wife Susan Schneider could see exclusively.
In the wake of his tragic suicide, Williams left behind four upcoming movies that have yet to be released.
He
will be making his third appearance as Teddy Roosevelt in the third
installment of “Night at the Museum” titled “Secret of the Tomb,” which
is set to be released in December.
The
actor was also slated to star in “Boulevard,” and “Merry Friggin’
Christmas,” as well as lend his voice as Dennis the Dog in “Absolutely
Nothing'.
With the reams of tributes following his death
yesterday, Robin made it clear he did not mind the modern grief
industry, telling The Guardian: 'Well, I think people want it. In a
weird way, it's trying to keep hope alive...In America they really do
mythologise people when they die.'
