The Jurassic Park actor opened up about his friendship with Williams in his new memoir, ‘Did I Ever Tell You This?’
Neill, 75, worked with Robin in the 1999 Sci-Fi Romantic film, Bicentennial Man – recalling his time with the late Hollywood legend, Sam wrote that he had some ‘great chats’ with him.
“We would talk about this and that, sometimes even about the work we were about to do. Robin was irresistibly, outrageously, irrepressibly, gigantically funny.”
He added, “He had fame, he was rich, people loved him, great kids—the world was his oyster. And yet I felt more sorry for him than I can express. He was the loneliest man on a lonely planet, inconsolably solitary, and deeply depressed.”
In his book, Neill recalled his meetings with Williams and said he could ‘sense the dark place inside him.’
“Funny stuff just poured out of him. And everybody was in stitches, and when everybody was in stitches, you could see Robin was happy.”
The Dead Poets Society actor died of suicide in 2014.
“Robin, aged 63, was found dead inside his home in Paradise Cay, California on August 11, 2014, with the final autopsy report concluding that his death was a suicide resulting from asphyxia due to hanging,” per Daily Mail.
Speaking of his father’s depression and mental health struggles, Zak Williams said during an interview with The Dr. Oz Show.
“I was acutely aware of my dad’s struggles with depression, it manifested in addiction at times, and he took great lengths to support his well-being and mental health, especially when he was challenged,” he said. “It was something that was a daily consideration for him.”
He continued: “The main thing for me was noticing how he went to great lengths to support himself while he could show up for others. It was clear that he prioritized his mental health throughout most of his life, at least that I experienced with him.”
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Source: PEOPLE
