It wasn't just depression and addictions, actor Robin Williams also suffered from Parkinson's disease, but he preferred to keep his illness a secret.
The actor committed suicide in August 2014 and days later his widow, Susan Schneider, revealed that Robin had also been diagnosed with Parkinson's.
Now, in a REELZ documentary titled When the Laughter Stops (to be broadcast in the United States on August 11, the fifth anniversary of his death), people close to Robin Williams recalled what the last months of the life of the famous Hollywood actor.
According to Us Weekly, while Robin was open about his problems with alcohol and drug addiction, he preferred to keep his painful battle with Parkinson's disease private. This was said in production by Dylan Howard, AMI's vice president and chief content officer.
On one occasion, Robin commented that the death of comedian John Belushi made him so scared that he managed to get sober, but he was not so open when talking about his other problems such as Parkinson's and depression.
"Comedians go through ups and downs. They're usually very sensitive, very creative, very smart," commented Jeffrey Gurian in the documentary, who also wondered, "If success, fame, money, and friends don't matter in the end, then what?" does matters?".
According to testimonies in the documentary, although Robin brought light into other people's lives, he rarely offered a glimpse into the darkness in his own life.
Days after the suicide of Robin Williams shocked the world of Hollywood, his widow issued a statement to talk about how the last weeks in the actor's life were.
"She spent much of her life helping others. Whether it was entertaining them on stage, in movies, on TV, or with troops on the front lines. Helping sick children forget their pain if need be. Robin just wanted to make us laugh, that the fear be lost," Susan Schneider said in a statement.
In the same message, Robin's widow revealed that the actor had been diagnosed with Parkinson's shortly before he died. Williams knew that he was in the early phase of the disease and never had any intention of making the condition public, something contrary -for example- to Michael J. Fox, who has lived with the disease for more than two decades.
It is not known if this diagnosis increased Robin's suicidal thoughts, what is certain is that he was not going through his best period. It was of little use then to have won an Oscar, five Golden Globes, an Actors Guild Award, two Emmy Awards and three Grammy Awards throughout his career, Robin felt that he was no longer capable of making people laugh. .
Robin Williams and Pam Dawber, stars of "Mork and Mindy"
A divorce, the lack of prominent jobs in Hollywood and his health problems did not help his spirits improve.
Soon his physical deterioration was evident to people close to him. "Williams seems exhausted. So is the show," said one of the lapidary reviews received by The Crazy Ones series, the production for which he agreed to return to the genre that made him famous three decades earlier thanks to Mork & Mindy.
His friend Billy Crystal also noticed that something was wrong with Robin during a dinner in Los Angeles.
"She hugged me goodbye, and Janice - Crystal's wife - and started crying. I asked her what was wrong and she said, 'I'm just so happy to see you. It's been a long time. You know I love you.'"
On August 11, 2014, Robin reached her limit and decided to hang herself at his home in California.
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