Sally Field Recalls The Kindness Of Robin Williams After A Family Death

On the 10th anniversary of Robin Williams death, friends and colleagues of the late star spoke to Vanity Fair about how he would try to make anyone laugh.

However, there was another side of Williams, whose incredible empathy helped his Mrs. Doubtfire costar Sally Field when she experienced tragedy.

“I never shared this story before,” Field said to Vanity Fair. “I was in the camper outside of the courtroom where we were shooting the divorce scene. My father had a stroke a couple of years before, and was in a nursing facility. I got a phone call from the doctor saying my father had passed, a massive stroke. He asked if I wanted them to put him on the resuscitator. I said ‘No, he did not want that. Just let him go. And please lean down and say, ‘Sally says goodbye.’ I was, of course, beside myself.”

Williams sensed her distress.

“I came on the set trying with all my might to act,” Field continued. “I wasn’t crying. Robin came over, pulled me out of the set, and asked, ‘Are you okay?’ ‘Yes, why?’ ‘I don’t know, just thought [I’d ask] that.’ ‘No, I’m not, Robin. My father just passed.’ ‘Oh my God, we need to get you out here right now.’ And he made it happen—they shot around me the rest of the day. I could go back to my house, call my brother, and make arrangements. It’s a side of Robin that people rarely knew: He was very sensitive and intuitive.”