“I don’t know how to be funny anymore”

Incurable diseases can change a person beyond recognition, and this applies not only to physical ailments, but also mental ones. The amazing comedian Robin Williams knew how to make people around him laugh and at the same time think about what they were laughing at. His humor conquered hearts, and his films made history.

However, in his final days, the actor began to feel that he was losing himself. His body and brain no longer obeyed him, and the actor struggled to deal with these changes, feeling helpless and confused.

Personality-destroying disease

After several months of struggle, in August 2014, Robin Williams decided to end it voluntarily and die. Only close people knew about his torment, and after the death of the actor, some of them allowed themselves to talk about the ordeal he went through and how much it affected him.

Dave Itskoff wrote a biography, Robin Williams. The sad comedian who made the world laugh, “in which he spoke about the brain disease that tormented the actor. The illness broke him down gradually, starting with memory loss, and this caused Williams mental and emotional pain. The illness changed his daily life and interfered with his profession. During the filming of the picture “Night at the Museum: The Secret of the Tomb” Williams could not remember his text in front of the camera and cried like a child from powerlessness.

“He cried at the end of every shooting day. It was terrible”, – recalls Cherie Minns, the film’s make-up artist. Cherie encouraged the actor in every possible way, but Williams, who made people laugh all his life, sank down to the floor exhaustedly and said that he could not take it anymore:

“I can’t, Cherie. I do not know what to do. I don’t know how to be funny anymore. “

Career end and voluntary withdrawal

Williams’ condition only worsened on set. Body, speech and facial expressions refused to serve him. The actor was covered with panic attacks, and he had to take antipsychotic drugs to control himself.

His relatives learned about his illness only after the death of the actor. An autopsy revealed that Robin Williams suffered from diffuse Lewy body disease, a degenerative condition that causes memory loss, dementia, hallucinations, and even affects the ability to move.

A little later, his wife, Susan Schneider-Williams, wrote her memoirs about the struggle with the then mysterious illness, which they survived together:

“Robin was a genius actor. I will never fully know the depth of his suffering, or how hard he fought. But I know for sure that he is the bravest man in the world, who played the most difficult role in his life. He just reached his limit. “

Susan didn’t know how to help him, and just prayed that her husband would get better:

“For the first time, my advice and admonitions did not help Robin find light in the tunnels of his fear. I felt his disbelief in what I was telling him. My husband was trapped in the broken architecture of his brain neurons, and no matter what I did, I could not get him out of this darkness. “

Robin Williams passed away on August 11, 2014. He was 63 years old. He was found in his California home with a strap around his neck. The police confirmed the suicide after receiving the results of the forensic medical examination.