Sally Field opened up about an experience with Robin Williams she'd never spoken about publicly before, and about how "sensitive and intuitive" the actor was to those who knew him.
In a recent Vanity Fair piece about Williams, who died by suicide 10 years ago on August 11, Field shared a touching story about Williams from their time together filming Mrs. Doubtfire.
Field told the magazine that when her father passed away unexpectedly while Field was on set, Williams somehow knew something was wrong even as Field soldiered on to do her job.
He then had the shooting schedule revamped so that Field could immediately leave and be with her family.
Field told the magazine:
“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.”
Field had to make the crushing decision not to put her father on life support right then and there, before heading back onto the set and "trying with all my might to act.”
Field said Williams seemed to sense that something was off, despite Field soldiering on like a pro. He approached her and asked, and when she told him the truth he instantly knew what to do.
Field told Vanity Fair:
"[Williams said] 'oh my God, we need to get you out [of] 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.”
On social media, people were deeply moved by Field's story about Robin Williams, and many felt it sounded exactly like the actor they so loved.
Williams was 63 at the time of his shocking death in 2014. His autopsy later revealed that he was suffering from Lewy body dementia, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that can impact cognition, sleep, mood and many other aspects of life.
At the time of his death, Field called Williams "one of a kind" and said "there will not be another." How right she was.
@PreetBharara/X
@RepBrendanBoyle/X
@twesq/Bluesky
@christopherharris/Bluesky
@evangelinewarren/X
@FrankC164/X
AMC