Inside Christopher Reeve's Devoted Friendship With Drug-Crazed Robin Williams — After Glenn Close Declared Superman Actor Could Have Saved Comic's Life
Superman star Christoper Reeve fed fellow struggling student Robin Williams in their acting college days and they went on to forge a remarkable lifelong bond.
Nov. 21 2024, Published 12:29 a.m. ET
Superman star Christoper Reeve fed fellow struggling student Robin Williams in their acting college days and they went on to forge a remarkable lifelong bond.
Movie great Glenn Close believes that the comic would still be alive if Reeve hadn't passed in 2004, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Close, who is a supporter of Reeve’s charitable foundation, said that his bravery in "going public" with his disability helped change people’s perceptions.
She said that she thought that Williams would not have committed suicide in 2014, had his pal still been alive and there to support him,
Reeve and Williams met at a top college in New York.
"He and Robin were such good friends because they could match each other. He could keep up with [Robin] and not many people could do that," Close said.
"I’ve always felt if Chris was still around, Robin would still be alive. I believe that."
The pair met at New York's The Juilliard stage school.
Reeve recalled: "The first person I met at Juilliard was the other advanced student, a short, stocky, long-haired fellow from Marin County, California, who wore tie-dyed shirts with tracksuit bottoms and talked a mile a minute.
Close said Reeve and Williams ‘were such good friends because they could match each other. He could keep up with [Robin] and not many people could do that.’
"I’d never seen so much energy contained in one person. He was like an un-tied balloon that had been inflated and immediately released. I watched in awe as he virtually caromed off the walls of the classrooms and hallways. To say that he was 'on' would be a major understatement. There was never a moment when he wasn’t doing voices, imitating teachers, and making our faces ache from laughing at his antics. His name, of course, was Robin Williams."
Williams recalled: "Him being such a great friend to me at Juilliard, literally feeding me because I don't think I literally had money for food or my student loan hadn't come in yet, and he would share his food with me.
"And then later after the accident, just seeing him beaming and just, seeing what he meant to so many people."
After Superman II, Reeve grew disenchanted with Hollywood.
After Superman II, Reeve grew disenchanted with Hollywood. He relocated his family to Williamstown, Massachusetts, where he starred in The Front Page.
During one performance, Williams surprised his friend, by attending the show and treating him to dinner afterward.
"Robin Williams came up to visit during the run and seemed to enjoy it tremendously," wrote Reeve. "One evening we went out to a local seafood restaurant, and as we passed by the lobster tank I casually wondered what they were all thinking in there.
Reeve's autobiography highlights a poignant moment during his ICU recovery.
"Whereupon Robin launched into a fifteen-minute routine: one lobster had escaped and was seen on the highway with his claw out holding a sign that said, 'Maine.' Another lobster from Brooklyn was saying, 'C’mon, just take da rubber bands off,' gearing up for a fight. A gay lobster wanted to redecorate the tank. People at nearby tables soon gave up any pretense of trying not to listen, and I had to massage my cheeks because my face hurt so much from laughing."
When he was honored by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2005, the Golden Globes's lifetime achievement award, Williams dedicated it to Reeve.
Reeve's autobiography highlights a poignant moment during his ICU recovery. Following the horse-riding accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down, Reeve endured excruciating pain and contemplated suicide. With severe damage to his cervical vertebrae, he faced life-threatening surgery to reconnect his skull and spine.
"As the day of the operation drew closer, it became more and more painful and frightening to contemplate," wrote Reeve.
Throughout Reeve's last years, he and Williams maintained a steadfast friendship.
"In spite of efforts to protect me from the truth, I already knew that I had only a fifty-fifty chance of surviving the surgery. I lay on my back, frozen, unable to avoid thinking the darkest thoughts.
"Then, at an especially bleak moment, the door flew open and in hurried a squat fellow with a blue scrub hat and a yellow surgical gown and glasses, speaking in a Russian accent. He announced that he was my proctologist and that he had to examine me immediately. My first reaction was that either I was on way too many drugs or I was in fact brain damaged. But it was Robin Williams. He and his wife, Marsha, had materialized from who knows where. And for the first time since the accident, I laughed. My old friend had helped me know that somehow I was going to be okay."
Throughout Reeve's last years, he and Williams maintained a steadfast friendship. Williams actively participated in events celebrating The Christopher Reeve Foundation, a cause he ardently championed.
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Reeve passed away after experiencing an adverse reaction to an antibiotic while Williams was found dead of an apparent suicide.
Reeve passed away after experiencing an adverse reaction to an antibiotic, aged 52. Williams, meanwhile, was found dead of an apparent suicide. He was 50.
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