As we mark the 10th anniversary of the legendary actor and comedian Robin Williams’ death, Sally Field has revealed that when her father suddenly died while filming “Mrs. Doubtfire” in the early 1990s, Williams told her to come home and asked her to rearrange the filming schedule.
“I’ve never told this story before,” said the 77-year-old, who played Williams’ ex-wife in the classic 1993 comedy. Vanity Fair “I was in a camper van outside a courtroom recently where we were filming a divorce scene. My dad had had a stroke a few years ago and was in a care facility. I got a call from the doctor telling me he’d had a massive stroke and passed away.”
Sally said her father didn’t want to be put on a ventilator so she simply told hospital staff to “bend over and say, ‘Sally is saying goodbye.'”
“Obviously, I was freaking out,” she said. “I came on set trying to act as best I could. I wasn’t crying. Robin came over and pulled me off the set and asked, ‘Are you OK?'”
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Robin Williams told Sally Field to come home and asked to rearrange the filming schedule when her father suddenly died while they were filming “Mrs. Doubtfire” in the early 1990s, actress Field has revealed on the 10th anniversary of Williams’ death. (Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
When she told him what had happened, he said, ‘Oh my god, I need to get you out of here right now.'”
“And he made it happen. They filmed me for the rest of the day, and I was able to go home and call my brother and get ready. This is a side of Robin that not many people know about. He was a very sensitive and intuitive person,” she said.
While filming the hilarious comedy, Field said, “My job was to react to whatever he did the way a real person would. I really loved that tension. You couldn’t actually see what ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ was doing.”‘ It was written on the page. It took on a life of its own, thanks in large part to him.”
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Mara Wilson at the 1993 premiere of Mrs. Doubtfire. (Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Mara Wilson, who played the youngest of Williams’ three children in the film, told Vanity Fair of a similar experience, in which Williams asked how she was doing after her mother died.
““People are always surprised when I tell them that Robin was a very quiet child,” she says. “I did a reading of What Dreams May Come when I was nine, right after my mother died. Robin came up to me and was really sweet, asking how I was doing, how my family was doing, but she never brought up any painful stories. She was just a really sweet child.”
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She also said that he was very flirtatious with her when they worked together on “Mrs. Doubtfire.”
“He was making his hands bang and arguing with each other: ‘I hate you! You smell like poop!’ ‘Look, I don’t have toilet paper in my house!’ For a 5-year-old, that was the funniest thing ever,” she told Vanity Fair. “There’s actually a part in ‘Friend Like Me’ like that.” [from ‘Aladdin’] Genie’s hands are singing/scat-ing behind him. The animators must have gotten the idea from him. The hands looked and sounded exactly like the talking hands he used to make me laugh. He just Got Children.”
Lisa Jakub, who played Wilson’s sister on “Mrs. Doubtfire,” told Fox News Digital in May that the comedian was one of the first people to come to her for advice about mental health issues.
Robin Williams in a scene from “Mrs. Doubtfire.” (20th Century Fox/Getty Images)
Call Williams ““A thoughtful and generous person,” she said. ““He was probably one of the first people to really be honest with me about mental health. He told me about his struggles and what he was going through. And for the first time, I was like, ‘Oh, I’m not weird. I don’t have to hide. This is something that some of us have to deal with.'”
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Yaqub, who founded a nonprofit that helps veterans with issues such as PTSD and anxiety, said Williams was very involved with military personnel.
While filming the hilarious comedy, Field said, “My job was to react to whatever he did the way a real person would. I really loved that tension. You couldn’t actually see what ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ was doing.”‘ It was written on the page. It took on a life of its own, thanks in large part to him.” (Photo: 20th Century Fox/Getty Images)
“I’d heard from a lot of people that Robin had worked with veterans a lot and had his productions hire local veterans for background roles and things like that. I didn’t know that when I was working with him,” Jakub explained, “but I love those little connections.”
Lisa Jakub, who played Wilson’s sister on “Mrs. Doubtfire,” told Fox News Digital in May that the comedian was one of the first people to come to her for advice about mental health issues. (Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
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She added: ““Robin was everything you’d expect from a Robin and it’s just amazing to think of him now,” Yakub said of her memories of the legendary comedian, who passed away on Aug. 11, 2014. She added, “I’m grateful to have been with him, to have worked with him and that he was so kind to me.”
