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How Robin Williams ‘Changed’ While Filming ‘Night At The Museum’ Sequel Just Before His Suicide

The widow of the late great comedic actor Robin Williams is speaking out this week to reveal how he deteriorated from an undiagnosed brain disease while filming Night At The Museum: Secret of the Tomb just months before his suicide.

Robin Williams’ Widow Speaks Out

The U.K. Independent reported that Williams’ final days are being delved into in Robin’s Wish, a new documentary exploring the neurodegenerative disorder that he struggled with before committing suicide in 2014.

Susan Schneider Williams, the actor’s widow, revealed in this documentary that her husband fought to find answers to his health issues before he died after being misdiagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

“My husband had unknowingly been battling a deadly disease,” she said. “Nearly every region of his brain was under attack – he experienced himself disintegrating.”

Susan added that Williams knew something was wrong with him, and that he was desperate for answers.

“I got a phone call. It was Robin,” Susan said in the documentary. “He was having a panic attack, and he could not calm himself down.”

She added that he was “having such a struggle to remember just one line.”

Autopsy First Revealed Robin Williams’ Lewy Body Dementia

Robin Williams had no idea that he was suffering from Lewy body dementia, an incurable brain disease, while on the set. The crippling disease was only revealed in an autopsy after his death.

Lewy Body Dementia, which experts believe is the 3rd most common cause of dementia, is a progressive form of dementia that leads to a decline in thinking, reasoning, and independent function.

The changes happening to him must have been both scary and debilitating. Considering Williams was a master at quick wit and creativity, any decline in his cognitive faculties must have been highly disturbing to the comedic genius.

Despite the challenge, Robin Williams kept working. In fact, he was shooting Night At The Museum: Secret of the Tomb alongside Ben Stiller while at the height of his illness.

Shaun Levy, who directed the movie, said that he noticed red flags during filming.

“Robin would call me at 10 at night, at 2 in the morning, at 4 in the morning, saying, ‘Is it usable? Is any of this usable?'” Levy said. “I saw his morale crumbling. I saw a guy who wasn’t himself.”

Night At The Museum Days Ended With ‘Sobbing’

Cheri Minns, who was his makeup artist on the movie, told The New York Post in 2018 that he would end every day “sobbing in my arms.”

“He was sobbing in my arms at the end of every day. It was horrible. Horrible,” Minns recalled. “I said to his people, ‘I’m a makeup artist. I don’t have the capacity to deal with what’s happening to him.’”

Minns had suggested that he go back to doing standup comedy to get out of his rut, but he said he couldn’t do that. Now we know.

The late great comedian wasn’t as quick on his feet due to the disease at work in his brain.

“He just cried and said, ‘I can’t, Cheri. I don’t know how anymore. I don’t know how to be funny,'” Minns explained.

Those close to Robin Williams are hoping that this upcoming documentary will both shed light on his brilliance and raise awareness of the disease that took him away.

James Conrad

James Conrad’s passion for politics is only overshadowed by his longstanding interest in Hollywood. His unique perspective as a gay conservative fuels him to challenge celebrity views and those who think they have a right to tell anyone how to think or vote. James proudly wields his minority point of view to combat identity politics and cut through his typecast. Fun fact: James’ guilty pleasure is the British royal family.