Robin Williams and Christopher Reeve were 'more than brothers' and helped each other in low times
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Robin Williams and Christopher Reeve considered each other "more than brothers" and helped each other through their darkest hours. The actors forged an unbreakable bond during their time as students in the 1970s.
The duo often engaged in deep conversations, shared moments of laughter, and offered unwavering support to one another through the years. The camaraderie they shared proved rather crucial when Reeve tragically suffered a horseriding accident that left him paralyzed in 1995.
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Williams and Reeve became close friends long before their rise to stardom, starting their journey while sharing a dorm room at Julliard in 1973. The two were the only students accepted into the school's renowned Advanced Program that year. Reeve fondly remembered his first memory of Williams in his autobiography, 'Still Me,' writing, "I'd never seen so much energy contained in one person. He was like an untied balloon that had been inflated and immediately released. 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."
On the other hand, Williams noted how he and Reeve were total opposites in terms of their respective personalities and approaches to life. "We were totally opposite - me coming from the West Coast and a junior college, and him from the hard-core Ivy League. He used to be the studly studly of all studlies, and I was the little fool ferret boy," the actor told Reader's Digest in 2006. Regardless, their differences did not come in the way of their enduring friendship and only made their bond stronger and more meaningful.
During an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session on Reddit, Williams recounted a heartwarming anecdote about the depths of their friendship. During a period when he was struggling financially and waiting for his next loan to come through, his pal did not think twice before providing him sustenance. "Him being such a great friend to me at Juilliard, literally feeding... He would share his food with me," Williams recalled.
Meanwhile, Reeve also praised Williams for the impact the comedian had on his life. "My friendship with Robin Williams is one of the real joys of my life. Robin is a person who gives to people 24 hours a day. The gift of joy, the gift of laughter. Just to be in a room with Robin Williams is a privilege," he gushed, as quoted by Esquire. Reeve tragically suffered a life-altering accident in May 1995 during a horseback riding competition. The actor sustained a severe spinal cord injury during a fall that left him completely paralyzed from the neck down.
It's worth noting that Williams and Reeve remained close pals until the 'Superman' star died of cardiac arrest on October 10, 2004, at age 52. Williams is said to have also provided financial support to cover Reeve's medical expenses in his final years, albeit he did it secretly. The news of Reeve's demise deeply affected Williams, leaving him to question his place in the world and feeling rather adrift, as he recounted in his autobiography. A decade after Reeve's death, Williams ended his own life while battling Lewy body dementia, which had originally been misdiagnosed as Parkinson's disease, per AmoMama.