Robin Williams has not been with us for 5 years now, but inspiring and heartwarming stories of his life continue to motivate people to do kind deeds.
One of his fans, Brian Lord, has just shared another of his heartwarming stories.
Celebs have riders, that is a common thing, but what Brian found out about Williams’ riders is something profoundly kind from a celebrity of his stature.
Williams always asked his event organizers to hire homeless people to work as his riders.
A rider’s job is to fulfill the celebrity’s personal and technical needs they are assigned to. Brian never hosted Dead Poets Society actor but he did manage to get to the actor and was totally shocked by the rider sent to him.
“I was very surprised by what I found,” Brian wrote on his blog.
“He actually had a requirement that for every single event or film he did, the company hiring him also had to hire a certain number of homeless people and put them to work.”
Generally the superstars and celebrities tend to have bizarre and expensive requirements like asking for an amount of vitamin water enough to bathe a dog (Mariah Carey), a copy of USA Today having an article on obese people in it (Iggy Pop) and a mannequin having pink pubic hair (Lady Gaga), the Telegraph reported.
Keeping in view these absurd demands, what Robin Williams asked for should really come as a surprise to anyone.
According to Brian, this showed how keen Robin Williams was to help other people. Brain wrote on his blog: “I’m sure that on his own time and with his own money, he was working with these people in need, but he’d also decided to use his clout as an entertainer to make sure that production companies and event planners also learned the value of giving people a chance to work their way back.”
Knowing this about Williams, Brian could never watch his movies the same way again.
He said: “I never watched a Robin Williams movie the same way after that. Thanks, Robin Williams – not just for laughs, but also for a cool example.”
The thing Brian uncovered about Williams is not a matter of surprise for people who knew him personally or had a chance to work with him.
Ricky Gervais, for instance, narrated a story of him working with Williams, emphasizing how he tried to make everyone happy.
Gervais said: “I did a benefit gig with him and there were loads of new comedians that we hadn’t heard of, and he spent the whole night at the side of the stage watching them – you could hear him laughing louder than anyone – and they were just blown away.
“He was a legend. Amazing. It’s really sad.
“Even when he wasn’t well, he would just try his best to make you laugh – you could see it was a chore almost but he’d absolutely love it.”
Ricky Gervais is not the only one to testify how good a person Williams was.
After Williams passed away, Ben Stiller wrote a note about him, which read: “His kindness and generosity is what I think of. How kind he was to anyone who wanted to connect with him.
“And he could not help but be funny all the time. He would do something as long as it would keep you laughing. He made many, many film crews laugh out loud before the audiences ever saw it.
“So there is the man, and his talent, and I think in his case both were extraordinary.”
Replaced!