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Robin Williams Entertained USO Through "Comic Relief"; Robin Williams Grants Dying Girls' Wish; Remembering Robin Williams
Aired August 12, 2014 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: It is just past the bottom of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.
Focusing this hour on Robin Williams. He kept busy with work. And he also gave his time generously to many causes. He traveled to 13 countries with the USO and entertained nearly 90,000 servicemen and women. And he was star of the "Comic Relief" benefit, fundraisers that help those in need, help the homeless. Here he is with his typically enthusiastic appeal for donations. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBIN WILLIAMS, COMEDIAN & ACTOR: We want to you pick up that phone and call us at the number that's dancing above my waist right now. That's right. 9763.
(LAUGHTER)
What happened? Remember, the money you're donating is going directly to homeless people.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: And a fuel-injected --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Let's bring in a great, old friend of Robin Williams, Bob Zmuda, founder of "Comic Relief."
Bob, welcome. I'm so sorry for the loss of your dear friend.
BOB ZMUDA, COMEDIAN, FOUNDER OF "COMIC RELIEF" & FRIEND OF ROBIN WILLIAMS: Well --
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Go ahead.
ZMUDA: Just amazing. You saw the clip with Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Crystal. I founded "Comic Relief" with Robin, Billy, and Whoopi. We raised over $70 million because of their --
BALDWIN: Oh, so great.
ZMUDA: Because of their efforts. People know him as a comedian and dramatic actor and was also a real humanitarian, which makes it more shocking. But in a way, I've got to tell you, there's a long history of depression with comedians to begin with and comedians themselves talk about this.
BALDWIN: Why is that, Bob?
ZMUDA: Well, I'll tell you exactly why. Harold Ramus, who passed just recently, he was one of the original board members of "Comic Relief," and Harold believed very much that the comedian, when you trace the stand-up comedian back, at one point, he was the class clown. And if you trace the class clown back either further than that, that you will find that there's a history of depression in the family and usually with the mother. The mother's usually depressed. I understand this was the case, also, with Robin. And because the mother is depressed, the young boy tries to cheer mom up, tries to be a clown.
BALDWIN: -- perhaps life back at home and dealing with family issues and then fast forward to someone like Robin Williams, right? And you had said before and it's hard for us -- I say us -- us fans. You knew the guy, loved the guy but you were saying if you were in an elevator and it was just the two of you, he wouldn't talk. But the second a second or third person came around, he was alive.
ZMUDA: He was a true performer. Robin had no social skills whatsoever. I knew Robin for over 35 years. And yet he could not handle being one-on-one with a person. He would freeze.
BALDWIN: Even you?
ZMUDA: Oh, yeah, even me. It would be like speaking with a total stranger in an elevator. It was so odd. But if another person came in, then all of a sudden you were an audience and Robin could become alive. That's why he was so good at what his psychological imperative in life had to be to perform. This is why he was so good at it. And, you know, he was bipolar and, of course, when you get in a situation, his highs were highs and, unfortunately, his lows were very, very low.
BALDWIN: So as a dear friend that's known him for 35-plus years, you, Billy, Whoopi, whoever else, do you just know, as part of the Robin Williams inner circle, how he is one-on-one and you dealt with him accordingly?
ZMUDA: You didn't know it was going to lead to this. Comedy is there to kind of relieve the stress and tension. That's why it's there. We have a line in comedy saying, there are no jokes. You know, and the comedians are very, very serious when they are -- many of them when they are not on stage. Very different kind of people.
In Robin's case, he was very much that loner until another person came in the room. Two people. It had to be at least two people and then he'd start performing and he'd be fine. So I could see how this would happen in the middle of the night, him alone, no audience, and just crashing, crashing.
And let alone the alcohol problem. You know, we've heard -- Robin's been very honest about going into rehab and joking about it and his depression. I think, in a way, Brooke, this is one of the reasons why we are really shocked about this. Because you thought, oh, Robin's going through that but he's handling it, obviously, because he's talking about it.
BALDWIN: One would think it's fixed, but not, sadly.
ZMUDA: No. No. No.
BALDWIN: Bob Zmuda, can I keep you around?
ZMUDA: Sure. Absolutely.
BALDWIN: I know you have a great story about Robin Williams back to being on stage.
ZMUDA: With Andy Kaufman, yes, yes.
BALDWIN: We'll be right back. Hang on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Those are the things I miss, the little idiosyncrasies that I only know about. That's what made her my wife. But she had all the goods on me, too. She knew all my little peccadilloes. People call these things imperfections. But they're not. No, that's the good stuff.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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(MUSIC)
BALDWIN: As we are dedicating this entire hour to the life of Robin Williams and calling awareness to suicide prevention and depression, Bob Zmuda is back with me. He knew Robin Williams for 35-plus years. He founded "Comic Relief" fundraisers to help the needy and homeless.
Bob, you wrote for Andy Kaufman, right?
ZMUDA: Yes, I was Andy Kaufman's writer for 10 years. And, once again, Andy, being a comedian, Andy himself suffered from psychological conditions. One, in Kaufman's case, was multiple personality disorder. Remember he did that Tony Clifton character with the later ego. And Andy would become a totally different person for three or four days.
BALDWIN: That's incredible.
ZMUDA: He had a different car he drove. It's really quite interesting to see the minds of the comedians. What I was saying about Robin is when people watched "Comic Relief," from Robin Williams and Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg, they were the anchors of our show. They would put in time, days, even weeks rehearsing this show and then, of course, performing it live, mainly on HBO. But also in their off time, they would go to homeless shelters themselves. I remember the first time we took Robin to a shelter in downtown L.A., in Skid Row, a very scary shelter. And it was the first time that I saw Robin lost for words. He got in front of that crowd of homeless families and he was in shock and he couldn't say anything. And afterwards, he --
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Why is that, do you think?
ZMUDA: He was just taken in by this mass of humanity and it shocked him. It was a very scary shelter. And we went back to the director's office, back -- the director came out and said, Robin, we thought you were going to perform or something. He said, oh, it just seemed not like right to do. He said, no, no, no, these people need it more than anyone. Robin went back and he did about 20 minutes and killed -- and killed. But he needed that approval of it.
You know, another thing that happened on "Comic Relief,"" because of "Comic Relief,"" I got a call -- I think from the producer, Bill Cates -- and he used to produce the Emmys, Academy Awards. He saw Robin and Whoopi and Billy on "Comic Relief" and that's why he got the idea to use Billy and Whoopi to host the Academy Awards and Emmys because he saw that they could do the hosting job. But everybody saw you could never use Robin Williams for that. He would never get one award out.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
ZMUDA: And if you watch the "Comic Relief" shows, at times, Whoopi gets behind him and puts her hand over his mouth. There was no stopping the guy. A great guy.
BALDWIN: I'm sorry you lost a friend. The world is sorry. We're still reeling.
Bob Zmuda, thank you for coming on and sharing stories and making us laugh in the process. Thank you very much.
ZMUDA: Thank you.
BALDWIN: Coming up next on CNN, a Robin Williams story you may never forget. The actor secretly flew himself to the home of a little girl who was dying of brain cancer. It was her last wish to meet "Mrs. Doubtfire." That little girls' dad is about to join me live to talk about what happened next, including a chilling phone call Robin Williams received while visiting his daughter.
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BALDWIN: As you've been hearing all these different stories throughout the day, when Robin Williams entered a room, his talent took over the space. But he's also -- he was also excellent at making you feel like you were the only one in the room. And the family of a dying girl knows exactly what I'm talking about.
I want you to take a look at these pictures. One of Jessica Cole's last wishes was to meet the man, Robin Williams, who mesmerized her in his star turn "Mrs. Doubtfire." This occurred in 2004. They set up a flight for her to visit the comedian. But at that point, she was too weak from her brain tumor. So what did Robin Williams do? He flew to her and he spent more than four hours by her side. She died just a couple weeks after that visit.
And so joining me now, Jessica's father, Mark Cole.
Mark, welcome.
MARK COLE, FATHER OF JESSICA COLE: Hi. Thank you.
BALDWIN: So let's talk about your daughter. So Jessica loved Robin Williams after watching "Mrs. Doubtfire," according to you, hundreds of times.
COLE: At least.
BALDWIN: At least a hundred?
COLE: At least.
BALDWIN: When she saw him in person, she didn't know who he was, right?
COLE: That's correct. She -- she was a little disoriented at that point with extra fluid on her brain but it was a little out of place for her, also, seeing Robin Williams walk into our home and she was confused when he first came in.
BALDWIN: Until he did "Mrs. Doubtfire"?
COLE: Yeah. And then he started his "Mrs. Doubtfire" imitation, and then she figured it out pretty quickly.
BALDWIN: The two of them spent hours together. He specifically asked no camera be there. He didn't want publicity over this. Can you tell me in those couple of hours what they did? What do you remember from that time?
COLE: Yeah. They called us like -- they only gave us 24 hours notice and wanted only immediate family, my wife then and our older daughter, Tonya, and my mother was aware. They came in and watched Carolina Panther football and Jessica loved to play a card game called Secret Seven. So she had to teach Robin how to play that and beat him at that.
BALDWIN: That a girl.
COLE: Just hung out.
BALDWIN: So while they were playing cards and watching the Carolina Panthers, the phone rang and Robin Williams picked up his phone, and who was on the other end of the phone?
COLE: I believe it was his wife.
BALDWIN: And she told him what?
COLE: That his friend, Christopher Reeve, had passed away. And so then he apologized for cutting the visit short, although he had been there for, you know, all afternoon. And I believe he left our home and went to New York to be with the Reeves family.
BALDWIN: So it was by your daughter's side that he got that fateful phone call. They had gone to Juilliard together. They went way back and had made this pact, if one of you makes it before me, you've got to help me with that. You all were there for that.
Your daughter, as I mentioned, Jessica passed away a couple of weeks after the visit and so, afterwards, Robin Williams planted a tree in her honor and he also sent you a gift, sir?
COLE: He did. He sent me some wine. I had showed him my wine collection and so he did send me six bottles of wine from his winery.
BALDWIN: And how did you take the news of his passing?
COLE: I was really upset. I can't tell you how much it meant to our family to have him bring his resources and take his time and come out and spend that time with Jessica, and very sad that that happened, and obviously brought back a lot of tough memories that I have from 2004.
BALDWIN: Mark Cole, I appreciate you taking a couple of minutes with me to talk about your daughter and to talk about her special visitor ten years ago. Thank you.
COLE: All right. Thank you.
BALDWIN: Next, we have selected nine of Robin Williams' best moments on stage and the screen. You'll have to stick around to see if your favorite made the list.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: I was scared.
PAM DAWBER, ACTRESS: Why?
WILLIAMS: On Ork, it means that Bolgar (ph) is coming to torture you.
DAWBER: I thought you Orkans did away with violence.
WILLIAMS: Violence, yes. Torture, no. (END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: These are the moments, these are the reasons why all of us, all of America fell in love with Robin Williams. The roles forever burned into our minds as we look back at his decades' long career. Here are nine of his best.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Good morning, Vietnam! Hey, this is not a test. This is rock and roll. Time to rock it from the Delta to the DMZ.
God, it's hot in here.
(SHOUTING)
WILLIAMS: I know size can be daunting but don't be afraid.
I love you. I love you.
Calling Austin, come in your boob-tubeness.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Is that you, Mork?
WILLIAMS: Yes, sir. Talk about bad connections.
(LAUGHTER)
Talking to a blade of grass like, sorry, sorry, sorry. You walk into a Major League Baseball stadium like shh, shh.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: In your face, camel cake. In your rear.
WILLIAMS: My derriere.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Lines, lines, lines.
WILLIAMS: (INAUDIBLE)
Now, you ask me, if I've been practicing medicine. Well, if this means opening your door to those in need, those in pain, caring for them, applying a cold cloth until a fever breaks, if this is practicing medicine, I am guilty as charged, sir.
You don't know about loss because it only occurs when you only love something more than yourself. And I doubt you ever dared to love anybody that much.
If you listen real close, you can hear them whisper the legacy to you. Go on. Lean in. Listen. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary. (END VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC) BALDWIN: And we're continuing our coverage on this Tuesday. Great to be with you. I'm Brooke Baldwin.
