Hanged self, cut wrists
Marin County’s assistant chief deputy coroner, Keith Boyd, reveals that Williams hanged himself in his California home and died by asphyxia and he suspended himself from a belt wedged between a door and a door frame in a seated position just off the ground. When found by his assistant, Williams’ right shoulder was pressed against the door, and rigor mortis indicated that Williams was dead for several hours before he was found
He was suspended, as I indicated, from the belt, which was wedged between the door and the door frame . . . in a seated position, slightly suspended off the ground.
Boyd also there was what appeared to be blood on the blade of a pocketknife found “in close proximity to Mr. Williams,” and that cuts on William’s wrist were superficial and recent. Boyd refused to discuss a suicide note.
Enters rehab
The actor enters the Hazelden Addiction Treatment Center in Lindstrom, Minnesota for help with his long term sobriety. The stay will span for several weeks.
Cody Alan Williams born
Williams’s third child and second son, Cody Alan, is born. The second child of Williams and second wife Marsha Garces, his sister, Zelda Williams, is two years older and a half-brother, Zachary Williams, is eight years his senior. On raising him and his siblings:
My children give me a great sense of wonder. Just to see them develop into these extraordinary human beings. And a favorite book as a child? Growing up, it was The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe— I would read the whole C.S. Lewis series out loud to my kids.
Zelda Rae Williams born
Williams’s daughter Zelda Rae Williams is born in New York. She is William’s first daughter and first child with his second wife, Marsha Garces. She is named after the title character of the Nintendo game series Legend of Zelda. Her half-brother, Zachary Pym, is six years older than her. At a rented home in San Francisco, one of several residences where they live during her childhood, the family keeps rabbits and iguanas and Zelda has a personal miniature couch. On deciding to name his daughter Zelda:
It seemed only natural. When my wife was pregnant, my son Zachary mentioned that Zelda would be the perfect name for his new little sister … Zelda … What a great name … it’s magical, like she is!
Zachary Pym Williams born
Williams’s first child Zachary Pym Williams is born. Zachary is the only child he shares with first wife Valerie Velardi. On spending time with Zachary, who is nicknamed Zach or Zak:
In the morning I often watch TV with Zach. They show those wonderful old Warner Brothers cartoons. To hear a child laugh like that—to see him watch Wile E. Coyote! My God, it’s something incredible! Sometimes while the cartoons are showing, I do wacky voices—you know, the way I do in my act. Sometimes he likes that, but sometimes he says, “Daddy, don’t use that voice. Just be Daddy.” And that’s what I want to do. Just be Daddy.
Robin Williams born in Chicago
Robin McLaurin Williams is born in Chicago, Ill., to former model and actress Laurie McLaurin and Robert Fitzgerald Williams, a senior executive at Ford. He grows up in Chicago, Michigan and California. His half-brother Todd, born in 1938 and nicknamed ‘Toad,’ is his father’s son from his first marriage, while McLaurin Smith-Williams, his mother’s son from her first marriage, is four years older than Robin. The three boys all grow up as only children. While living in Detroit, where his father is posted by Ford, he has a whole floor of the family’s large rented home to himself and creates imaginary friends to fill it. Comedy is his way of connecting with his mother:
I’d think, I’ll make mommy laugh and that will be okay.
He attends boys-only Detroit County Day School, where he uses comedy as a defence against bullying at school in Detroit, but he is otherwise a serious student:
I started telling jokes as a way to stop getting the shit kicked out of me
He later moves to Redwood Senior High School in Larkspur, Calif., where he joins the drama club, and is voted both ‘The funniest’ and ‘Least likely to succeed.’
When I came out to California to go to high school, it was 1969. I went to this gestalt high school, where one of the teachers actually took LSD one day. So you walked in and you hear (whispers), “I’m Lincoln.”
A poem to his mother:
Think young and you’ll never grow old,
The years will pass you by,
Birthdays are for merrymaking,
Present giving and birthday caking,
Age is the state of your mind
As the days of your years unfold,
Don’t live in the past,
Right up to the last
Think young and you’ll never grow old.