Robin Williams was forever a comedian and never showed his dark side on the set, Oscar-winning producer Gerald Molen told Newsmax TV on Tuesday.
"Robin was always on. It didn't matter if it was in the makeup chair or on the set in front of a camera,'' Molen, producer of Williams' hit movie "Hook,'' said Tuesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
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"Sometimes they wouldn't complete a take because he would ad lib and they'd have to go in and shoot it again. It was just the way Robin was.
"He was full of life and he wanted to extend his meaning of life, which was all fun, laughter, and trying to bring people to feeling good for themselves and being happy. It was like he was committed to do that.''
Williams, 63, died from "asphyxia due to hanging" — an apparent suicide, Lt. Keith Boyd of the Marin County's Sheriff's Office revealed at a news conference on Tuesday.
The comedian-turned-Oscar-winning actor was found Monday by his personal assistant — fully clothed with a belt wedged between a closet door and door frame tied around his neck.
Williams — star of such blockbusters as "Mrs. Doubtfire,'' "Good Will Hunting," "Good Morning Vietnam'' and "Moscow on the Hudson'' — had fought substance abuse and suffered from severe depression.
"I never noticed it. In fact, I didn't go into it looking for it,'' said Molen, who won an Academy Award for "Schindler's List."
"It was a little bit of a shocker, hard to even imagine.''
Molen said he has personally witnessed the problem of depression.
"I have been around other people the same way. I've got depression in my own family … but I can't measure, nor should I even try to measure that against Robin,'' he said.
"Whether it was caused by outside influence or problems he had within his own sphere of influence, I don't know…. What I care to remember about him was the moments of laughter, of kindness.
"He was just a phenomenal human being, a rare human being, and I feel terrible that he had to suffer with these inner demons. Somehow it's just not fair.''
In director Steven Spielberg's 1991 film "Hook,'' Williams played an adult Peter Pan, opposite Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts and Maggie Smith.
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