Parade magazine interviewed the late Robin Williams a year ago, on his launch of a new sitcom for CBS,The Crazy Ones, about a madcap ad agency in Chicago.
“The idea of having a steady job is appealing. I have two [other] choices: go on the road doing stand-up, or do small, independent movies working almost for scale [minimum union pay],” the tiny giant Williams answered honestly, then elaborated: “The movies are good, but a lot of times they don’t even have distribution. There are bills to pay. My life has downsized, in a good way. I’m selling the ranch up in Napa. I just can’t afford it anymore.”
We’re not sure how much he actually received in the end, but Robin Williams offered Villa Sorriso, his 653-acre secluded vineyard estate, about 80 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge, in the Mayacama Mountains near Napa, CA, with the asking price of $35 million.
He gave that up to pay for two bad marriages and a third, new one. “Divorce is expensive,” Williams told Parade. “I used to joke they were going to call it ‘all the money,’ but they changed it to ‘alimony.’ It’s ripping your heart out through your wallet. Are things good with my exes? Yes. But do I need that lifestyle? No.”
And then, of course, there was Williams’ own doping. He relapsed into drinking, after 20 years of sobriety, while filming The Big White.
“One day I walked into a store and saw a little bottle of Jack Daniel’s. And then that voice—I call it the ‘lower power’—goes, ‘Hey. Just a taste. Just one.’ I drank it, and there was that brief moment of ‘Oh, I’m okay!’ But it escalated so quickly. Within a week I was buying so many bottles I sounded like a wind chime walking down the street. I knew it was really bad one Thanksgiving when I was so drunk they had to take me upstairs.” .... http://jewishbusinessnews.com
