Robin Williams was a legendary actor and comedian. Known for his strong improvisational skills and sharp humor, Williams was loved by people from across the globe. His tragic passing in 2014 shocked everyone. Nathan Lane has now revealed something about Williams.
In a recent interview, the 67-year-old actor revealed that Williams helped him from coming out as gay in 1996 on Oprah. Lane praised the late actor and called him a “saint.” So let’s find out in detail what Lane said about Williams and how he actually helped Lane in coming out.
Related: Sam Neill Reveals Why He Felt Sorry Robin Williams, Says He Was The Loneliest Man On A Lonely Planet
Nathan Lane Talks About Robin Williams
Robin Williams touched many lives throughout his career with his generosity. He suffered from depression, memory loss, and insomnia for years. In 2014, he died by suicide at the age of 63.
In his appearance on The Sunday Show, Nathan Lane revealed that Williams helped him come out as gay against his will. This happened in 1996 in an interview with Oprah Winfrey and Lane was nervous to come out.
“I was not prepared at all for that,” he said. “And I certainly wasn’t ready to go from table-to-table and tell them all I was gay. I just wanted to talk about finally [getting] a big part in a movie, and I didn’t want to make it about my sexuality.”
Oprah then asked him, ‘How come you’re so good at that girlie stuff? Are you worried about being typecast?’. Williams quickly diverted the topic and started talking about something else. Lane said the ‘Aladdin‘ actor “sort of swoops in and diverts Oprah, goes off on a tangent and protects me because he was a saint.”
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Sam Neil Called Williams “The Loneliest Man On The Planet”
In his memoir titled ‘Did I Ever Tell You This?‘, Sam Neill remembered the ‘Dead Poets Society‘ actor. The two had worked together on the 1999 film ‘Bicentennial Man.’
He recalls their ‘great chats‘ and the comedian being “irresistibly, outrageously, irrepressibly, gigantically funny.” Under all the jokes, Neill felt Williams was “the saddest person I ever met.”
Neill writes that Williams was rich and famous but he felt “more sorry for him than I can express.” “He was the loneliest man on a lonely planet,” he wrote.
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