Billy Connolly: Robin Williams phoned me before death to say goodbye

Billy Connolly has revealed his good friend Robin Williams phoned him for advice on Parkinson’s disease just days before he committed suicide. The Scottish comedian said the Mrs Doubtfire actor’s death at his home near San Francisco last month, had “still not sunk in”. Connolly, known as Big Yin, told the Daily Mirror Williams had turned to him and in their final conversation thanked him for his advice on handling a lack of facial expression, a symptom of the degenerative disease.

He was diagnosed after me and he was on the phone a lot asking me about it. But phoning me for advice is an absolute waste of f****** time because I don’t have it. He phoned me a week later, just days before it happened, and he said, ‘It’s brilliant, it’s working’.

Billy Connolly

Shortly after Williams’ death, his wife, Susan Schneider, revealed he’d been struggling with the disease. She said: “Robin’s sobriety was intact and he was brave as he struggled with his own battles of depression, anxiety, as well as early stages of Parkinson’s disease, which he was not yet ready to share publicly.” It has previously been reported Connolly could have been living with the condition for around a decade before it was diagnosed - on the same day he was told he had prostate cancer, from which he’s been given the all-clear.

During the call he kept telling me he loved me. I said, ‘I know’. But he kept repeating it, saying, ‘Do you really know I love you?’ I was thinking, what the f*** is he on about? After his death I thought, ‘Oh my God, he was saying goodbye’.

Billy Connolly

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