'He needed more help than he could give': Friend who knew Robin Williams reached out to the star last month and said he 'really needed support'

  • Dean Kendrink met Williams while working for a travel show 10 years ago
  • He said he was suprised to see him at a treatment centre in Mill Valley
  • Said Williams was the very first to speak about battle with addiction
  • Mr Kendrink handed Williams his telephone number and told him to get in contact if he needed someone to talk to

By Tara Brady

Published: 03:32 EST, 13 August 2014 | Updated: 08:56 EST, 13 August 2014

A friend who knew Robin Williams through a self-help group reached out to the star last month and said he 'really needed support'. 

Dean Kendrink, a KPIX 5 news photographer, met Williams while working for the Bay Area Backroads travel show more than 10 years ago.

However, Mr Kenrick said he was surprised to see him at a treatment centre in Mill Valley, San Fransisco, just weeks before his death.

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Shocked: Dean Kendrink passed his number to Robin Williams and told him to call if he needed support

Shocked: Dean Kendrink passed his number to Robin Williams and told him to call if he needed support

Speaking to San Fransisco CBS, Mr Kendrick said: 'He was very slow in his movements and his demeanor was also very low.

'He really, really needed support at that time.' 

Mr Kendrick said Williams was the very first to raise his hand in the group to speak about his own battle with drug and alcohol addiction.

After the support group had finished the session, Mr Kendrink handed Williams his telephone number and told him to get in contact if he needed someone to talk to.

 

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Williams returned to rehab in 2006 after being sober for 20 years. 

Speaking during a previous interview, he said: 'I have done the research on playing an alcoholic, having sobriety now for seven years, they have these things when you are drinking called blackouts.

 
Kendrick said Williams was the first to raise his hand in the group to speak about his own battle with addiction

Kendrick said Williams was the first to raise his hand in the group to speak about his own battle with addiction

'They are not really blackouts. It’s more like sleepwalking with activities, but it is the idea that I am more focused and I am present.'

Williams was 'very drawn and thin' and appeared just a 'shell' of his bright public persona this weekend - a few days before he committed suicide, according to his neighbour who was one of the last people to see him alive.

The longtime resident of the secluded community where Williams lived has exclusively told MailOnline that Williams appeared subdued and preoccupied - especially compared to the up-beat family man who moved into the Tiburon, California, mansion years ago.

Robin Williams posted this photograph of him and his daughter Zelda on her 25th birthday

Robin Williams posted this photograph of him and his daughter Zelda on her 25th birthday

Williams' neighbor told MailOnline through tears: 'The last time I saw Robin was over the weekend, we would catch up on the street, just casual.

'He was very drawn and thin, he did not look like the Robin who first moved into this community many years ago.

'He was a shell of himself, exhausted and not in the best spirits, but still the nice guy I had always known. There seemed to be something on his mind...

‘The last time I saw him he seemed to be in a bad place emotionally.'

Williams struggled with depression and an addiction to cocaine and alcohol for decades. Last month the married father of three was back in rehab 'fine-tuning' his sobriety in a year where he had been working on six movies and a TV series.

Robin Williams was reportedly forced to pay $30million during his 2008 divorce from his second wife Marsha

Robin Williams was reportedly forced to pay $30million during his 2008 divorce from his second wife Marsha

His publicist also revealed the star had been 'battling severe depression of late.'

Williams also admitted that he was troubled by his finances. He was reportedly forced to pay $30million during his 2008 divorce from his second wife Marsha Garces, the film producer who is mother to his last two children, and first wife Valerie Velardi.

Last year, he admitted that he was selling his $35million Napa estate because he could no longer afford it. He listed it in April for $29.9million - a $5million markdown from what he paid for it.

He also admitted that he was working many of his recent gigs - including a new TV show for CBS - to make money.

He was also working on six movies this year - leaving four of them unfinished.

Williams's three children have all now issued their own deeply touching and emotional statements in which they pay tribute to their father, who was found hanged in his bedroom on Monday in California after battling with depression.

In a moving message on Tuesday to well wishers, Williams' first son Zak Williams, 31, said that the 63-year-old's suicide meant 'I lost my father and a best friend and the world got a little grayer.'

'I would ask those that loved him to remember him by being as gentle, kind, and generous as he would be,' said Zak, whose mother, Valerie Velardi was the comic legend's first wife.

The Good Will Hunting star's younger son, Cody Williams, 23, simply said, 'There are no words strong enough to describe the love and respect I have for my father.

'The world will never be the same without him. I will miss him and take him everywhere I go for the rest of my life, and will look forward, forever, to the moment when I get to see him again.'

The Oscar winner's daughter, Zelda Williams, 25, who has already posted a heart felt message to social media, offered up a bittersweet statement that praised the comic genius' fans, but offered a chastening word to his critics too.

Zelda Williams said: 'Dad was, is and always will be one of the kindest, most generous, gentlest souls I've ever known, and while there are few things I know for certain right now, one of them is that not just my world, but the entire world is forever a little darker, less colorful and less full of laughter in his absence. We'll just have to work twice as hard to fill it back up again.

Flowers and tributes are placed at the make-shift memorial on the Hollywood Walk of Fame star for actor Robin Williams in Hollywood

Flowers and tributes are placed at the make-shift memorial on the Hollywood Walk of Fame star for actor Robin Williams in Hollywood

Shortly after the news broke on Monday, Zelda posted an excerpt from French poet and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince on Twitter, and in her statement today added: 'My family has always been private about our time spent together. It was our way of keeping one thing that was ours, with a man we shared with an entire world. But now that's gone, and I feel stripped bare.

'My last day with him was his birthday and I will be forever grateful that my brothers and I got to spend that time alone with him, sharing gifts and laughter. He was always warm, even in his darkest moments.

And his second wife, Marsha Garces Williams also published her first statement on her ex-husband's passing, calling him a 'genius'.

Williams was last seen alive about 10.30pm on Sunday by his third wife Susan Schneider when she went to bed. Williams locked himself in a different bedroom, Marin County Sheriff's Lieutenant Keith Boyd said.

By the time an assistant found the Oscar-winning actor's body at 11.55am on Monday, rigor mortis had set in.

After going to bed Sunday night, Susan got up and left the house to run errands about 10.30am - believing her husband of three years was still asleep.

An assistant, worried when Williams couldn't be roused at 11.45am, broke into the bedroom and found Williams dead.

The official preliminary cause of death was asphyxia due to hanging, police in California said, and conclusion of the investigation is still weeks away.

Emergency personnel arrived at noon. At 12:02 he was pronounced dead. Toxicology reports are pending and will take two to six weeks.

The Mrs Doubtfire and Good Will Hunting star's suicide comes after decades of battling depression and alcohol and drug addiction.

He was also facing significant financial pressures and admitted he was selling a $35million estate in Napa because he could no longer afford it.



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