Oscar winning actor and comedian Robin Williams has been found dead at his home in California after apparently killing himself at the age of 63. The star of Good Will Hunting, Good Morning Vietnam and Mrs Doubtfire, who battled depression and an addiction to drugs and alcohol for decades, was found dead in his San Francisco mansion at around noon yesterday.
The married father of three had been back in rehab last month 'fine-tuning' his sobriety and Marin County Sheriff's Office said today it believed Williams' death was a suicide due to asphyxia.
His distraught wife Susan Schneider revealed her husband had died in a statement last night and said: 'This morning I lost my husband and my best friend, while the world lost one if its most beloved artists and beautiful human beings. I am utterly heartbroken'.
President Obama issued a touching tribute to the actor and comedian, and thanked him his influence on American culture throughout his 35 year career.
He said: 'Robin Williams was an airman, a doctor, a genie, a nanny, a president, a professor, a bangarang Peter Pan and everything in between. But he was one of a kind. He arrived in our lives as an alien - but he ended up touching every element of the human spirit.
'He made us laugh. He made us cry. He gave his immeasurable talent freely and generously to those who needed it most - from our troops stationed abroad to the marginalized on our own streets. The Obama family offers our condolences to Robin's family, his friends, and everyone who found their voice and their verse thanks to Robin Williams.'
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Williams had an addiction to cocaine. Williams was a close friend of and frequent partier alongside John Belushi. He said the death of his friend and the birth of his eldest son prompted him to quit drugs and alcohol: "Was it a wake-up call? Oh yeah, on a huge level. The grand jury helped too."
Williams started drinking alcohol again in 2003, while working in a small town in Alaska. On August 9, 2006, he checked himself in to a substance-abuse rehabilitation center in Newberg, Oregon. He later said that he was an alcoholic. His publicist delivered the announcement:
After 20 years of sobriety, Robin Williams found himself drinking again and has decided to take proactive measures to deal with this for his own well-being and the well-being of his family. Williams was hospitalized in March 2009 due to heart problems. He postponed his one-man tour in order to undergo surgery to replace his valve. The surgery was successfully completed on March 13, 2009, at the Cleveland Clinic.
Psychologist Julie Cerel, chairperson of the board of the American Association of Suicidology, said Williams was known to have bipolar disorder, depression and problems with drug abuse.
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