Robin Williams backstage with show prop after a performance, 1986. Group lot, 1 of 3 images offered. Estimate $1,000–2,000.
“Robin and I simply hit it off from the start and everything progressed from there. We were always comfortable in each other’s company, and even when months would go by without us seeing each other, the minute we met up again we picked up right where we had left off.”
Creating a Stage: The Collection of Marsha and Robin Williams
4 October | New York
Robin Williams on stage of the Metropolitan Opera House during publicity shoot, New York, 1986. Estimate $1,000–2,000.
“The culmination for Robin of all the weeks of performing on the road [in 1986] was his HBO special Robin Williams: An Evening at the Met...when Robin and I walked out to the front edge of the Met’s stage to do some improv shots for possible use as an album cover, I had Robin face me with his back to the cavernous opera house…I had the same queasy feeling acrophobics must get when standing on the Golden Gate Bridge–extreme discomfort. On the other hand, Robin couldn't have cared less. He was really enjoying the shoot, seemingly oblivious to the gravitas of his surroundings, acting like he was goofing around in his backyard in San Francisco.”
Creating a Stage: The Collection of Marsha and Robin Williams
4 October | New York
Robin Williams at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, 1986. Group lot, 1 of 2 images offered. Estimate $2,000–3,000.
"Being on tour with Robin in the spring of 1986 was as an exhilarating and carefree assignment as I ever had, and easily the most fun... I started to forget what I was there for, as the laughs just kept coming...From the very start, I was given total access, and all I had to do was not blow it. The photographic moments I was after were always right there in front of me."
Creating a Stage: The Collection of Marsha and Robin Williams
4 October | New York
With his pet lizard at his rental house in Malibu, 1989. Group lot, 1 of 2 images offered. Estimate $1,000–2,000.
“Robin was like anybody else who works hard at what they do. He needed time for rest, relaxation and recuperation. The only difference was that he needed it more than most. The amount of energy he expended performing was often otherworldly.”
Creating a Stage: The Collection of Marsha and Robin Williams
4 October | New York
Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg and Robin rehearsing a dance number for Comic Relief, New York, 1990. Group lot, 1 of 4 images offered. Estimate $2,000–3,000.
"He was extraordinarily talented. He had the love of his family and friends. He reached the heights of his profession and was richly rewarded, both financially and with prestigious recognition. He traveled the world and was loved by millions. He lived to make people laugh and succeeded like no one before him."
Creating a Stage: The Collection of Marsha and Robin Williams
4 October | New York
Robin Williams cracks up Dustin Hoffman during Steve Spielberg and Kate Capshaw's wedding reception, East Hampton, New York, 1991. Group lot, 1 of 4 images offered. Estimate $2,000–3,000.
“When Robin was riffing it became a transcendent experience for anyone lucky enough to be within earshot. Even from a long distance Robin could throw you a good laugh, especially if something was going south in your life.”
Creating a Stage: The Collection of Marsha and Robin Williams
4 October | New York
Robin Williams demonstrating his inflatable jacket to a mega yacht crew, Cap d'Antibes, France, 1992. Group lot, 1 of 2 images offered. Estimate $1,000–2,000.
“That was the thing about Robin that seemed so obvious, but most everybody took for granted, including me. You were really lucky to be around him because at some point you knew you were going to laugh your ass off. And that was a real gift from him.”
Creating a Stage: The Collection of Marsha and Robin Williams
4 October | New York
On the set of Toys, Los Angeles, 1992. Group lot, 1 of 4 images offered. Estimate $2,000–3,000.
“This photo is only one example of the many times on shoots when Robin would give me the middle finger salute. There was never any malice intended, and he was always smiling when he did it. What it meant was: I know you’re here doing your job, screw this crap going on around us, I’m glad you’re here.”
Creating a Stage: The Collection of Marsha and Robin Williams
4 October | New York
A publicity shoot in San Francisco, 1993. Group lot, 1 of 3 images offered. Estimate $1,000–2,000.
"I got to see firsthand what it took to do what he did so successfully – meticulous preparation, a superb memory, steady nerves, stockpiles of energy. and the ability to recharge himself...the prerequisite to all of this was having a keen sense of humor, a sixth sense of what was funny."
Creating a Stage: The Collection of Marsha and Robin Williams
4 October | New York
Visiting one of his favorite toy stores, Heroes Club, San Francisco, 1993.
"He was always greeted warmly by the proprietor of Heroes Club: The Art of Toys on Clement, where Robin bought Star Wars models and Godzilla monsters among the other toys that he collected."
Creating a Stage: The Collection of Marsha and Robin Williams
4 October | New York
Robin Williams at home playing a video game in the kid's playroom, San Francisco, 1993.
“On one visit in 1993, I walked into his lair in San Francisco and saw a military video game on this computer screen. He explained that it was a new air-to-air combat game with the latest US and Soviet fighter jets and that he had just finished an aerial dogfight with Steven Spielberg, who was in Los Angeles. Robin smiled, and proudly said he’d smoked him.
As long as I knew him, Robin was in love with video games, and took them seriously.”
Creating a Stage: The Collection of Marsha and Robin Williams
4 October | New York
Robin and Marsha with Williams children Zak, Zelda and Cody, San Francisco, 1995.
“For Robin the best part of being home in San Francisco was that he was able to spend time with his kids – Zak, Zelda and Cody. Nothing lit up Robin’s face more or gave him as much joy and relaxation as when he was around his children – whether it was putting a puzzle together with Zelda at the kitchen table, playing video games with Cody in the kids’ playroom, or snowboarding with Zak at Lake Tahoe.”
Creating a Stage: The Collection of Marsha and Robin Williams
4 October | New York
Easter, San Francisco, 1995. Estimate $1,000–2,000.
“Everybody knows that Robin was an incredibly generous man who gave both his time and his money to various public causes and charities. I also saw the small ways he showed his generosity. There never was a time when I was with Robin that he didn’t stop for a panhandler or a homeless person and hand them some money.”
Creating a Stage: The Collection of Marsha and Robin Williams
4 October | New York
With one of his beloved lightweight bikes outside of his garage (there were 20 more inside), San Francisco, 1995.
“Whenever I was in San Francisco with Robin, I was amazed that he could walk around in public and no one bothered him, other than to wave or say hello. When he went to Bike Odyssey in Sausalito, the sales people and the mechanics all knew him and would come over to talk.”
Creating a Stage: The Collection of Marsha and Robin Williams
4 October | New York
Robin Williams in the back of a limo after leaving an Oscar party at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Los Angeles, 1998. Group lot, 1 of 4 images offered. Estimate $2,000–3,000.
“On the drive over the Vanity Fair party, he held on to his Oscar and kept beaming...I think he was still a bit in shock and somewhat disbelieving of what was actually happening. For me, it was like having a ringside seat to a very rare event — someone living out his dream in real time…To this day, Robin’s Oscar night stands out for me, not only for how surreal an evening it was, but because it was the happiest I ever saw Robin in his professional life in all the years I knew him.”
Creating a Stage: The Collection of Marsha and Robin Williams
4 October | New York
Robin Williams in an advertising image for Audible, Inc. podcast, 1999. Group lot, 1 of 3 images offered. Estimate $1,000–2,000.
“In 1999 Robin decided to do a podcast interview show for a start –up internet company called Audible, Inc., which would be offering audio downloads on the web of select newspapers and periodicals...When I arrived at the photo studio a month later, the art directors explained the concept to me. It couldn’t have been simpler–let Robin be Robin, They had assembled racks full of special clothing and costumes and a floor full of props. As an eclectic mix of Robin’s favorite music (hip hop, rock, salsa) blared from the speakers, Robin took off on a long flight of fantasy as he rapidly changed from one “character” to another in a remarkable tour de force of physical improv.”
Creating a Stage: The Collection of Marsha and Robin Williams
4 October | New York
Robin Williams with Rodin's The Thinker at the Legion of Honor, San Francisco. Estimate $1,000–2,000.
“Every professional photographer I ever spoke to who had worked with Robin always said the same thing: how easy he was to get along with and what a great guy he was. And of course they all had fun hanging out with him. Robin liked photographers, and from time-to-time on a studio shoot, he would entertain everyone by putting on his best Annie Leibovitz impersonation, pretending to be asking him to go along with some crazy setup, like hanging by his legs from a tree branch with a banana in his mouth.”
Creating a Stage: The Collection of Marsha and Robin Williams
4 October | New York
“I had never seen anyone like him before and had never laughed so hard in my life,” recalls photographer Arthur Grace on meeting Robin Williams for the first time. This chance encounter in 1986 while Grace was on assignment for Newsweek led to a collaboration that lasted over fifteen years. Grace captured many special moments for the beloved entertainer and his family — from quiet times at home, to Williams’s memorable stage performances, wedding parties and last-minute New Year’s Eve celebrations. In 2016, Grace’s photographs were published in Robin Williams: A Singular Portrait, 1986–2002 (Counterpoint, 2016).
A selection of photographs by Arthur Grace from the Williams family’s personal collection will be offered in the upcoming auction Creating a Stage: The Collection of Marsha and Robin Williams (4 October, New York). Proceeds will benefit the Reeve Foundation, a cause championed by Marsha and Robin Williams. Click ahead to see a few of Grace's images, some of which will be offered at auction, along with reflections from his book on the experience he described as “the most extraordinary trip of my life.”