# What were the working options for someone in Robin Williams' position? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 15, 2014, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-working-options-for-someone-in-robin-williams-position/695580 "2014-08-15T03:14:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-working-options-for-someone-in-robin-williams-position/695580/21 "2014-08-15T21:50:35Z")
Celt: Are you saying John Denver committed suicide? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-working-options-for-someone-in-robin-williams-position/695580/22 "2014-08-15T23:00:02Z")
From the good folks at CNW: [Robin Williams Was Not Broke When He Died. Let’s End This Rumor Right Now Please](http://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/celebrity/robin-williams-broke-died-lets-end-rumor-please/). ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-working-options-for-someone-in-robin-williams-position/695580/23 "2014-08-15T23:31:20Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Kurt Cobain did, for instance. That’s what Courtney Love wants you to think. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-working-options-for-someone-in-robin-williams-position/695580/24 "2014-08-15T23:44:35Z")
Robin said in interviews last year that he was hurting for money. That’s why he returned to tv. Was he down to his last dollar? I seriously doubt it. But he was trying to unload a 30 million dollar estate. Money may have been tight until he could convert hard assets into cash. More importantly at 63 he probably didn’t want to be stuck grinding out one movie after another. It was time to cut back a little and he wasn’t able to to do that financially. > [@friedo](#): > > From the good folks at CNW: [Robin Williams Was Not Broke When He Died. Let’s End This Rumor Right Now Please](http://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/celebrity/robin-williams-broke-died-lets-end-rumor-please/). ---
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-working-options-for-someone-in-robin-williams-position/695580/25 "2014-08-15T23:53:50Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > From the good folks at CNW: [Robin Williams Was Not Broke When He Died. Let’s End This Rumor Right Now Please](http://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/celebrity/robin-williams-broke-died-lets-end-rumor-please/). That’s pretty much a summary of most of the information I’ve seen about his financial condition, but their conclusion is just the opposite of what I’ve seen. Most of the articles, including this one, generally say that his net worth is $50 million with the big estate for sale comprising the bulk of it. On the upside, they list that asset at $37 million. Without the sale of it, that leaves $13 million for the upkeep of his lifestyle. Property taxes on that property alone could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe even approaching a million dollars a year. Then he has to pay salaries and maintenance to the people who maintain that property, along with the maintenance of his own lifestyle. $13 million is a lot of money for people who have smaller assets to upkeep, but isn’t as big when expenses are high. The question in this thread is the same one that they just assume at the end of the article: > [@](#): > > Robin also had the ability to earn an enormous income every year for many years. He has three major motion pictures on the way to theaters right now and was still a very much in-demand actor. Furthermore, at any point he could have organized a national standup comedy tour that easily would have earned him millions. If he had the health and optimism to work as he had in the past, the problems might not have been daunting. If his depression or health condition prevented that, it’s a different scenario. From what I’ve read in articles (that may or may not have been accurate), his neighbors and a friend spoke about how he was concerned about his financial issues a lot. Whether anyone else felt like he could easily earn enough to maintain his lifestyle, based on their reports, he seems to have been in doubt. The depression could have led to the doubt or the doubt could have led to the depression, or maybe neither if the reports are inaccurate. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2014, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-working-options-for-someone-in-robin-williams-position/695580/26 "2014-08-16T12:22:35Z")
The man is gone. His financial problems (if any) are of no consequence to him any more. Let’s not rifle through the man’s financial assets. What next, his pockets? ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2014, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-working-options-for-someone-in-robin-williams-position/695580/27 "2014-08-16T12:44:54Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > The man is gone. His financial problems (if any) are of no consequence to him any more. Let’s not rifle through the man’s financial assets. What next, his pockets? Yeah, I think lot of us may have enjoyed his financial assets. I don’t think that was his issue. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2014, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-working-options-for-someone-in-robin-williams-position/695580/28 "2014-08-16T15:12:11Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > MAYBE he could have. On the other hand, he was 63 years old and starting to deal with symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease. Maybe he COULDN’T have done a lengthy standup tour any more. FWIW I posted that before that detail was revealed but to limit his effort (and honestly probably increase the amount of money he made) he could have inked a deal to do an exclusive show at a Las Vegas casino for x amount of months. Huge money for him and no travel beyond having to live in Vegas for a while. Again assuming he physically could do it. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2014, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-working-options-for-someone-in-robin-williams-position/695580/29 "2014-08-16T15:35:05Z")
All these questions about finances are really academic; certainly, enough real options were there that the man wasn’t going to be eating dog food, even in a worst case scenario. Hell, he could probably have sold his nail clippings on eBay and made a halfway decent living. However, to someone caught in the jaws of the “black dog”—and I have absolutely _no_ idea what kind of history of treatment he’d had for it, or how effective it was, or what the future prognosis was—with your morale horribly broken, even giving the man a magic button that would give your a billion dollars per press might have felt too harrowing a task. Or worse, just felt like an act of pointlessly prolonging a trip down a weary road. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2014, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-working-options-for-someone-in-robin-williams-position/695580/30 "2014-08-16T17:48:59Z")
I suppose his estate could sign him up for a reboot of Weekend At Bernie’s. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2014, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-working-options-for-someone-in-robin-williams-position/695580/31 "2014-08-16T18:53:32Z")
Something no one has mentioned is residuals: wouldn’t he be raking in a significant amount of money just from them each year? ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2014, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-working-options-for-someone-in-robin-williams-position/695580/32 "2014-08-16T19:31:16Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > Celt: Are you saying John Denver committed suicide? We’ll never know for certain, but many people believe it was. I certainly think so. ☹ \*I started to list my reasons, but don’t wish to start the argument here. If anyone is interested in discussing, please start another thread and I’ll pop in. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-working-options-for-someone-in-robin-williams-position/695580.md?page=1)