VIDEO Conan O’Brien finds out about Robin Williams’ death while taping his show, shares heartfelt message
As I’m sure most of you know, the world lost the comedic genius of Robin Williams on Wednesday after the 63-year-old actor and comedian was found dead from an apparent suicide in his northern California home. When the news broke, Conan O’Brien was in the process of recording his talk show, and at the end of the show he shared the sad news with the studio audience before he, Andy Richter, and guest Will Arnett expressed their admiration for the amazing comedian and human being that Robin Williams was.
“This is unusual and upsetting,” an emotional Conan begins, “but we got some news — got some news during the show that Robin Williams has passed away.”
After explaining to his viewers that the show is taped hours in advance, Conan says “This is absolutely shocking and horrifying, and so upsetting on every level. We’re at the end of the show and it just felt like we needed to acknowledge — obviously we don’t know much yet. We know that this has happened, and we’re absolutely stunned to get this news.”
Conan then gestured to his co-host Andy Richter and guest Will Arnett and said, “I know that everybody here, we’ve all worked with Robin over the years.”
“He was an amazingly kind and generous person,” Andy said of Robin, “and it’s got to be a terrible time for his family, and our thoughts go out to them.”
“As funny as he was, he was one of the all-time greats,” Will said, “he was even better as a person. He was even more fantastic. He was just the loveliest, sweetest, one of the kindest guys that I’ve ever worked with. Just such a soft, warm, emotionally sweet guy, and it’s a major, major loss for — for everybody. Like Andy said, or hearts go out to his family.”
Rest in peace Robin.