Robin Williams ensured he hired homeless people for his projects — the reason is truly inspiring
In everything we do, there is always a way to spread love and kindness. Whether it’s a chore or even our job, there’s always a spark we can enkindle with thoughtfulness. Late actor Robin Williams was also actively involved in spreading love while doing his job as a celebrity. The man, who played profound roles in iconic movies like “Good Will Hunting,” “Dead Poets Society” and many more, had inspired the world with a special practice. Williams had a one-of-a-kind policy of hiring homeless people for his movies, per PEOPLE.
His goal was to give homeless people jobs so they could rightfully earn through hardwork. Williams, who passed away in 2014, ensured that people of the streets were hired to work on the sets of some of his well-accomplished projects. At the Comic Relief Live event in New York City in 2024, his daughter Zelda Williams pointed out his selfless stature. “My dad, on all of his projects and especially when he was on tour, would hire homeless people. He would actively give them jobs,” she recalled. Billy Crystal, an ambassador at the Comic Relief event and a frequent co-star of Williams, shared that this gesture was always on board.
Williams was grateful to be able to do “something that was not only funny but helpful.” “And that's the greatest thing that you can do with your talent," said Crystal about his co-star of many times. He added, "When the money came in, it went out to the most needy places across the country, the shelters across the country. And the three of us [actress-comedian Whoopi Goldberg, Williams and Crystal] would deliver the checks to these individual shelters all across the country." The reason behind this wholesome act has always been “to make a difference.” Williams, who also struggled with a lack of jobs in the acting field for some years initially, knew how much money matters, according to Pioneers of Television.
During a Senate hearing about the Homelessness Prevention and Revitalization Act of 1990, the actor voiced this reason with clarity. He was quoted as saying by PEOPLE, "This program has incredible possibilities to deal with keeping people in their homes. The problem cannot be denied anymore. You can't keep picking people up, you have to stop them from falling. That’s what I hope." With this goal to make a change, he opted to hire the homeless. Considering the lack of jobs, the actor dabbled in the world of comedy and learned some life-changing lessons along the way. He shared one of those in an interview with Pioneers of Television, “It's just a question of being willing to take the chance if you feel like it's right and sometimes it is and other times it isn't. It's a question if you have the courage to keep going with it or the intelligence to let it go if it's not working.”
Zelda urged people to consider hiring the homeless like her late father did. "It makes an enormous difference for people generationally. It doesn't just take incredible organizations like [Comic Relief]. It takes individuals. So if you ever don't think that you as a single person or as a person who has a business can make a difference, please know you can even if you're hiring just one person,” she remarked.