Robin Williams Was Infectiously Funny, but Was He Religious?

It’s pretty easy to describe the late and great actor Robin Williams — he had natural comedic talent and lit up any room he was in. There was also a comforting, fatherly aura about him that just drew you in and made you feel like you couldn’t get enough. So naturally, his death by suicide in 2014 was absolutely devastating.

While we can definitely describe Robin’s personality, there was still a lot we didn’t know about the Mrs. Doubtfire star, including what he may have been struggling with behind the scenes. And what about religion? How did Robin identify, and was he even a religious person? Here’s what we’ve gathered based on his past commentary.

Robin Williams was raised Episcopalian and clung to that faith even in his later years. That said, he probably wouldn’t be described as the most religious person, like someone who attends church every Sunday and pushes the word of God onto others.

We know this because during one of his stand-up performances, Robin joked, “I’m Episcopalian, which is Catholic Lite — same religion, half the guilt.” He also joked that while Catholics have confession, “Episcopals have Thanksgiving,” adding, “Your dad has a couple of gin and tonics.” Basically, it was the alcohol that got Episcopalians confessing rather than the formal act of confession itself (that’s where the Catholic Lite joke comes in).

In that same bit, he also mocked the idea that everyone comes from Adam and Eve, going in and out of character like he was known for. He acted as the Catholic respondent to the claim, saying, “That’s right,” honing in on the fact that there’s no real explanation offered, it just is what it is.

So when it comes to Robin’s level of religiousness, he seemed like someone who identified with a faith, but mostly connected with the part of it that centers around caring for others.

That becomes even clearer in a comment he made in a 2007 interview, per the South China Morning Post: “I’m more religious in the sense of an open, compassionate church that’s there to take care of people with outreach programmes and counselling. The idea of really working together, that means something. I’m religious on that level, trying to take care of everyone, and the idea of compassion is powerful to me.”

And while he wasn’t the most religious person, he did find himself getting closer to God when he went to rehab after 20 years of sobriety in 2006. In that same 2007 interview, he revealed, “You get a real strong sense of God when you go through rehab,” adding, “Having the idea of a really loving and forgiving God really helps if you’re an alcoholic — someone going, ‘It’s OK. Remember, there was wine at the Last Supper.’”

As a kid, Robin regularly attended church with his family and admitted in that 2007 interview that he “was heavily into religion.” While it may have started as more of just a ritual, like regularly going to church and partaking in common religious events, he explained that as he got older, he developed a deeper understanding of it. At that point, he suggested it seemed to mean more to him than just something his family did together.