Robin Williams performs. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.
LAKE FOREST/LAKE BLUFF — David Duff remembers the day Robin Williams and his family moved next door to him in Lake Forest when they were both schoolchildren.
“I remember the cars and the moving van in the driveway,” said Duff, a Gorton School fourth grader at the time. “I was wondering who is this kid. I introduced myself but I didn’t want to get in the way so I went home.”
Duff is one of three of Williams’ boyhood friends from Lake Forest interviewed for a two-hour NBC News Peacock Productions documentary, Robin Williams: Behind Closed Doors, airing at 8 p.m. on August 28.
The early part of the movie portrays Williams’ life in Lake Forest, where he attended Gorton and later Deer Path Middle School. Before starting high school, he moved to the Detroit area with his family after his father got a promotion with the Ford Motor Company, according to the film.
Hosted by Natalie Morales, the West Coast Anchor of the NBC’s Today Show, the documentary explores Williams’ life from his early days in Lake Forest through his time in comedy clubs through television and movie stardom and his death two years ago, according to a news release from REELZ, an entertainment network.
The movie also explores some of Williams’ inner demons, according to the release. He died August 11, 2014, taking his own life.
It was not long before Duff and Williams were playing together at each others’ houses, walking to school together and exploring the neighborhood. Duff described Lake Forest in the late 1960s and early 1970s as an ideal place to grow up.
“No one was keeping track of you with cell phones then,” said Duff, who is now a financial consultant living in Rockaway, N.J. “We’d go off on our bikes in the morning, not get home until dinner and nobody asked any questions.”
Both Duff and Deni Weigel Eads, another childhood friend from Lake Forest, said they remember early signs of Williams’ comedic talent, including traits that later became part of his trademark routines. Eads said she met Williams when they were students at Deer Path. She now lives in Warrenville.
“When he came over he would always tell my sister a joke,” Duff said. “It was always appropriate, like a knock-knock joke.”
Dads said the spelling of their last names cast them together often since they were in the same homeroom at Deer Path. “I was Weigel and he was Williams,” Eads said. “We would always be next to each other in line or in class.”
One time Weigel said she saw Williams in the cafeteria carrying on conversations with food on his plate as me moved the carrots, celery and lettuce around in front of him.
“He made a voice for the carrot saying, ‘you’re going to eat me,’” Eads said. “‘Oh no, I think I’ll go for the lettuce first.’ It was so creative. I really liked it.”
Duff remembers Williams giving voices to toy soldiers as well as sound effects to guns when the two of them played together. Duff said Williams had a collection of small lead soldiers that they put into battle.
“We’d play army then or cowboys and Indians,” Duff said. “All the little lead soldiers had voices. Robin (Williams) made sound effects when something was blowing up.”
Eads remembers one time when she felt bad about getting Williams into trouble. She placed a thumb tack on the chair of a teacher she disliked and Williams saw her do it. He kept quietly chuckling.
“He sat down and didn’t react,” Eads said of the teacher. “I started laughing under my breath and then (Williams) did. The teacher sent us both out in the hall. I felt bad. Robin (Williams) never got in trouble. He always did his homework.”
Years later when Williams achieved fame as a comedian, Duff said he had the chance to watch him perform in a Chicago club. Duff said he has fond memories of the reunion.
“He did a 20-minute rip on Lake Forest,” Duff said. “Then we got to go backstage. It was just normal with him like we were still in school. It wasn’t about him at all.”