Robin Williams consoled Conan O’Brien after he was fired, organised a day of biking for him to relax

Robin Williams once consoled Conan O’Brien after he was fired from The Tonight Show by organising a day of biking for him.

Speaking to Eric Idle on a recent episode of the Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend podcast, the US talk show host recalled how NBC fired him after he took over the late night show from Jay Leno in 2009, after just seven months.

“I was lucky enough to have some great interactions with Robin Williams before he passed,” O’Brien said. “One of the most memorable examples to me is when I went through my whole Tonight Show debacle. Finally, the show is done, and I don’t know if I have a career anymore. What am I gonna do next? I’m lying on the floor in the living room of my house, and my phone rings, and I pick it up, and it’s Robin Williams.”

He continued: “I don’t even know how he got my phone number. [Williams asked,] ‘How are you holding up, chief?’ And he said, you know, ‘You’re gonna be fine, you’re gonna be great.’”

The late actor, who died by suicide at the age of 63 in 2014, then instructed O’Brien to go down to the local bike shop in Santa Monica where he had set up a bike for the talk show host to rent for the day.

“And I said, ‘What?’” O’Brien recalled. “And he said, ‘No, no, no, just head on down there. Ride around, you’ll feel better.’ And I went down and it was a Colnago, which is a very nice bike. And he said, ‘I told him to paint it in all these crazy Irish colours.’ I get down there and it’s the ugliest – I mean, it was just greens and shamrocks and everything. And he was like, ‘You’re going to like that bike, chief. Don’t worry about it.’”

O’Brien went on to say that the experience cleared his head and it was just what he needed at the time. He added: “I thanked [Robin] many, many times. I just couldn’t believe that he was thinking about me.”

It comes after a number of comedians and actors recently spoke about Williams conducting kind gestures towards them.

Kathy Griffin previously recalled the time Williams helped her after she “bombed” on stage. Sally Field also hailed the late actor’s kindness after she recently revealed that he changed the filming order of Mrs Doubtfire so she could leave filming after her father died.

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