Judi Dench Recalls Robin Williams' Quiet Kindness in New Memoir

Dame Judi Dench reveals that Robin Williams quietly walked beside her dying husband up a steep Scottish hill — a moment of kindness she says she has thought about for nearly 30 years. The account appears in her forthcoming memoir, "Is It Too Late to Make a Run For It?", published on Tuesday.

What happened on the hill?

Dench and her husband, the actor Michael Williams, were staying at Billy Connolly's home in Scotland when they met Williams. Michael was battling lung cancer. One evening, Dench writes, "there was a big party in the woods with a ceilidh and a bonfire."

Michael grew tired. The couple said their goodnights and began climbing a very steep hill out of the woods. Williams appeared and offered to help. Michael declined.

"And Robin said, 'Well, I think I'll ride shotgun anyway', which was such a lovely thing to say," Dench writes, in an excerpt reported by People. "I've often thought about that moment — Robin's sensitivity and understanding, just offering to be there, gently supportive, without imposing himself."

A history between the two actors

Dench and Williams were not strangers. They had worked together on Kenneth Branagh's 1996 film "Hamlet." Three years later, in 1999, Williams handed Dench her Academy Award for best supporting actress, for playing Queen Elizabeth I in "Shakespeare in Love."

Williams died in 2014 at the age of 63. His films included "Jumanji," "Good Will Hunting," "Dead Poets Society," "Mrs. Doubtfire" and "Hook."

Michael Williams died on January 11, 2001, at 65. He and Dench had married in 1971.

What does Dench say about 'Cats'?

The memoir also contains Dench's first public comments on the 2019 film "Cats." The adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's stage musical, despite a cast that included James Corden, Idris Elba and Taylor Swift, was a critical and commercial failure.

Dench does not spare the project, but she does not defend it either.

"Oh God, I can't bear it – and [Lloyd Webber] had waited so long for it to be made," she writes. "What a waste of all that goodwill and talent. I understand the critics were rather hostile to the film. I never saw the final cut so I can't judge. All I'll say is nobody sets out to give a poor performance or make a bad film. You do your best, offer something up and hope that people will get on board and join the party."

The two disclosures frame a memoir that ranges across grief, friendship and a career of more than six decades on screen and stage. Readers can judge the full record when the book reaches shelves this week, with Dench's account of Williams already drawing attention as its most quoted passage.

By Marcus Bennett