Why Ozzy Osbourne was “forever in debt” to Robin Williams: “He’s a very funny man”
There’s barely a high-profile musician past, present, or future who hasn’t appeared in at least one movie either as themselves or a fictional character, but it’s debatable if any of them have a filmography as eclectically bizarre as Ozzy Osbourne.
The late Black Sabbath frontman and all-around icon made countless cameos in dozens of film and television productions over the years, and the common thread uniting them is that there is no common thread: in typical Ozzy fashion, it makes for unpredictable and outlandish reading.
Over the years, he popped up in Adam Sandler’s Little Nicky, Austin Powers in Goldmember, an episode of South Park, and Howard Stern’s comedy Private Parts. He also voiced a fairy in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge!, played himself in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and lent his dulcet tones to a fawn in both Gnomeo & Juliet and its sequel, which is a random assortment of roles if ever there was one.
Such an unusual array of movie gigs would indicate that Osbourne didn’t exactly travel in A-list circles, and while he didn’t know Robin Williams before reaching out, his decision to contact the Academy Award-winning comedy icon made such a profound impact that Ozzy was forever in his debt.
When his wife, Sharon, was diagnosed with cancer in 2002, it hit the family like a ton of bricks. The Osbourne clan was devastated, and in an effort to find any shred of positivity in a troubling situation, the ‘Prince of Darkness’ sought out one man he knew was guaranteed to put a smile on his spouse’s face.
“I’m forever in debt to Robin Williams,” he told Dave Basner. “Because when Sharon was diagnosed with colon cancer, I’d seen the film Patch Adams. I don’t know if you ever saw that film he made; it’s about a guy who was a male nurse or something in a hospital, and he was working with terminal people, and I thought, ‘What a great thing to do, and he’s a very funny man, Robin Williams.'”
Using the 1998 dramedy as his inspiration, Ozzy called his agent to “ask if he’d be so kind as to come around to talk to my wife, which he did.” Understatedly, he thought “it was very nice of him to do,” even if Sharon was confused, as anybody would be, when Williams suddenly turned up in her bedroom unannounced.
Recalling Ozzy’s surprise, she admitted that she “thought I was hallucinating from the drugs I’d been given” when one of the most famous actors on the planet walked through the door, and the first thing that came to mind was to ask him, “Does Ozzy know you’re here?” As a lifelong comedian, he obviously said, “No, he doesn’t, and don’t tell him.”
They spent two hours together, providing a hint of comfort and solace during a trying time for Sharon and the entire Osbourne family, and Ozzy never forgot. Williams always had a reputation for being one of the nicest guys in the industry, and he didn’t think twice when one of rock’s most famous hell-raisers needed a favour.
