Robin Williams; during his entire career, he hired approximately 1520 homeless for film productions.

Image from preview.redd.it and submitted by broomshed
image showing Robin Williams; during his entire career, he hired approximately 1520 homeless for film productions.

TastySTD on November 10th, 2021 at 09:53 UTC »

Pretty amazing. Most actors would only do something like that just for the headline. Maybe not...

I've never heard this before and I'm not surprised.

Robin Williams wasn't most actors or comedians.

WarlordsJester on November 10th, 2021 at 10:13 UTC »

I met Robin Williams at an Arby’s in St. Louis about 15 years ago. He was mopping up the bathroom and I asked if he was researching a role. He just shook his head and kept mopping. I told him I was a big fan and he said he was hard of hearing so I went left. I’m still a fan to this day.

Spartan2470 on November 10th, 2021 at 13:30 UTC »

Is the title true? According to Snopes it's unproven.

This account appears to have originated with an article posted by Brian Lord (“A Little Known Robin Williams Story”) on 12 August 2014, recounting the author’s experience in attempting to hire Williams for an event:

I never actually booked Robin Williams for an event, but I came close enough that his office sent over his rider.

When I got Robin Williams’ rider, I was very surprised by what I found. He actually had a requirement that for every single event or film he did, the company hiring him also had to hire a certain number of homeless people and put them to work.

That bit of information took off virally when it was quoted in a Facebook post made on 25 August by a user named “Perry Marshall,” whom many readers confused with Penny Marshall, an actress/comedienne who was friends with Robin Williams throughout his life.

As of now this story remains unverified: We’ve seen no mention or confirmation of it by anyone who ever worked with Robin Williams, nor has anyone to our knowledge produced a copy of a Robin Williams contract bearing the clause in question. The Smoking Gun document leak site long ago posted what may have been a backstage rider from a Robin Williams’ appearance in 2002, but it included no reference in its text to a requirement for employing the homeless.

Also, the homeless guy in the picture is Craig Castaldo (aka Radio man). He's made over 100 cameo appearances.

Here is a higher quality version of this image. Here is the source. This was taken on September 17, 2017 on the set of "The Angriest Man in Brooklyn."