Robin William’s legacy lives on thanks in huge part to his daughter. Zelda Williams attended the 3rd Annual Noble Awards in L.A. on Friday, Feb. 27, to honor the actor’s longtime friends Scott Tinley and Rudy Garcia. The trio often biked triathlons together for the Challenged Athletes Foundation before Williams’ tragic death in August 2014.
“I’d like to start by thanking everyone, the Noble Awards especially, for coming together tonight to honor these wonderful individuals who in a town known so well for being selfish, give so much of themselves. I can imagine dad joking about how hard it’d be to get an actor to give back when it’s hard enough to ask them to give a good performance,” Zelda said, laughing with the crowd. “And my apologies, by the way, for subjecting you to the sight of my father in spandex. He’d often walk around in it in front of my friends as a teenager to embarrass me! It’s nice to know it’s still effective.”
“Still, for a man so incredibly hairy and square, watching my dad get on a bike was like watching a penguin spread it’s wings and take flight,” she explained. “He’d take off at inhuman speed, a smile on his face, and never look back.”
The Oscar winner committed suicide at age 63 on Aug. 11. He is survived by Zelda, 25, and son Cody, 23 (his kids with his second ex-wife Marsha Garces), and son Zak, 31, whom he shared with first wife Valerie Velardi. Earlier this month, it was reported that the three children have been fighting over the comedian’s estate with his widow, Susan Schneider.
Zelda was in good spirits at the Noble Awards, and said how happy she was to honor her “wonderful, goofy, and inspiring” dad. On the red carpet, she also opened up about the hummingbird tattoo she got back in October.
“I wanted to honor my father, and to put it on my hand, the hand that I shake hands with. It meant a lot to me. I really enjoy it,” she told Us Weekly and other reporters.
“If you’ve seen them fly, and if you know a little bit about them, they’re impossible to keep in one place,” she explained. “And that was the reaction that my father got, from children, from fans, from senior citizens. And that’s what hummingbirds always meant to me.”
“For me it’s easy to continue remembering someone that is impossible to forget,” she added. “It comes and goes in the sense of actual visceral moments, but as anyone who has lost someone knows, it’s not like they were never there, it just means that they’re not there anymore. You can continue enjoying those memories, and inhabiting them as much as you like, as long as they don’t stop you from continuing to live, and doing wonderful things.”
