Conan O'Brien Recalls Robin Williams Checking in After “Tonight Show ”'Debacle' — and Surprising Him with a Thoughtful Gift

"I was lucky enough to have some great interactions with Robin Williams before he passed," O’Brien shared of the late actor, who died in August 2014

Conan O’Brien is looking back on how Robin Williams lifted his spirits in the aftermath of him being let go from The Tonight Show nearly 15 years ago.

On a recent episode of his podcast Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, the comedian opened to guest Eric Idle about the phone call he received from the late actor, who died in August 2014, after his predecessor Jay Leno returned to NBC late night show and he was unceremoniously removed after seven months.

“I was lucky enough to have some great interactions with Robin Williams before he passed,” he shared. “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.”

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

O’Brien recalled being surprised when he learned that Williams, who was also an avid bicyclist, had arranged for him to get a bike at a local bike shop in Santa Monica, Calif. “I said, ‘What? 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," he shared.

He continued: “And he said, ‘I told him to paint it in all these crazy Irish colors.’ 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.'”

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O’Brien shared that he thanked Williams “many, many times” for the act of kindness, adding, “I just couldn’t believe that he was thinking about me.”

Idle, who was a longtime friend of Williams, responded that the actor had “put a lot of effort into making you feel better,” which he called “very, very Robin.”

“That's fantastically typical Robin,” he added. “And that generosity and kindness combined with the wit on the man is not a common combination.”

In April, O’Brien returned to The Tonight Show for the first time since being fired. "It's weird to come back," O'Brien said of returning to the show, adding that "all these memories came flooding back" as he walked the halls.