The True Story Behind Robin Williams’ Friends Cameo

Robin Williams was one of the biggest guest stars on Friends. Here’s how he and Billy Crystal accidentally ended up doing a cameo for the sitcom.
The Robin Williams Friends cameo remains one of the long-running sitcom’s most hilarious guest appearances, but the story behind how it happened makes it even better. Beloved actor and comedian Robin Williams appeared as a guest star in an episode of Friends in 1997 alongside Billy Crystal. Williams appears as a character named Tomas and appears in the season 3 episode, “The One With The Ultimate Fighting Champion” alongside his friend and frequent collaborator Billy Crystal. Considering how big of an actor Williams already was at the time, his appearance in Friends was a huge deal.
The fact that Williams will appear on the sitcom is not a huge surprise as many big-name actors like Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt, and Julia Roberts guest starred on Friends over the years. The Robin Williams Friends appearance was short considering it ended before the opening credits rolled, but it involved an interesting backstory. It turned out that Robin Williams and Billy Crystal were at the right place at the right time — on a nearby set — and their cameos weren’t even planned.
Robin Williams’ Cameo On Friends Explained
Robin Williams And Billy Crystal Showed Off Their Legendary Comedic Chemistry
Robin Williams appeared on Friends alongside Billy Crystal as part of a cold open sketch. At the start of Friends season 3’s “The One With The Ultimate Fighting Champion”, Monica was about to tell her friends a story at Central Perk but was interrupted by Tomas (Williams) and his friend Tim, a character played by Billy Crystal. Joining the core cast on their signature sofa, Tomas broke into tears claiming that his wife was sleeping with another man.

He believed the other man was her gynecologist, but it turned out that Tim was the one sleeping with Tomas’s wife. After this was revealed, Tomas ended his friendship with Tim and the two men stormed out of the coffee shop, leaving Monica having completely forgotten the story she was originally planned to tell.
Robin Williams’ Cameo In Friends Wasn’t In The Original Script
Williams And Crystal Stumbled On The Set By Accident
While the episode was being shot, Williams and Crystal happened to wander onto the Friends Central Perk set and the writers asked them if they’d be up for a quick cameo. They agreed and were thrown into the opening scene on the spot. It’s rare to acquire a role and shoot the scene within the same day, but Williams and Crystal were no strangers to improvising. They ad-libbed their entire scene, inventing the story about Tomas and his wife. Along with the two legendary actors making up their dialogue, Matt LeBlanc even ad-libbed his interruption of the men’s private conversation and Courtney Cox personally added the line about forgetting her original story.

The Billy Crystal and Robin Williams Friends cameo may have been an accident, but it was made for great TV. It also coincidentally gave the actors an extra amount of publicity at the right time. A day after the Friends episode aired with their cameos, the pair’s movie, Father’s Day, hit theater. The cameo from Williams has become even more special following the actor’s tragic death in 2014.
Robin Williams Was A Sitcom Icon Long Before His First Movie

For Robin Williams, The Friends Cameo Was A Return To Familiar Territory
Before appearing on Friends, Robin Williams’s movie career had already made him a star, but his early career was built on numerous sitcom and television appearances. The most memorable of these is probably his time playing Mork in the Happy Days spinoff Mork & Mindy from 1978 to 1982. Robin Williams also appeared as himself in many comedic TV roles over the years, from The Larry Sanders Show to Louie to Sesame Street.

Williams also spent time on Saturday Night Live and headlined the iconic Comic Relief program with Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg. In all of his TV and film appearances, Robin Williams brought the perfect blend of comedy, heart, and incredible acting skills, all of which is beautifully on display in his Friends cameo.

Robin Williams Cameo Wasn’t The Only Unscripted Friends Moment
Friends Worked Much Unexpectedly On-Set Happenings Into The Show
Given the actor’s well-known talents for improvisation, it is not surprising that Robin Williams’ Friends cameo was off-the-cuff. However, the Robin Williams appearance is not the only time Friends pulled off a wonderful unscripted moment. As funny and well-written as the scripts for each Friends episode were, happy accident or spontaneous ideas led to some unexpected improvements.

Some of the best improvised moments on Friends include Matthew Perry slipping up his line when Chandler was trying to poke fun at Joey resulting in him becoming the butt of the joke instead. Some physical comedy moments that weren’t scripted include Matt LeBlanc tripping over a chair and falling as Joey makes a mad dash for the phone. Most impressively, the final line ever in Friends was not scripted as the gang heads out to get coffee one last time in the Friends finale and Perry adlibbed “Where?” These unplanned moments added to the hilarity and charm of Friends.