The 30-Year Legacy of Mrs. Doubtfire: Tragic Losses and Turbulent Relationships – FEMAIL reveals the cast’s lives after the film’s release

Mrs. Doubtfire is one of Robin Williams’ most renowned films and it first hit theaters 30 years ago.

The film follows divorced dad Daniel (Williams) who has limited access to his kids.

In order to spend more time with them, he disguises himself as a British nanny named Mrs. Doubtfire whom ex-wife Miranda (Sally Field) hires to watch their kids, Lydia (Lisa Jakub), Christopher (Matthew Lawrence) and Natalie (Mara Wilson). 

It also starred Pierce Brosnan as Miranda’s new partner, Stu.

The film was a huge box office hit when it hit theaters on November 22, 1993.

Not only did it become a household comedy but it became a Broadway show. The musical premiered in 2019 and closed in May 2022.

Fans of the film still hold it dear to this day, but plenty has happened to the stars of the film.

Williams tragically passed away from suicide in 2014. Meanwhile his co-star, Fields, has opened up about some of the darker corners of her life like the abuse she suffered at the hands of her stepfather and Burt Reynolds in her memoir.

Some of the child actors continued on in their acting career. Wilson went on to star as Matilda and now does voiceover work.

Lawrence starred in a TV series with his brothers, Joey and Andrew, called Brotherly Love and the trio still host a podcast together today.

Jakub, however, left Hollywood behind for a career as a yoga instructor and writer.

Here are the full details of what has happened to the cast of Mrs. Doubtfire since the film premiered 30 years ago. 

Robin Williams (Daniel) 

Williams was just coming off of the success of Aladdin (1992) when he played Daniel, a father who disguises himself as a British nanny to see his children.

Even though he passed away in 2014, his career was impressive enough to leave a lasting legacy. 

After Mrs. Doubtfire, he went on to star in some of his biggest films including Good Will Hunting (1997), Insomnia (2002) and World’s Greatest Dad (2009).

He also resurrected his standup career with his special, Robin Williams: Live On Broadway, which he performed in 2002, and Weapons of Self-Destruction in 2009.

He also had a big shift in his personal life during this time. He divorced his second wife, Marsha Garces, in 2010. He was previously married to Valerie Velardi from 1978 to 1988.

At the time of his second divorce, he spoke to Parade magazine about the toll it had taken on him.

‘Divorce is expensive. It’s ripping your heart out through your wallet,’ he told the outlet.

He married his third wife, Susan Schneider, in 2011 and remained with her until his death in 2014. 

Williams also struggled with addiction – a demon that haunted him throughout his entire career.

His battle with substance abuse issues arose as he was starting out his career in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Comedian Allan Stephan appeared on Vice TV’s Dark Side of Comedy to lay bare Williams’ struggle.

Recalling one particular conversation with the late actor, Stephan remembered: ‘He said, “Know anyone with any blow? I have to go on and I can’t go on without any blow.”

‘And I sat down and I said, “I’m going to help you”. He said, “Do you have blow on you?” I said “No, are you out of your f***ing mind? You’re Robin Williams.” And after that, I don’t think he would get high when he had it before.’

Friend Mike Binder, a fellow comic and filmmaker, shared a similar story.

‘One night we went to a place called Flippers Discotheque in Hollywood, and I had like a gram of coke,’ he said.

Upon learning there was cocaine floating around, Binder recalled how Williams had said ‘ooh let me take that’ and ‘do you mind if I hit that in the bathroom?’

‘He came back and it was empty,’ Mike said. ‘It was like whoa. It was like 8:15pm at night. I was like, “Robin, you did the whole gram?” He was like, “It was an accident, I’m sorry.”‘

‘With drugs, he was a monster,’ Mike added.

Director Howard Storm detailed Williams’ cocaine use in the biography Robin, by The New York Times reporter Dave Itzkoff, revealing that he would show up to set looking like ‘a wreck.’

He wrote: ‘He hadn’t slept all night. He was snorting coke, and if you snort coke, in order to come down you drink booze. He was out all night and screwing everybody in town.’

Williams eventually relapsed with alcohol in 2005 before seeking treatment in rehab the following year. 

He later returned to a treatment facility one month before his death. 

The Aladdin actor committed suicide by hanging himself in 2014.

In addition to addiction, the actor also struggled with depression.

During his time in rehab, he spoke with one of the inhabitants, Teresa Cohen, about how he ‘wanted to go quickly’ and she could notice his depression.

She told The Sunday Express: ‘Even though he would goof around from time to time, just like he did on screen, there were many other occasions where his face reflected deep depression and unhappiness.

‘He said he was weary to his bones and didn’t believe he could really relax for a moment.’

She said that at one point the comedian told her: ‘When I go, I want it to be quick.’

Williams also suffered from Parkinson’s and was on medication, which his fellow actor friend, Rob Schneider, felt was the cause of his death.  

Near the time of Williams’ death, Schneider tweeted: ‘Now that we can talk about it #Robin Williams was on a drug treating the symptoms of Parkinson’s. One of the side effects is suicide.’

While speaking with The Mail on Sunday, a separate source spoke on rumors that the tragic comic’s family blames the medication he was on for ‘pushing him over the edge.’

They said: ‘Robin had recently left rehab. He was on medication for anxiety and depression and had also started taking drugs to combat the early onset of Parkinson’s.

‘Many of these drugs list suicidal thoughts as a possible side effect. A lot of Robin’s friends are convinced that the cocktail of prescription pills he was on somehow contributed to his mental state deteriorating as quickly as it did.

‘Robin had always suffered from depression and addiction but the diagnosis and treatment of his Parkinson’s was new, as was the combination of drugs he was on.’

Williams was survived by his wife, Schneider, and his son, Zachary, whom he shared with his first wife, Velardi, and daughter Zelda and another son, Cody, whom he shared with Garces.

Sally Field (Miranda)

Field starred alongside Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire as Miranda, his ex-wife who had moved on and didn’t want Daniel around their children.

Even though their characters were at odds in the film, she thought fondly of her time working with Williams.

Speaking to People ahead of the SAG Awards 2023, the actress was asked about the movie.

‘What you think about immediately is Robin. There isn’t a moment of it that’s not filled with my love and joy at being in his presence,’ she said.

‘I mean, Robin was Robin. He was everything he seemed to be: a generous, loving, sweet, genuinely talented man.

‘We all miss him. He should be growing old like me, for God’s sakes. I hate it that he isn’t here.’

The Oscar-winner revealed that Robin was frustrated Sally was so professional that she would never crack up during a scene – no matter how funny he was.

‘What drove him absolutely crazy is that he could never make me laugh. He would never break me up,’ Sally said during an interview with Lisa Wilkinson in Australia.

Describing her experience on the film with Robin as ‘insane’ and ‘so fun,’ Sally admitted that his methods could sometimes tire her out.

‘He had endless energy. And he’d want to do take after take after take because every take he would want to do something different,’ Sally explained.

While Field was already an established actress by the time Mrs. Doubtfire debuted, she continued acting.

She landed a role in Forrest Gump as Tom Hanks’ character’s mother the year after in 1994. 

The actress then went on to star in Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde (2002), ER, Brothers & Sisters and Hello, My Name Is Doris (2015).

Most recently, she starred in the series Winning Time: The Rise Of The Lakers Dynasty (2022) and 80 For Brady (2023).

Field also released a memoir called In Pieces in 2018.

She opened up about the abuse she endured at the hands of her stepfather and ex Reynolds.

Of her stepfather, nicknamed Jocko, Sally writes in her memoir: ‘It would have been so much easier if I’d only felt one thing, if Jocko had been nothing but cruel and frightening. But he wasn’t. He could be magical, the Pied Piper with our family as his entranced followers.’

He would call Sally to his bedroom alone. ‘I knew,’ Sally wrote.

The actress would eventually find love, twice in marriage.

She married to Steven Craig from 1968 to 1975. During their marriage, the couple had two sons Peter, a novelist, born 1969, and Eli an actor and director born in 1972.

Craig and Sally divorced in 1975, and Sally began her on-and-off relationship with Reynolds.

Field says that from the first time they met, Reynolds began to ‘housebreak’ her, telling her ‘what was allowed and what was not.’

He only liked to talk about himself and used to ‘constantly snap as if I’d piddled on the floor’, according to her memoir.

The disturbing effect on Field was that she ‘eliminated most of me, becoming a familiar, shadowy version of myself, locked behind my eyes, unable to speak’, she wrote.

Lisa Jakub (Lydia)

Jakub played the eldest sibling, Lydia, in Mrs. Doubtfire when she was 15 years old.

Now 44 years old, the former child star has stepped away from the limelight. 

However, she hasn’t forgotten what it was like to work with Williams and the kindness he showed her while she was struggling on set. 

‘One day on set, I was very upset, because I had received this letter from my high school saying that it was too difficult for them to work long-distance with me and that I just shouldn’t come back to high school,’ she told Yahoo Entertainment.

‘And I was really upset about that, and Robin, just being perceptive and kindhearted, reached out and was like, “Hey, what’s going on?”

‘I told him what happened, and he wrote a letter to my school asking them to please reconsider. Would they work with me in trying to balance my education and my career? And he didn’t think that that was fair.’ 

Robin’s actual note was well-received by the school and eventually framed, but couldn’t sway the administration to keep Jakub as a student.

‘But what I love about that story and what I love about Robin, it’s just the fact that he would do that for someone, that he would go out of his way, that he would take the time to realize that this would be important,’ Jakub said.

‘And even if it didn’t work, somebody needed to stand up, and he did that for me. I don’t know if he ever knew how massive that was and how much I felt like he was in my corner. And how much that really shifted things for me and made me think about, “What is the impact I wanna make in the world?”‘

She continued to act after Mrs. Doubtfire in films like Independence Day (1996),  The Beautician And The Beast (1997) and George Lucas In Love (1999).

Her last acting credit is in the 2000 film Double Frame.

After that, she stepped away from acting for good.

Even though she was ousted from high school, she still went onto forge a successful career as a mental health advocate and yoga instructor.

She also found love and married Jeremy Jones in 2005. As for the rest of her life, she keeps things relatively private. 

 Matthew Lawrence (Christopher)

Lawrence starred in Mrs. Doubtfire as Chris Hillard, the middle child and only boy in his family, when he was 13 years old.

Now 43, he continues to act and hosts a podcast with his brothers.

After Mrs. Doubtfire, the child actor scored his own TV series called Brotherly Love.

Like in Mrs. Doubtfire, he was also the middle sibling in real life and starred in Brotherly Love alongside his older brother, Joey, and his younger brother, Andrew.

The show followed a fictional story where the eldest, Joe, has to take over the family business after their father dies.

The show only ran for two years, from 1995 to 1997, but Matthew quickly found work on the hit Disney TV series Boy Meets World.

He then starred in the Rob Schneider comedy The Hot Chick (2002). 

At this point, his career began to slow down but he has been consistently booking cameos on TV shows and small roles in films.

His most recent credit is in the 2023 film My Best Friend The Baby Snatcher.

He also has been hosting a podcast with his brothers called the Brotherly Love podcast, named after the TV series they starred on.

Mara Wilson (Natalie)

Wilson played the youngest sibling, Natalie ‘Nattie’ Hillard, in Mrs. Doubtfire when she was just six years old. 

Now 36, she has stepped away from on-screen appearances and strictly does voice acting. 

Mrs. Doubtfire undoubtedly put her on the map and she went on to become a child star sensation.

A year later, she starred in Miracle On 34th Street. 

She then landed her biggest credit as the titular role in Matilda (1996).

Her last on screen appearance was in Thomas And The Magic Railroad in 2000.

She opened up about her decision to step away from acting in her memoir Good Girls Don’t.

‘I don’t think you can be a child star without there being some kind of lasting damage,’ she wrote.

‘The thing that people assume is that Hollywood is inherently corrupt, and there’s something about being on film sets that destroys you. For me, that was not necessarily true. I always felt safe on film sets.’

Instead, she struggled with creepy men who would send her ‘inappropriate letters and posting things about me online.’

‘I made the mistake of Googling myself when I was 12 and saw things that I couldn’t unsee,’ she added.

She also struggled with living up to the image of Matilda. 

‘I saw that they were disappointed that I wasn’t as smart, pretty, nice, as they expect you to be. I think they were expecting me to be Matilda, and she’s wonderful, but she’s not real,’ she explained.

‘She’s brilliant in every single way. She’s smart, and kind and powerful. Then they met me, this nerdy, awkward teenager who got angry sometimes, but couldn’t even channel her anger into powers.’

She then struggled to book work after she started to hit puberty. Hollywood, she wrote, ‘was kind of done with me.’

‘It affected me for a very long time because I had this Hollywood idea that if you’re not cute any more, if you’re not beautiful, then you are worthless. Because I directly tied that to the demise of my career,’ she penned.

‘Even though I was sort of burned out on it, and Hollywood was burned out on me, it still doesn’t feel good to be rejected. For a long time, I had this kind of dysmorphia about the way that I looked and I obsessed about it too much.’

She also struggled with her mental health, which ultimately led to her throwing in the towel on on-camera acting. 

‘I had obsessions and compulsions that were driving me crazy. I worried all the time about God and religion, and the world. I was angry and stressed out, and my dad said, “You can always take time off acting.” So I did,’ Wilson said.

Now, she primarily does voiceover work. Her most recent major credits include Big Hero 6: The Series and podcast series Welcome to Night Vale.

Pierce Brosnan (Stu)

Brosnan played Miranda’s new partner, Stu, in Mrs. Doubtfire.

While he was successful before the 1993 film, his career hit new levels in the following years.

The actor clearly enjoyed his time working on Mrs. Doubtfire – specifically working with Williams. 

‘He leads with his heart and his soul and every fiber of his being,’ Brosnan told GQ of his late costar. 

‘I went to work everyday on that movie and I was always working with Mrs. Doubtfire. It wasn’t until the end of the movie that I met Robin.’

After Mrs. Doubtfire, he landed the greatest role of his career: James Bond. 

GoldenEye (1995) was his first film in the iconic role. He then starred in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), The World Is Not Enough (1999) and Die Another Die (2002).

The actor spoke on the challenges of taking on a role that had already been portrayed by famous actors including Roger Moore and Sean Connery.

‘For me, it was trying to walk a line between Roger [Moore] and Sean Connery and not being shy about taking from their work,’ Brosnan shared.

‘I allowed myself the grace to try and get the sense of humor that both men brought to the part.’

The role also took a physical toll on him. ‘You get chipped, you get nicked, you pull muscles, you get stitched up,’ Brosnan explained. 

He then went on to star in the hit movie musical sensation Mamma Mia! (2008) and returned for the sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018). 

His most recent credit is The Last Rifleman (2023). 

He is also happily married to journalist Keely Shaye Brosnan. The two tied the knot in 2001 and are still going strong.

The James Bond actor also has five adult children. Two of them, Chris, now 51, and Charlotte, were kids from the previous marriage of his first late wife, Cassandra Harris.

He and Cassandra then had a child of their own, Sean, now 40. 

Brosnan tragically lost his first wife, Cassandra, and his daughter Charlotte to ovarian cancer. 

Cassandra passed away in 1991 aged 39, and Charlotte died about 20 years later in 2013 aged 41. 

‘On June 28 at 2 p.m., my darling daughter Charlotte Emily passed on to eternal life, having succumbed to ovarian cancer,’ Pierce said in a statement to PEOPLE at the time.

‘Charlotte fought her cancer with grace and humanity, courage and dignity. Our hearts are heavy with the loss of our beautiful dear girl. We pray for her and that the cure for this wretched disease will be close at hand soon. We thank everyone for their heartfelt condolences.’

Brosnan also had children with his second wife, Keely. They share Dylan, now 26, and Paris, now 22.