Will Reeve on Robin Williams: He Loved My Father 'Fiercely'

Christopher Reeve and Robin Williams started off as roommates at Juilliard, but they ended as family. To Reeve, "Robin wasn't just a friend, he was truly a brother," Reeve's son Will tells PEOPLE in this week's cover story. After the Superman star's death in 2004 at age 52, Williams continued supporting the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation. In rare comments, Will, 22, also shared a cherished memory of Williams, who died at age 63 in August. Shortly after the 1992 horseback riding accident that left his father paralyzed, "he tried to lighten the load by offering to put me in bed for my afternoon nap," Will recalls of the late comedian. "I, 4 years old, was unmoved and refused. He kept pitching himself, first as Mork, then as Peter Pan, then as Genie, but always, unfailingly, as Robin, the sweet, gentle man who loved my father and his family so fiercely that he would do anything to make them happy." •