Affleck and Damon are being celebrated for their impact on storytelling and the connection they forged with Robin Williams — a legacy of laughter, compassion, and changing lives through film.
Sources close to the duo say receiving this award from Williams' children hits different — it's closure on a chapter that began with tears on set and ended with devastating loss in 2014.
The award will be presented April 27, 2026 at Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture in San Francisco. Robin Williams died by suicide on August 11, 2014 at age 63. Good Will Hunting earned Williams an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1998.
Twelve years after losing Robin Williams to suicide, his children are handing Affleck and Damon the Legacy of Laughter Award — a full-circle moment that proves some debts to friendship can never be repaid.
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are set to receive the Robin Williams Legacy of Laughter Award, and you better believe this one hits different. The Oscar-winning duo will travel to San Francisco's Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture on April 27 to accept the honor from Robin Williams' own children — Zak, Zelda and Cody — at Glenn Close's Bring Change to Mind nonprofit's Revels & Revelations Celebration. That's right, the people who knew Robin best are the ones handing these guys the hardware, and if that doesn't make you feel something, I don't know what will.
Let's rewind for a second. These three men — Affleck, Damon, and the late great Robin Williams — made magic together in Gus Van Sant's 1997 film Good Will Hunting. The movie didn't just earn the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for our dynamic duo; it also snagged Williams his own golden statue for Best Supporting Actor. But here's the thing that nobody talks about enough: Robin made their dreams come true. He said yes to a movie written by two nobodies from Cambridge, and that single yes changed their lives forever.
The event itself is a milestone — it's Bring Change to Mind's 15th anniversary and a decade of steering student programming around mental health. The cause hits close to home for Glenn Close, whose sister Jessie lives with bipolar disorder and nephew Calen lives with schizoaffective disorder. And let's be real: the timing is everything. We're talking about an award created in Robin Williams' name, presented by his kids, at a mental health fundraiser, more than a decade after the world lost him to suicide at age 63.
Affleck and Damon released a joint statement that honestly reads like the most heartfelt thank-you note you'll ever see: "Robin wasn't just someone we admired. He made our dreams come true. We owe everything to him." They added that his legacy "isn't just about his talent and how much he made the world laugh — it's about how deeply he cared." That's not just PR speak, folks. That's two guys who still, twelve years later, can't quite get over what Robin gave them.
Matt Damon previously told E! about the first day of shooting — how he and Affleck weren't even working that day but went to set anyway, and watching Robin rehearse reduced him to tears. After the scene ended, Robin came over, put his hand on their heads and said: "It's not a fluke. You guys really did this." Now, in 2026, Robin's children are handing them an award that essentially says the same thing — but this time, it's official. Prior recipients of the Legacy of Laughter Award include Amy Poehler and Ryan Reynolds, so Affleck and Damon are in damn good company. The question is: can they get through the speech without crying? I'm betting no.
