Zak Williams used the anniversary to ask fans to honor his father with kindness. The moment also renewed attention on Zelda and Cody, who have lived with a public legacy that still feels intensely personal.
Meet Robin Williams through the 3 lookalike children now at the center of a 75th-birthday remembrance: Zak Williams, Zelda Williams and Cody Williams. Robin Williams’ three children are profiled as lookalikes of the beloved Hollywood star, but the reason they matter now is what would have been his 75th birthday on July 21. Zak, Zelda, and Cody are Robin Williams’ children, and Zak marked the date publicly with a tribute to his late father that turned remembrance into a simple call for kindness.
The anniversary has reopened a familiar tension around Williams’ family: fans see echoes of the actor’s face, smile and restless warmth in his children, while the children themselves have spent years defining a legacy that is more than resemblance.
Zak made the day public
According to People, Zak Williams honored his father on Tuesday, July 21, 2026, the day Robin Williams would have turned 75, with an Instagram post featuring the actor as Mork from Ork from Mork & Mindy. The image choice mattered. It pointed back to the role that helped make Williams a household name and to the oddball, high-velocity comic presence fans still associate with him.
Zak’s caption, as reported by People, remembered his father’s “weirdness” and “extraordinary capacity to love.” He also wrote about the wrinkles around Williams’ eyes, the kind left by a life of smiling, and recalled his father’s desire to see the world free of human and animal suffering.
The most telling part of the tribute was not nostalgia. It was instruction. Zak asked anyone who wanted to celebrate with him to do something kind for someone, make someone laugh and “put a little more good into the world.”
That is why the birthday remembrance traveled beyond a celebrity family post. It gave fans a way to participate without pretending they knew the private man behind the public performer.
Who his three children are
Robin Williams was the father of three children: Zak, Zelda and Cody. People reported that Zak, 43, is his eldest child from his marriage to Valerie Velardi. Zelda, 36, and Cody Alan, 34, are Williams’ children from his marriage to Marsha Garces.
Zak has been the most publicly visible in connection with his father’s memory in recent years. People described him as an actor-producer and noted his work around mental health advocacy, including with Inseparable, an organization focused on mental health care.
Zelda Williams has long had her own creative identity as an actor, writer and filmmaker. Because she grew up with one of the most recognizable performers in the world as her father, public curiosity has often followed her, but she has also made clear through her career that she is not simply an extension of his fame.
Cody Williams has kept the lowest public profile of the three. That privacy is part of the family story, too. Not every child of a beloved star chooses to process grief, memory or resemblance in public.
The resemblance is only the hook
The “lookalike children” framing is easy to understand. Robin Williams had a face fans remember vividly: expressive eyes, quick shifts in emotion, a grin that could move from mischief to tenderness in a second. When people see Zak, Zelda or Cody, they naturally search for traces of him.
But resemblance can flatten a complicated family into a set of side-by-side comparisons. Zak’s 75th-birthday post shows why that misses the stronger story. He was not just pointing to what his father looked like. He was pointing to how Williams made people feel — and what he wanted people to do with that feeling.
There is a difference between saying a child looks like a famous parent and understanding what it means to carry that resemblance after loss. For Williams’ children, the public’s affection can be warm, but it can also arrive with expectations, projections and grief that belong to millions of strangers.
That is the quiet difficulty inside many celebrity remembrances. Fans want access to a memory. Families have to live inside it.
Why 75 feels different
Robin Williams died in 2014 at age 63 after suffering from Lewy Body Dementia, People noted. More than a decade later, his absence remains unusually present in pop culture because his work crossed so many emotional registers.
For some fans, Williams is the wild improviser from Mork & Mindy or Aladdin. For others, he is the dramatic actor from Good Will Hunting, the film that brought him an Academy Award, or the deeply human presence in Dead Poets Society, Mrs. Doubtfire and Good Morning, Vietnam.
A 75th birthday carries a different weight than an annual remembrance. It invites people to imagine the life that might have continued: more roles, more interviews, more family milestones, more ordinary days outside the spotlight.
Zak’s tribute leaned into that absence without making the day only about sadness. By asking people to be kind and make someone laugh, he turned the milestone into a living practice rather than a museum piece.
Legacy, grief and boundaries
Celebrity culture often treats anniversaries as content cycles. Birthdays, death dates and old photos become occasions for renewed attention. In the case of Robin Williams, that attention is usually affectionate, but affection does not erase the family’s right to boundaries.
Zak’s public post gives fans a clear invitation: celebrate by doing good. Zelda and Cody’s more limited public presence around this specific milestone, based on the available reporting, is also meaningful. Silence should not be read as absence of love.
There are competing ways to view moments like this. One view is that fans helped build Williams’ legacy and still need communal rituals to mourn him. Another is that families of late stars should not have to keep performing grief for the public to validate their bond.
The healthiest reading leaves room for both. Fans can remember the performer who shaped their lives, while recognizing that Zak, Zelda and Cody knew a father, not a symbol.
The takeaway from Zak’s tribute
The renewed attention on Robin Williams’ three children started with resemblance and a milestone birthday, but it lands somewhere more useful. Zak’s message was not complicated: if Williams made people laugh, the best tribute is to pass some of that light along.
That does not require fans to know private family details. It does not require Zelda or Cody to speak publicly. It does not require another round of mythmaking about a star whose life and health struggles were far more complex than any single tribute can hold.
What remains clear is that Williams’ children are now adults carrying a legacy that is both beloved and heavy. Zak’s 75th-birthday remembrance offered one way to carry it: with humor, service and a little more good in the world.
For a performer remembered for making strangers feel seen, that may be the most fitting birthday gift his fans can give.
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