Daniel Hillard, a freelance voice actor living in San Francisco, is a devoted father to his three kids—14-year-old Lydia, 12-year-old Chris, and 5-year-old Natalie—although his workaholic wife Miranda considers him immature and unreliable.

One night, Chris catches Mrs. Doubtfire standing while urinating and frantically instructs Lydia to call the police.

In a panic, Daniel reveals his identity; Lydia and Chris agree to keep his secret so that they can continue spending time with their father.

Impressed by his voice acting, humor, and imagination, Lundy invites Daniel to dinner to discuss plans for a new show.

When Stu begins choking, Daniel remorsefully administers the Heimlich maneuver, causing his prosthetic mask to slip off, exposing his identity.

At their next custody hearing, Daniel points out that he has met the judge's requirements ahead of schedule and explains that his actions were done due to love for his kids and begs to be allowed to continue to see them.

As Daniel leaves for the day with the kids, Miranda watches an episode of Euphegenia's House where Mrs. Doubtfire answers a letter from a young girl whose parents recently separated.

Blake Lively unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of Natalie Hillard, before Mara Wilson won the part.

Williams' character, Daniel Hillard, lived upstairs from Danilo Bakery at 516 Green Street; his children attended a school at Filbert and Taylor.

[11][12] Williams later recounted how he used to walk through San Francisco dressed in full makeup and costume as Mrs. Euphegenia Doubtfire, and on one occasion, visiting a sex shop to buy a large dildo and other toys.

[13] Director Chris Columbus stated in a 2015 interview that they shot with multiple cameras at once, like shooting a documentary, to capture the cast members' reaction to Williams's improvisation.

This resulted in cinemas requesting their local authorities to override the decision of the British Board of Film Classification, after having to turn down disappointed families.

Over 30 minutes of scenes were omitted from the final cut of the film, some of which were featured in the 2008 DVD release of Mrs. Doubtfire called the "Behind-the-Seams Edition".

In early 2021, several web articles claimed that there was an NC-17 cut of the film featuring extraordinarily vulgar ad libs by Robin Williams.

[32] Upon opening, it would go on to reach the number one spot at the box office, beating out Addams Family Values and A Perfect World.

[45][46][47][48] At the time of its release, several critics compared Mrs. Doubtfire unfavorably with Some Like It Hot (1959), and others who viewed the film favorably noted its similarity to Tootsie (1982).

The site's critical reception reads: "On paper, Mrs. Doubtfire might seem excessively broad or sentimental, but Robin Williams shines so brightly in the title role that the end result is difficult to resist.

He questioned if William's character could actually conceal his identity in makeup from his ex-wife and children, and also wrote "the film is not as amusing as the premise, and there were long stretches when I'd had quite enough of Mrs.

Ebert also noted comparisons to Tootsie, which he described as "more believable, more intelligent and funnier" while Mrs. Doubtfire was essentially a television sitcom.

[61] In 2006, in a Newsday interview, Williams said that the sequel was indefinitely scrapped, stating his reasons: The script they had just didn't work.

[62]Also, in December that year, during an interview on BBC Radio 1 by DJ Edith Bowman, Williams said that if it was not going to be done right, then it was not worth doing, and that there would not be a sequel with him in it.

The cool thing with Mrs. Doubtfire is there's a character, there's a woman, who is actually going to look exactly as she did in 1993.In April 2014, a sequel was announced to be in development at 20th Century Fox.

Williams and Columbus were expected to return, and Elf screenwriter, David Berenbaum, was hired to write the script.

[66][67][68][69] Matthew Lawrence, Lisa Jakub and Pierce Brosnan had expressed interest in reprising their respective characters for the sequel.

[70][71][72][73] However, Mara Wilson, who played Natalie Hillard in the original film, expressed no interest in returning for the sequel.

[78] In August 2015, Chris Columbus revealed that the sequel came to be after someone came up with a very interesting idea, and that his conversation with Williams about the subject was the last time he ever talked to the actor.

[80] The three sibling cast members reunited with Pierce Brosnan in 2018 for the film's 25th anniversary and on their own for a joint podcast appearance in 2024.

[81][82][83][84] Theatrical producer Kevin McCollum spoke in 2013 about the film's musical prospects, noting that the plot was "tailored for Broadway audiences".