Patch Adams is a 1998 American biographical comedy-drama film directed by Tom Shadyac and starring Robin Williams (in the title role), Monica Potter, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bob Gunton, Daniel London, and Peter Coyote.

Because of this and incidents such as setting up a giant model papier-mâché pair of legs in stirrups during an obstetric conference, he is expelled from the medical school.

Adams encourages medical students to work closely with nurses, learn interviewing skills early, and argues that death should be treated with dignity and sometimes even humor.

With the help of Arthur Mendelson, a wealthy man who was a patient who Adams met while in the mental hospital, he purchases 105 acres (42 hectares) in West Virginia to construct the future Gesundheit!

Walcott eventually discovers that Adams has been illegally running a clinic and practicing medicine without a license and attempts to expel him again because of this, also complaining that he has made his patients uncomfortable.

The board, although still finding some of Adams's methods very unorthodox, allows him to graduate, and he receives a standing ovation from the packed hearing room.

At graduation, Adams receives his Doctor of Medicine degree and, bowing to the professors and audience, reveals himself to be naked underneath his cap and gown.

One is that the character of Carin Fisher is fictional but is analogous to a real-life friend of Adams (a man) who was murdered under similar circumstances.

Another difference is the 47-year-old Robin Williams portraying Adams as enrolling in medical school very late in his life, his older age even being brought up in dialogue.

The film was released on December 25, 1998, in the United States and Canada, and grossed $25.2 million in 2,712 theaters in its opening weekend, ranking number one at the box office.

[9] Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film an F, deeming it "an offensive and deeply false 'inspirational' drama", lambasting the over-simplified portrayal of the medical establishment of the time.

[10] Robert K. Elder of the Chicago Tribune called Monica Potter "the best thing about the otherwise dopey Patch Adams".

"[16] Furthermore, Adams stated, [Robin Williams] made $21 million for four months of pretending to be me, in a very simplistic version, and did not give $10 to my free hospital.

[18] After Williams's death in 2014, Adams said, "I'm enormously grateful for his wonderful performance of my early life, which has allowed the Gesundheit Institute to continue and expand our work.