Little over a fortnight following Robin Williams’ death at the age of 63, author and journalist Dave Itzkoff has revealed plans to write a biography of the late comedian. Itzkoff – by day a culture reporter for the New York Times – is not quite the crass opportunist that such timing might suggest, haven written several features on Williams for the Times in the past, including a celebrated 2009 profile written in the months following Williams’ aortic valve replacement surgery, which itself followed a divorce and time spent in rehab for alcoholism.

Speaking via press release, Itzkoff says of the project: ‘Robin Williams was a cultural hero of mine, and in the encounters and interactions I was able to share with him, he was always gentle and generous, humane and thoughtful and hilarious. I’m grateful for the opportunity to tell his story.’ The book has no publication date as yet.

Prior to his post at the New York Times, Itzkoff worked variously for Spin, Maxim and Details. His time at Maxim was the subject of his first book, 2004’s Lads: A Memoir of Manhood, followed in 2011 by another edition of memoir, this time focusing on growing up with a drug-addicted father, Cocaine’s Son: A Memoir. Earlier this year he published Mad as Hell: The Making of Network and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies, an examination of both the making of Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky’s 1976 film Network and the impact the film has had on contemporary culture. In other words, if anyone has to write this Williams book, Itzkoff is probably a safe pair of hands.