Film star, writer Wilder dies at 83
Brooks, Wonka roles lauded
LOS ANGELES — Gene Wilder, the frizzy- haired actor who brought his deft comedic touch to such memorable roles as the title character in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and the mad scientist of Young Frankenstein, has died. He was 83.
Wilder’s nephew said the actor and writer died late Sunday at his home in Stamford, Conn., of complications from Alzheimer’s disease.
Jordan Walker- Pearlman said in a statement Monday that Wilder was diagnosed with the disease three years ago but kept the condition private so as not to disappoint fans.
“He simply couldn’t bear the idea of one less smile in the world,” Walker- Pearlman said.
Wilder started his acting career on the stage, but millions knew him from his work in movies, especially his collaborations with Mel Brooks on The Producers, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. The last film — with Wilder playing a California- born descendant of the mad scientist, insisting that his name is pronounced “FrahnkenSHTEEN” — was co- written by Brooks and Wilder.
“Gene Wilder, one of the truly great talents of our time, is gone,” Brooks said in a statement Monday. “He blessed every film we did together with his special magic and he blessed my life with his friendship. He will be so missed.”
With his unkempt hair and big eyes, Wilder was a master at playing panicked characters caught up in schemes that Brooks devised, whether reviving a monster in Young Frankenstein or bilking Broadway as the neurotic accountant in The Producers. Brooks would call him “God’s perfect prey, the victim in all of us.”
Wilder was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance in the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which remains one of the roles with which Wilder is most closely identified.
Wilder insisted in a 2013 interview that he was no comedian, saying that it was the biggest misconception about him.
“What a comic, what a funny guy, all that stuff! And I’m not. I’m really not. Except in a comedy in films,” Wilder said. “But I make my wife laugh once or twice in the house, but nothing special. But when people see me in a movie and it’s funny, then they stop and say things to me about ‘ how funny you were.’ But I don’t think I’m that funny. I think I can be in the movies.”
Wilder, a Milwaukee native, was born Jerome Silberman on June 11, 1933. His father was a Russian emigre, and his mother was of Polish descent. When Wilder was 6, his mother suffered a heart attack that left her frail. He soon began improvising comedy skits to entertain her.
He started taking acting classes at age 12 and continued performing and taking lessons through college. In 1961, Wilder became a member of Lee Strasberg’s prestigious Actors Studio in Manhattan, N. Y.
That same year, he made both his off- Broadway and Broadway debuts. He won the Clarence Derwent Award, given to promising newcomers, for the Broadway work in Graham Greene’s comedy The Complaisant Lover.
Before starring in The Producers, he had a small role as the hostage of gangsters in the 1967 classic Bonnie and Clyde. He peaked in the mid- 1970s with the Brooks hits Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.
He went on to write several screenplays and direct several films. In 1982, while making Hanky- Panky, he fell in love with co- star Gilda Radner. They married in 1984 and co- starred in two Wilder- written films: The Lady in Red and Haunted Honeymoon.
After Radner died of ovarian cancer in 1989, Wilder spent much of his time promoting cancer research and opened a support facility for cancer patients. In 1991, he testified before Congress about the need for increased testing for cancer.
That same year, he appeared in his final film role: Another You with comedian Richard Pryor.
Wilder worked mostly in television in recent years, including appearances on Will & Grace — which earned him an Emmy Award for outstanding guest actor — and a starring role in the short- lived sitcom Something Wilder.
As for why he stopped appearing on the big screen, Wilder said in 2013 that he was turned off by the noise and foul language in modern movies.
“I didn’t want to do the kind of junk I was seeing,” he said. “I didn’t want to do 3- D, for instance. I didn’t want to do ones where there’s just bombing and loud and swearing, so much swearing … can’t they just stop and talk instead of swearing?”
Wilder is survived by his wife, Karen, whom he married in 1991, and his daughter from a previous marriage, Katherine.
Information for this article was contributed by Lindsey Bahr, Jake Coyle and Larry McShane of The Associated Press and Daniel Lewis, Dave Itzkoff and Robert Berkvist of The New York Times.