USA TODAY International Edition
Beloved comic icon never failed to make us laugh
Gene Wilder, the talented and wide- ranging star of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and comedy classics from Mel Brooks, has died. He was 83.
Wilder died Monday at his home in Stamford, Conn., of complications from Alzheimer’s disease, according to a statement from his nephew, Jordan Walker- Pearlman, issued via Wilder’s agent, David Shapira, to USA TODAY.
“It is with indescribable sadness and blues, but with spiritual gratitude for the life lived that I announce the passing of husband, parent, and universal artist Gene Wilder, at his home in Stamford, Conn.,” Walker- Pearlman said in the statement. “It is almost unbearable for us to contemplate our life without him. The cause was complications from Alzheimer’s disease with which he co- existed for the last three years.”
Wilder was unforgettably funny in such classics as The Producers, Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles, his frizzy hair enveloping his head like a halo, his voice rising to a shriek when the role called for panic.
He was a specialist at playing hyperventilating characters caught up in schemes that only a madman such as Brooks could devise. He also knew how to keep it cool as the boozy gunslinger in Blazing Saddles and as the charming candy man in the children’s favorite Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
Wilder was nominated twice for Oscars, for best supporting actor in The Producers in 1969, and for best adapted screenplay with Brooks for Blazing Saddles in 1975. He also won an Emmy in 2003 for outstanding actor in a guest role for Will & Grace.
“Gene Wilder, one of the truly great talents of our time is gone. He blessed every film we did together with his special magic,” Brooks said in a tweet.