Gene Wilder

Gene Wilder, the actor and director, who has died aged 83, became a favourite with children everywhere when in 1971 he created the zany title role in the film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Based on Roald Dahl’s book Charlie and the Chocolate

Factory, the musical fantasy gave Wilder the perfect platform as the eccentric confectionery maestro, whom he played with sparky cynicism, a smile constantly tugging at the corners of his mouth as he devises one devilish scheme after another.

Wilder imbued his performance with an element of grand guignol, giving the film a macabre as well as an exuberant feel as Willy Wonka conducts a group of children around his dream chocolate factory; the film was shot in Germany and the factory exterior was actually the Munich gasworks.

Wilder’s career was judged uneven, but in 1974 he had a palpable hit with Blazing

Saddles, the spoof Western written and produced by his friend Mel Brooks, in which Wilder featured as the alcoholic former gunslinger, the Waco Kid.

He had met Brooks in 1963, when he (Wilder) was appearing in a Broadway production of Brecht’s Mother Courage and her Children. Brooks promised Wilder a part in a film he intended to write entitled “Springtime for Hitler”.

This turned out to be the role of the frenetic accountant Leo Bloom in The Producers (1969), for which Wilder was nominated for an Oscar as best supporting actor.

Born June 11 1933, died August 29 2016