Gene Wilder was an American actor and writer best known for his collaborations with Mel Brooks and Richard Pryor. He became involved in cancer advocacy after losing his mother and second wife to ovarian cancer. Wilder began his career in theater and later transitioned to film, earning critical acclaim for his roles in Bonnie and Clyde and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex. He also wrote and directed films, including Young Frankenstein and The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother. Despite some box office failures, Wilder remained a prolific writer and actor until his death in 2016.
Gene Wilder is an iconic American stage and film actor and writer. He is best known for his multiple collaborations with director Mel Brooks, who produced hits such as Young Frankenstein, The Producers and Blazing Saddles, and his comedic work with Richard Pryor, especially on their first two films, Silver Streak and Stir. Crazy. Additionally, when ovarian cancer claimed the life of his second wife, Gilda Radner, a beloved and gifted comedienne, Wilder became involved in a number of cancer advocacy groups to promote information about ovarian cancer, which also took the life of his mother. In recent years, Wilder has worked primarily as a writer, first producing his autobiography, several screenplays and then writing two novels released in 2007 and 2008.
Jerome Silberman, born in 1933, did not change his name to Gene Wilder until he was 20, choosing the name Wilder to refer to author Thornton Wilder. He caught the acting bug early, with a first performance as Romeo’s servant in a production of Romeo and Juliet when he was 15. His interest in acting led him to study art at the University of Iowa, from which he graduated in 1955; he also pursued an active interest in fencing. His stage career was temporarily interrupted when he was drafted into the United States Army in 1956, where he served two years in the Army Medical Corps.
Once released from the Army, Gene Wilder continued to train as an actor, often supporting himself by teaching fencing. That study was rewarded with several bit parts in off-Broadway shows. Wilder met Mel Brooks through his work in the theater when he was cast in a play with Anne Bancroft, Brooks’ future wife. Their first collaboration, The Producers, took several years to shoot, and it wasn’t Wilder’s first screen performance. Instead, he won accolades for a supporting performance in the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde. The Producers was released in 1968, earning Wilder a Best Supporting Actor nomination and Mel Brooks an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Although Gene Wilder showed tremendous promise in his early roles, other films that followed were not immediately popular. Start the Revolution Without Me, starring Donald Sutherland, flopped, as did Quackser. His 1971 performance in Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory also didn’t translate into a box office hit, though it’s now a cult classic beloved by many. It wasn’t until 1972, when Wilder took a role in Woody Allen’s film Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) that Wilder began to see his acting skills gain the attention that many critics felt they deserved it. .
Following his success in the Woody Allen film, Gene Wilder began work on the screenplay Young Frankenstein, which earned both writing and acting credits. He followed this first attempt at writing with the little-known gem of a film The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother which was his directorial debut. More success followed with his collaboration with Richard Pryor in several films.
Other collaborations were not as well received. His 1980s films with wife Gilda Radner were not box office successes, and critics ranked later films with little Pryor effort. In 1989, tragedy struck Gene Wilder’s life when Gilda lost her battle with ovarian cancer, but this ultimately translated into extraordinary activism on his part to raise awareness of cancer, including his co-founder of Gilda’s Club.
In the 1990s, Wilder continued to write, appeared briefly in his own sitcom and then was spotted for several appearances on Will & Grace in the early 2000s. He also wrote and starred in two productions for the A&E network, The Lady in Question and Murder in a Small Town. Wilder remarried in 1991 and remained a prolific writer despite his battle with diagnosed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1999. In addition to his work on his own A&E productions, Gene Wilder returned to film with voice-over work on feature films. animation Over the Hedge in 2006. .
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