Gene Wilder dies at 83
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Young Frankenstein
jaypay111 — 9 years ago(August 29, 2016 12:48 PM)
ttp://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/gene-wilder-star-willy-wonka-828477
The comic actor was at his best in 'The Producers,' 'Blazing Saddles' and 'Young Frankenstein' and teamed with Richard Pryor in four films.
Gene Wilder, the leading man with the comic flair and frizzy hair known for teaming with Mel Brooks on the laugh-out-loud masterpieces The Producers, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, has died, his family told The Associated Press. He was 83.
The two-time Oscar nominee also starred as a quirky candy man in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) and in four films alongside stand-up legend Richard Pryor.
In 1999, Wilder was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma and treated with radiation and stem cell transplants.
Wilder will forever be remembered for his ill-fated Hollywood romance with Gilda Radner. Less than two years after they were married, the popular Saturday Night Live star was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and died on May 20, 1989, at age 42.
In 1963, the Milwaukee native appeared on Broadway opposite Anne Bancroft in Jerome Robbins Mother Courage and Her Children. The actress introduced Wilder to Brooks, her future husband, and the couple invited him to Fire Island, where he got a look at the first 30 pages of a screenplay titled Springtime for Hitler.
Three years went by, never heard from [Brooks], Wilder told Larry King in a 2002 interview. I didnt get a telegram. I didnt get a telephone call. And Im doing a play called Love on Broadway, matinee, taking off my makeup.
Knock-knock on the door, I open the door. Theres Mel. He said, You dont think I forgot, do you? Were going to do Springtime for Hitler. But I cant just cast you. Youve got to meet [star] Zero [Mostel] first, tomorrow at 10 oclock.
[The next day] the door opens. Theres Mel. He says come on in. Z, this is Gene. Gene, this is Z. And I put out my hand tentatively. And Zero grabbed my hand, pulls me to him and kisses me on the lips. All my nervousness went away. And then we did the reading and I got the part. And everything was fine.
Springtime for Hitler, of course, would become The Producers (1968), written and directed by Brooks. For his portrayal of stressed-out accountant Leopold Bloom in his first major movie role, Wilder earned an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor.
Brooks cast Gig Young for the part of the washed-up gunfighter The Waco Kid in Blazing Saddles (1974), but the actor, who was an alcoholic, got sick playing his first scene and had to be taken away by ambulance.
I called Gene and said, What do I do? Brooks recalled in a 2014 interview with Parade magazine. Gene said, Just get a horse for me to try out and a costume that fits and Ill do it. And he flew out and he did it. Saved my life.
While working on Blazing Saddles, Wilder fiddled with an outline he had written for Young Frankenstein and asked Brooks to do it with him. Wilder played Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, who creates a monster just like his grandfather, and he and Brooks shared a screenplay Oscar nom for the 1974 classic, released in theaters just 10 months after Blazing Saddles.
(It was Wilders idea to have Frankenstein and his monster (Peter Boyle) do the song-and-dance number, Puttin on the Ritz.)
For the 1971 musical fantasy based on Roald Dahls 1964 book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fred Astaire and Joel Grey were recommended for the role of Willy Wonka. But director Mel Stuart wanted Wilder.
He had been in The Producers, but he wasnt a superstar, Stuart told The Washington Post in 2005. I looked at him and I knew in my heart there could only be one person who could play Willy Wonka. He walked to the elevator after he read and I ran after him and I said, As far as Im concerned, youve got it.
Wilder and Pryor who was a writer on Blazing Saddles first teamed up on the train comedy Silver Streak (1976), followed by Stir Crazy (1980), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) and Another You (1991), with Wilder writing and directing the latter pair.
Wilder was born in Milwaukee as Jerry Silberman on June 11, 1933. His father was a Russian immigrant who imported and sold miniature beer and whiskey bottles. His mother had a heart attack when he was 6, leaving her an invalid.
The young boy got his start in comedy by trying to perk up his bedridden mothers spirits (she died when he was 23).
In high school, Wilder played Willy Loman in his own adaptation of Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman, graduated from the University of Iowa with a B.A. in theater and studied at the Old Vic School in Bristol, England.
While overseas, he became the first American to win the all-school fencing championship, a skill he put to use when he starred as a swashbuckler in Start the Revolution Without Me (1970), directed by Bud Yorkin.
Returning to the U.S., Wilder was drafted into the U.S. Army. While stationed outside of Philadelphia at Valley Forge Medial Hospital he worked as an aide in a psychiatric ward and helped administer electroshock therapy to patients