Gene Wilder

At 83 years old, Gene Wilder has this physical status:

Jerome Silberman (June 11, 1933 – August 29, 2016), also known as Gene Wilder, was an American actor, screenwriter, producer, singer-songwriter, and author. Wilder began his acting career and appeared in an episode of the TV series The Play of the Week in 1961.

Despite the fact that Wilder's first film role was as Leopold Bloom in the 1967 film The Producers, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

This was the first in a series of collaborations with writer/director Mel Brooks, including 1974's Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, which Wilder co-wrote, winning the pair an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Wilder is best known for his role in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) and his four films with Richard Pryor (1980) See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989), and Another You (1991).

Wilder produced and wrote several of his own films, including The Woman in Red (1984). Gilda Radner, his third wife, appeared in three films, the last two of which he also produced.

Paul's death in 1989 from ovarian cancer led to his active involvement in cancer education and treatment, as well as the establishment of the Gilda Radner Cancer Detection Center in Los Angeles and co-founding Gilda's Club. Wilder returned to writing after his last acting appearance on Will & Grace, for which he received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor.

In 2005, he wrote Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art; a collection of poems. What Is This Thing Called Love? (2010); and the novels My French Whore (2007), The Woman Who Wouldn't (2008), and Something To Remember You By (2013).

Early life

Jerome Silberman, a designer and salesman of novelty products, was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on June 11, 1933, the son of Jeanne (Baer) and William J. Silberman. His father, a Russian-Jewish immigrant, was a member of his maternal grandparents. Wilder first became interested in acting at age eight, when his mother was ill with rheumatic fever, and the doctor advised him to "try and make her laugh."

He saw his sister, who was studying acting, onstage, and was captivated by the experience. He asked her teacher if he wanted to be his tutor, and the teacher said that if he were still interested at age 13, he would welcome Wilder as a pupil. Wilder turned 13 on a sunny day in the United States; Wilder met with him for two years; Wilder later took him.

According to Jeanne Silberman's account, she sent her son's potential in Wisconsin to Black-Foxe, a military academy in Hollywood, where he was mocked and sexually assaulted, primarily because he was the only Jewish boy in the class. Wilder returned home and became more involved with the local theatre community after a short stay at Black-Foxe. Balthasar (Romeo's servant) in a Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet performance, he appeared for the first time in front of a paying audience at age 15. Gene Wilder graduated from Washington High School in Milwaukee in 1951.

Wilder was born Jewish, but he remained devoted to the Golden Rule as his religion. "I have no other faith" in a book that was published in 2005. I am very Jewish, and I am very grateful to be Jewish. I don't believe in God or something to do with the Jewish faith, but I don't believe in God or something related to the Jewish faith.

Wilder studied Communication and Theatre Arts at the University of Iowa, where he was a founder of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.

Personal life

While attending the HB Studio in New York, Wilder met his first wife, Mary Mercier. Despite the fact that the two couples were not together for a long time, they married on July 22, 1960, the first time. They lived apart for long stretches of time before divorcing in 1965. Wilder started dating Mary Joan Schutz, a close friend of his sister's. Katharine, Schutz's daughter from a previous marriage, was her daughter. When Katharine started calling Wilder "Dad" he decided to do what he felt was "the right thing to do" after marrying Schutz on October 27, 1967, and adopting Katharine the following year. After seven years of marriage, Schutz and Wilder split, with Katharine suspecting that Wilder was having an affair with his Young Frankenstein co-star Madeline Kahn. Teri Garr, his other Frankenstein co-star, briefly dated him after the dissolution. Wilder was eventually disillusioned from Katharine.

While filming Sidney Poitier's Hanky Panky, Wilder met Gilda Radner on Saturday Night Live actress Gilda Radner on August 13, 1981. At the time, Radner was married to guitarist G. E. Smith, but she and her companions became inseparable friends. Wilder discovered herself missing Radner after Hanky Panky's filming, so he called her. The marriage progressed, and Radner divorced Smith in 1982. She stayed in Wilder, and the two married on September 14, 1984 in the south of France. The couple wanted to have children, but Radner suffered miscarriages, and doctors were unable to determine the cause. Radner sought medical attention after being severely ill and pained in her upper legs on the set of Haunted Honeymoon. She was discovered to have ovarian cancer in October 1986, after a string of misdiagnoses. Radner battled the disease for the first year and a half, receiving chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments. The disease eventually came to remission, offering the couple a break, despite the fact that Wilder filmed See No Evil, Hear No Evil. The cancer had returned and had metastasised by May 1989. Radner died on May 20, 1989. "I always thought she'd pull through," Wilder later said.

Wilder, after Radner's death, became involved in cancer research and treatment, assisting in the establishment of the Gilda Radner Cancer Detection Center in Los Angeles and co-founding Gilda's Club, a charity group that raises money for cancer research and care.

Wilder, who was preparing for his role as a deaf man in See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Hear No Evil, met Karen Webb (née Boyer), who was a clinical supervisor for the New York League for the Hard of Hearing. He was coached by Webb in lip reading. Wilder and Webb reunited following Gilda Radner's death, and they married on September 8, 1991. The two lived in Stamford, Connecticut, in the 1734 Colonial home that he had shared with Radner.

"I'm quietly political," Wilder said in 2007. Advertising isn't my thing. Giving money to someone or assistance, but not a bandstand. I don't want to run for president in 2008. I'll probably write another book instead." Wilder contributed to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.

The Wilders spent the majority of their time painting watercolors, writing, and participating in charitable causes.

Wilder coauthored the book Gilda's Disease in 1998 with oncologist Steven Piver, sharing personal accounts of Radner's battle with ovarian cancer. Wilder himself was hospitalized with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 1999, but the cancer was not fully recovered following chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant in March 2005.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was read from the Westport Country Playhouse as part of a special benefit performance held at the Westport Country Playhouse to assist families affected by the September 11 attacks. Wilder donated a collection of scripts, correspondences, photographs, photographs, and clipped photos to the University of Iowa Libraries in 2001.

Wilder's latest book, Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art, was published on March 1, 2005, an account of his life that covered everything from his youth to Radner's death. In March 2007, Wilder's first book, My French Whore, which takes place during World War II, is set during World War I. In March 2008, his second book, The Woman Who Wouldn't be published.

Role Model: Gene Wilder, a 2008 Turner Classic Movies special, where Alec Baldwin interviewed Wilder about his work, Wilder said he was effectively barred from acting for good. "I don't like show business," he said. "I like to show, but I don't like the company."

What Is This Thing Called Love? Wilder published a collection of stories in 2010. In April 2013, he published Something to Remember You By: A Perilous Romance, his third book.

When asked by Time Out New York magazine interview if he would return to act again if a good film project came his way, Wilder replied, "I'm sick of seeing the bombing, shooting, killing, swearing, and 3-D." A year is a year for 52 films, and there are certainly three good ones. That's why I started writing. I promise not to do it again. 'Give me the script,' I'd say.' I'll do it if it's something magical.' But I don't get anything like that."

Condescending Wonka, a still from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory starring Wilder, became a common Internet meme in the 2010s.

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Acting career

He was accepted into the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol, England, following his 1955 graduation from Iowa. Wilder became the first freshman to win the All-School Fencing Championship after six months of fencing. He returned to the United States, with his sister and her family in Queens, in the hopes of studying Stanislavski's method. Wilder has joined the HB Studio.

Wilder was drafted into the Army on September 10, 1956. He was posted to the medical corps and sent to Fort Sam Houston for preparation at the end of recruit training. He then had the opportunity to choose any career that was open, and he chose Valley Forge Army Hospital in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, where he served as a paramedic. His mother died of ovarian cancer in November 1957. A year later, he was released from the army and returned to New York. He was able to become a full-time student thanks to a scholarship to the HB Studio. He later supported himself with odd jobs such as a limousine chauffeur and fencing instructor, who was first surviving on unemployment insurance and some savings.

Wilder's first professional acting gig was in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he appeared as the Second Officer in Herbert Berghof's production of Twelfth Night. He also worked as a fencing choreographer.

Charles Grodin told Wilder about Lee Strasberg's acting after three years of study with Berghof and Uta Hagen at the HB Studio. Grodin advised him to leave the lab and begin studying with Strasberg in his private class. Wilder was accepted into the Actors Studio a few months ago. He felt that "Jerry Silberman in Macbeth" did not have the right ring to it, so he decided on a stage name. "Wilder" reminded him of Our Town author Thornton Wilder, while "Gene" came from Eugene Gant's first book, Look Homeward, Angel. He loved "Gene" as a youth because he was captivated by a distant cousin, a World War II bomber navigator who was "handsome and looked fantastic in his leather flight jacket. Gene Wilder would not be seen in Macbeth, as he later said.

He slowly began to be noticed in the off-Broadway world, thanks to Wilder's appearances in Sir Arnold Wesker's Roots and his contribution to the Nonfeatured Role, which earned him the Clarence Derwent Award. Billy Bibbit, Ken Kesey's original Broadway adaptation of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest opposite actor Kirk Douglas, was one of Wilder's earliest stage credits.

Wilder appeared in Mother Courage and Her Children in 1963, a film starring Anne Bancroft who introduced Wilder to her boyfriend (and later husband) Mel Brooks. Brooks a few months ago mentioned that he was filming Springtime for Hitler, for which he thinks Wilder will be perfect in the role of Leo Bloom. Brooks evoked a promise from Wilder that he would check with him before making any long-term commitments. Months passed by, and Wilder appeared in various theatre productions around the country, and was cast in his first film appearance, which was minor in Arthur Penn's 1967 Bonnie and Clyde. After three years of not hearing from Brooks, Wilder was called for a reading with Zero Mostel, who was supposed to be the star of Springtime for Hitler and had the blessing of his co-star. Wilder was cast in his first leading role in a 1967 film, The Producers, which was mostel approved.

With Mel Brooks winning an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and Wilder being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the Producers' journey became a cult comedy legend. Despite this, Brooks' first directorial effort did not do well at the box office and was not well received by most analysts; New York Times critic Renata Adler reviewed the film as "black college humour."

Wilder migrated to Paris in 1969, playing a leading part in Bud Yorkin's Start the Revolution Without Me, a French Revolution comedy that took place during the French Revolution. Wilder returned to New York after shooting ended, where he read the script for Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx and called Sidney Glazier, the producer of The Producers, immediately. Both men began looking for the right director for the film. Jean Renoir was the first candidate, but Waris Hussein, the British-Indian director, was recruited because he would not be able to film for at least a year. In August and September 1969, Margot Kidder co-starred with Wilder and was shot on location in Dublin and at the nearby Ardmore Studios.

Wilder auditioned to be Willy Wonka in Mel Stuart's film adaptation of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 1971. Mel Stuart was immediately offered the role after reciting some lines. Fred Astaire, Joel Grey, Ron Moody, and Jon Pertwee were all considered before Wilder was officially cast for the role. Roald Dahl's first pick to play Willy Wonka was Spike Milligan. And yes, Peter Sellers begged Dahl for the part.

The film was not a hit on its opening weekend, but critics such as Roger Ebert, who likened it to The Wizard of Oz, said it was not a big success. With the critical consensus that "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is strangely comforting, full of narrative detours that don't always work but highlight the film's uniqueness," the film now has an 89% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The three films Wilder appeared in were released as box office failures: The Revolution and Quackser were disappointing to viewers, while Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory was not a commercial success, despite an Oscar nomination for Wilder and a Golden Globe award nomination for Wilder.

When Woody Allen gave him a part of Everything You Should Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask), Wilder agreed, hoping this would put an end to his string of failures. Everything... was a disaster, with over $18 million in the United States alone against a $2-million budget.

You Should Know About Sex* (But Were Afraid to Ask), Wilder began working on a script he called Young Frankenstein. Mel Brooks, who told him that it seemed as a "cute" idea but showed no enthusiasm after he wrote a two-page story, he contacted him. Wilder's agent, Mike Medavoy, called him a few months back and asked if he had anything where he could include Peter Boyle and Marty Feldman, his two new clients. Wilder was inspired to write a scene that takes place at Transylvania Station, where Igor and Frederick meet for the first time after seeing Feldman on television. The scene was later added to the film almost verbatim. Medavoy liked the idea and called Brooks, asking him to direct. Brooks was not sure, but after four years as a result of two box-office setbacks, he accepted. Wilder was given a part of the Fox in Saint Exupéry's classic book, The Little Prince, while writing on the Young Frankenstein script. Wilder, who was filming Blazing Saddles, called Wilder immediately, advising Wilder the role of the "Waco Kid" after Dan Dailey dropped out at the last minute, but Gig Young was too ill to continue. Wilder shot his scenes for Blazing Saddles and then filmed The Little Prince right after.

The rights to Columbia Pictures were supposed to be sold to Columbia Pictures after Young Frankenstein was published, but the team was unable to decide on a budget, Wilder, Brooks, and producer Michael Gruskoff decided on twentieth Century Fox, where both Brooks and Wilder had to sign five-year contracts. Young Frankenstein was a commercial success, with Wilder and Brooks receiving Best Adapted Screenplay nominations at the 1975 Oscar awards, but they lost to Francis Coppola and Mario Puzo for their interpretation of The Godfather Part II. Wilder had a dream of a romantic musical comedy starring a brother of Sherlock Holmes while filming Young Frankenstein. Marty Feldman and Madeline Kahn agreed to participate in the initiative, and Wilder began writing The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother in 1975, which was his first directorial debut.

Wilder's agent wrote him a script for a film called Super Chief in 1975. Wilder accepted, but told the film's designers that Richard Pryor was the only one who could prevent the film from being offensive. Pryor accepted the role in the film, which had been renamed Silver Streak, and it was the first film to team Wilder and Pryor. They were Hollywood's first hit interracial film comedy pair.

Wilder, a director of Silver Streak, started writing a script for The World's Greatest Lover, which was influenced by Fellini's The White Sheik. Wilder wrote, produced, and directed The World's Greatest Lover, a 1977 film that premiered in 1978, but was a critical failure. Wilder's next project was the Frisco Kid (1979). It was supposed to star John Wayne, but he was dropped and was replaced by Harrison Ford, then an up-and-coming actor.

In 1980, Wilder teamed up with Richard Pryor in Stir Crazy, directed by Sidney Poitier. Pryor was struggling with a massive cocaine habit, and filming became difficult, but once the film premiered, it became a worldwide hit. "Skip Donahue" (Wilder) and "Harry Monroe" (Pryor) ranked as number nine on the "Fifteen Most Dynamic Duos in Pop Culture History) list, according to the publication, and the film has often appeared in "best comedy" lists and rankings.

Poitier and Wilder became friends, with the pair co-producing Traces, which became 1982's Hanky Panky, the film in which Wilder met comedian Gilda Radner. Wilder and Radner worked on several projects together for the remainder of the decade. Wilder, Radner, and Kelly Le Brock starred Wilder, Radner, and Kelly Le Brock in his third film, Hanky Panky's The Woman in Red, which starred Wilder, Radner, and Kelly Le Brock. The Woman in Red was not well-received by the critics, and they were not planning to produce audiences in 1986's Haunted Honeymoon. Stevie Wonder's album "I Just Called to Say I Love You" received an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Wilder and Pryor wanted to make another film, but Wilder and Pryor decided not to make See No Evil, Hear No Evil unless the script was rewritten. Hear No Evil, Hear No Evil premiered in May 1989 to mainly critical feedback. Many commentators praised Wilder and Pryor, as well as Kevin Spacey's performance, but the script was generally dismissed. Roger Ebert called it "a real dud" with a "contrived plot" and "too many "juvenile gags," while Vincent Canby said the film was "by far the most enjoyable co-starring vehicle for Mr. Pryor and Mr. Wilder," despite that "this is not sophisticated movie making" and that "no one of the gags is equally clever."

Wilder appeared in one last film with Pryor, 1991's Another You, in which Pryor's physical deterioration from multiple sclerosis was clearly evident. It was Pryor's last film appearance in a film (he appeared in a few cameos before he died in 2005), as well as Wilder's last appearance in a melodra. His last two films were not financially successful. Wilder's remaining work consisted of television films and guest appearances on TV shows.

On April 9, 1991, Wilder was inducted into the Wisconsin Performing Arts Hall of Fame, at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts in Milwaukee.

Wilder appeared on NBC's Something Wilder in 1994. Poor reviews were given to the show, and it was only for a season. In 1999, he returned to television, one of which was the NBC adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. Murder in a Small Town and The Lady in Question were two mystery films for A&E TV that were cowritten by Wilder, in which he played a theatre director and turned amateur detective.

Wilder appeared on two episodes of NBC's Will & Grace, receiving a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor on a Comedy Series for his role as Mr. Stein, Will Truman's boss. Wilder's film career came to an end; from 2003-forward, Wilder concentrated his creative energies on writing novels and stories, as well as painting.

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