Gene Wilder

Gene Wilder
Wilder at a book signing in May 2007.
Born	Jerome Silberman
Occupation	Comedic actor
Years active	1961–Present
Spouse(s)	Mary Mercier (1960–1965) Mary Joan Schutz (1967–1974) Gilda Radner (1984–1989) Karen Boyer (1991–present)
Children	Katharine Anastasia Wilder (adopted)
Website	http://www.genewilder.net/

Gene Wilder (born Jerome Silberman on June 11, 1933) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor who is best known for his role as Willy Wonka, his collaborations with Mel Brooks in Blazing Saddles, The Producers, and Young Frankenstein, and his four movies with Richard Pryor: Silver Streak; Stir Crazy; See No Evil, Hear No Evil; and Another You.

Biography

Born in Milwaukee, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Wilder studied drama at the University of Iowa, where he was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity, graduated in 1955, and later attended the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the UK. He served in the United States Army from 1956 to 1958 where he served as a Medic in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at Valley Forge Army Hospital in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.

After the Army he received a scholarship to the HB studio, supporting himself, at first, with unemployment insurance and some savings, and afterwards with odd jobs such as driving a limousine and teaching fencing. His career started with the theater in various off-Broadway shows before making it on the Great White Way. Around 1961 he became a member of The Actors Studio and gained notoriety in the Broadway scene with the plays "The Complaisant Lover" and "Roots", for which he received the Clarence Derwent Award. It was several years later the movie Mother Courage and Her Children featuring actress Anne Bancroft was being cast in 1964 that Wilder's career received an even greater boost. Comedian Mel Brooks, whom Bancroft was dating at the time, took a liking to Wilder and cast him in several films.

Wilder's first big part was in Bonnie and Clyde where he played an undertaker abducted by the couple. Perhaps his best known roles are as Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Dr. Frederick Frankenstein in Young Frankenstein and as Leo Bloom in The Producers. During this time he also worked as the voice of "Letterman" on the children's educational television series The Electric Company from 1972 to 1977.

In the late 1970s and 1980s he appeared in a number of movies with Richard Pryor, making them the most prolific inter-racial comedy double act in movies during the period. However, Wilder later admitted the two were not as close as people believed. He said that his troubled co-star's drug addiction made him very difficult and unpleasant to work with. However, he also maintains that he felt he had a better chemistry with Pryor as a co-star than with anyone else he has worked with. In all, they made four movies together: Silver Streak (1976), Stir Crazy (1980), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) and Another You (1991).

In 1979 Wilder starred alongside Harrison Ford in the comedy The Frisco Kid. He also wrote and starred in Murder in a Small Town and its sequel, The Lady in Question as a theater producer turned amateur detective Larry "Cash" Carter.

Personal life

Wilder in 1984

Wilder was married to Saturday Night Live actress Gilda Radner from 1984 until her death from ovarian cancer in 1989. On September 8, 1991, Wilder married Karen Webb (née Boyer), whom he met in 1988 while preparing for his role as a deaf man in the film See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989). Webb was at the time a clinical supervisor for the New York League for the Hard of Hearing.

Since the death of his first wife, Wilder has remained active in promoting cancer awareness and treatment and has retired from acting. He is the co-founder of Gilda's Club, a support group to raise awareness of cancer. One branch of Gilda's Club is in Wilder's hometown of Milwaukee. In 1998 he collaborated on the book "Gilda's Disease" for which he shared personal experiences of Radner's struggle with ovarian cancer. Wilder himself was hospitalized with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 1999 but confirmed in March 2005 that his cancer was in complete remission following a stem cell transplant and chemotherapy.

On March 1 2005, Wilder released his highly-personal memoir Kiss Me Like A Stranger, an account of his life covering everything from his childhood, when his mother died of heart disease, up to his wife's death. In early 2007 Wilder published his first novel, set during World War I, entitled My French Whore.

Wilder is a Democrat. He opposed the Vietnam War and the war in Iraq. He resides in Stamford, Connecticut where, in October 2001, he read from "Charlie & the Chocolate Factory" as part of a special benefit performance held at the Westport Country Playhouse to aid families affected by the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Also in 2001, Wilder donate his papers (3.75 linear ft.) to the University of Iowa Libraries. The papers include scripts, correspondences, documents, photographs, and clipped images.

In January 2008, Wilder lent his support to 2008 U.S. presidential election candidate Barack Obama through a $2,300 donation to Obama's campaign. Wilder will make a Sketchfest-related appearance March 19, 2008 at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco as part of a salute to Wilder. The screening will include a screening of Young Frankenstein and a Q&A session. A Turner Classic Movies (TMC) tribute to Wilder with Alec Baldwin is scheduled to air on TMC on April 15, 2008 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

Filmography

Wilder at a book signing in May 2007

• Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
• The Producers (1968)
• Start the Revolution Without Me (1970)
• Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx (1970)
• Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
• Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972)
• The Scarecrow (1972)
• Rhinoceros (1974)
• Blazing Saddles (1974)
• The Little Prince (1974)
• Thursday's Game (1974)
• Young Frankenstein (1974) (also writer)
• The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975) (also director and writer)
• Silver Streak (1976)
• The World's Greatest Lover (1977) (also producer, director, and writer)
• The Frisco Kid (1979)
• Sunday Lovers (1980) (also director and writer)
• Stir Crazy (1980)
• Hanky Panky (1982)
• The Woman in Red (1984) (also director and writer)
• Haunted Honeymoon (1986) (also director and writer)
• See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) (also writer)
• Funny About Love (1990)
• Another You (1991)
• Murder In A Small Town (1999)
• Alice in Wonderland (1999) (The Mockturtle)
• The Lady In Question (1999)
• Will & Grace (2002) Episode "Boardroom and a Parked Place" (Guest Star – Mr. Stein)
• Will & Grace (2003) Episode "Sex, Losers & Videotape" (Guest Star – Mr. Stein)

Stage appearances

• The Complaisant Lover (Broadway, 1962)
• Mother Courage and Her Children (Broadway, 1963)
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Broadway, 1963)
• The White House (Broadway, 1964)
• Luv (Broadway, 1966)
• Laughter on the 23rd Floor (London, 1996)

External links

• Gene Wilder at IMDb
• Gene Wilder at the TCM Movie Database
• Interview with Wilder on NPR's Fresh Air (March 16, 2005)
• GeneWilder.net a Gene Wilder fansite
• Advance Review of "My French Whore: A Love Story" The Book Standard, October 1, 2006
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