Background

Gene Wilder was born Jerome Silberman on June 11, 1933, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States; the son of Jeanne (Baer) and William J. Silberman, a manufacturer and salesman of novelty items.

Education

The illness of his mother began Wilder's lifelong calling to acting, as he made her laugh by putting on different accents. After a brief stint at the Black-Foxe Military Institute, Wilder moved back to Milwaukee and became involved with the local theater scene, where he made his stage debut as Balthasar in a production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

After graduation from Washington High School (now Washington High School of Information Technology), Gene Wilder studied communication and theater arts at the University of Iowa, following that with a year studying theater and fencing at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Career

While a student at the University of Iowa in the early 1950s, Wilder appeared in various school performances and summer-stock productions. After graduation from Iowa, he moved to England and entered the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, where he further developed his acting skills. After returning to the United States and completing a stint in the United States Army, Wilder continued his acting studies at the Herbert Berghof Studio and, eventually, the Actors Studio. In 1961, he appeared as a buffoon in an Off-Broadway production of Arnold Wesker's Roots. Later that year, he made his Broadway debut as a befuddled valet in Graham Green's comic play The Complaisant Lover.

During the next few years, Wilder appeared in a variety of stage productions, including One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, a Broadway production derived from Ken Kesey's novel. In 1967, he won his first film role, playing an unnerved undertaker in director Arthur Penn's classic gangster work, Bonnie and Clyde. During the next year, 1968, Wilder won widespread acclaim for his performance as an edgy accountant in Mel Brooks's movie The Producers, a comedy in which various madcaps launch an unlikely musical titled Springtime for Hitler. During the next several years, he continued to gain distinction as an accomplished motion picture comic with a flair for combustible anxiety. Notable are his roles in such works as Start the Revolution without Me, where he plays dissimilar twins serving both sides during the French Revolution; Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, in which he plays a quirky candymaker; and Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex but Were Afraid to Ask, where he portrays a doctor who has a love affair with a sheep.

Wilder teamed again with Brooks on the 1973 film Blazing Saddles, a spoof of the Western genre. Wilder plays a drunken gunfighter, the Waco Kid, who bands with an unlikely lawman, an urbane African-American named Bart, to rid a town of swindling businessmen. The next year, Wilder and Brooks continued their collaboration with the motion picture Young Frankenstein, a lampoon of the classic horror films of the 1930s and Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, from which the film partially derives its title. This work, which Wilder and Brooks wrote together, features Wilder as a descendent of the deranged Dr. Frankenstein in Shelley's narrative, who, generations earlier, created a live human being from the parts of corpses.

In critical and commercial terms, Young Frankenstein was both Brooks's and Wilder's greatest success. The film was a box-office hit and was almost uniformly praised by critics. In the years following its release, the film achieved cult status and is regarded as one of the funniest pictures of the late twentieth century.

With Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, both of which won widespread recognition as superior comedies, Wilder established himself as a leading comedic performer. He followed these achievements with The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes's Smarter Brother, a film which he both wrote and directed as well as starred in. In this comedy, Wilder appears as Sigerson Holmes, the unstable brother of celebrated crime-solver Sherlock Holmes. Unlike his more accomplished sibling, Sigerson is incapable of sustained thought and profound observation. Rather, he is motivated purely by the desire to exceed his brother as a sleuth. That desire, in turn, leads him into considerable danger.

As an actor, Wilder scored another success with the film Silver Streak, a romantic comedy in which a mild-mannered executive - played by Wilder - finds romance and intrigue while traveling aboard a train.

Wilder's next achievement was acting in, writing, directing, and producing The World's Greatest Lover, a comic film set in the times of silent motion pictures. This work portrays Wilder as neurotic baker Rudy Valentine who aspires to become the next great screen lover, like his wife's idol Rudolf Valentino.

Wilder was paired again with Pryor in the 1980 movie Stir Crazy, a comedy about two stooges whose blunders land them in prison. Although the film - written by Bruce Jay Friedman and directed by Sidney Poitier - was received as somewhat lowbrow fare, it nonetheless scored substantially at the box office. This success, in turn, was largely attributed to the comedic rapport between Wilder and Pryor, particularly noticeable in prison sequences wherein the hapless duo desperately endeavor to affirm their masculinity to hardened criminals.

Throughout the remainder of the 1980s, Wilder's film career fluctuated. In 1982, he was paired with actress and comedienne Gilda Radner in Hanky-Panky, a romantic comedy in which Wilder's character must solve a murder that he is unjustly accused of committing. The film was largely dismissed as an unsatisfying mix of suspense and humor, and the Wilder-Radner teaming was generally decried as unfulfilling and even unfunny. From a personal standpoint, the film was a success for both Wilder and Radner.

After completing Hanky-Panky, Wilder wrote and directed The Woman in Red, a comedy - derived from Jean-Loup Dabadie and Yves Robert's French film Pardon Mon Affair - about a happily married man, played by Wilder, who suddenly finds himself obsessed with a gorgeous stranger.

Wilder and Radner continued their screen partnership with Haunted Honeymoon, a comedy written, directed, and produced by Wilder. The duo play fellow radio actors and lovers who decide to spend a restorative weekend at an ancestral home, where they encounter an odd assortment of Wilder's relatives. This film, like Hanky-Panky and The Woman in Red, fared rather poorly with most critics.

In 1989, Wilder regained a measure of success with See No Evil, Hear No Evil, in which he appears as a deaf man named Dave opposite Richard Pryor's blind character, Wally. Wilder reunited with Pryor in the 1991 comedy Another You, their fourth joint venture. Wilder's character is a pathological liar released from a mental institution and into the care of a street hustler (Pryor) who has been ordered to provide community service.

Wilder teamed up with Dr. M. Steven Piver, a cancer surgeon, to co-author his first book, 1996's Gilda's Disease: Sharing Personal Experience with a Medical Perspective on Ovarian Cancer. The book delves into the causes of ovarian cancer, preventive measures, and treatment options, ranging from surgical to alternative therapies. Wilder's second book, Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art, was published in 2005.

With two books under his belt, Wilder tackled his first novel, 2007's My French Whore: A Love Story. In 2010, Gene Wilder released a collection of stories called What Is This Thing Called Love?. His third novel, Something to Remember You By: A Perilous Romance, was released in April 2013.

Achievements

• Wilder's performances have been admired by audiences around the world. He was known for his iconic portrayal of Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) and for his four films with Richard Pryor: Silver Streak (1976), Stir Crazy (1980), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989), and Another You (1991), as well as starring in Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask (1972).
  
  Wilder was one of those rare actors nominated for the Academy Awards for both acting (Best Supporting Actor for 1967's The Producers) and writing (for co-scripting 1974's Young Frankenstein, in which he also starred). Wilder was also nominated for two Best Actor Golden Globe Awards (for 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and 1976's Silver Streak) and won an Emmy Award in his final on-screen work in 2003 for his guest performance on Will and Grace. He was also a recipient of the Clarence Derwent Award for "Best Performance by an Actor in a Nonfeatured Role."

Works

More photos

• book

  • Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art

    (In this book, Wilder talks about everything from his expe...)

    2005
  • The Woman Who Wouldn't

    (The beloved actor and screenwriter's second novel, set in...)

    2008
  • My French Whore

    (The beloved actor and screenwriter Gene Wilder's first no...)

    2007
  • What Is This Thing Called Love?

    (The actor and novelist answers this eternal question in t...)

    2010
  • Something to Remember You By 2013

• movie

  • Young Frankenstein

    (Director Mel Brooks' comic spoof of the Frankenstein (tha...)

    1974
  • Blazing Saddles

    (Once Mel Brooks' lunatic film, many call his best, gets s...)

    1974
  • Bonnie and Clyde

    (Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway are the legendary Depressi...)

    1967
  • Start the Revolution Without Me

    (Comedian Gene Wilder and Donald Sutherland star in this h...)

    1970
  • Silver Streak

    (A nutty blend of comedy-action-romance in the Hitchcock m...)

    1976
  • Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

    (Take an unforgettable, uniquely magical, musical journey ...)

    1971
  • Rhinoceros

    (A boozing young man in love with his co-worker finds that...)

    1974
  • Haunted Honeymoon

    (In this hysterical comedic spoof of horror films, Larry a...)

    1986
  • Hanky Panky

    (Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner team up to blend their uniqu...)

    1982
  • The Woman in Red

    (Married man Gene Wilder goes on a madcap adulterous chase...)

    1984
  • Stir Crazy

    (Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder star in a crazy comedy abou...)

    1980
  • See No Evil, Hear No Evil

    (Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor star as blind and deaf witn...)

    1989
  • Another You

    (Perennial funnymen Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder are a pa...)

    1991
  • Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx

    (A comedy of the human spirit about a highly independent y...)

    1970
  • Funny About Love

    (The story centers on Duffy Berman (Wilder), a famed carto...)

    1990
  • The Frisco Kid

    (It's 1850 and new rabbi Avram Belinski sets out from Phil...)

    1979

Religion

Wilder was raised Jewish.

An aunt of Gene was a Theosophist - part of the quasi-religious, occult-obsessed movement set up by the Russian clairvoyant Madame Blavatsky - and she introduced him to fellow members. They told him he was an angel and urged him, among other loopy beliefs, to avoid smoking as it interfered with the messages he was receiving from God.

His involvement with the Theosophists precipitated a sudden and intense obsession with praying which he developed when he was 17. The uncontrollable urge - which he dubbed 'The Demon' - gripped him for almost a decade. He would spend hours at a time on his knees, pleading for forgiveness and dredging up any offense. He prayed out loud in parks, in crowded streets and on buses. Acting allowed him to escape 'The Demon.'

In 2005, he stated: "I have no other religion. I feel very Jewish and I feel very grateful to be Jewish. But I don't believe in God or anything to do with the Jewish religion."

Politics

Wilder once said: "I'm quietly political. I don't like advertising. Giving money to someone or support, but not getting on a bandstand. I don't want to run for president in 2008. I will write another book instead." In 2008, Wilder donated to Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

Views

Wilder held only the Golden Rule as his philosophy.

Following his third wife's death, Wilder became active in promoting cancer awareness and treatment. He helped found the Gilda Radner Ovarian Cancer Detection Center in Los Angeles and co-founded Gilda's Club, a support group to raise awareness of cancer.

In October 2001, Gene read from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as part of a special benefit performance held at the Westport Country Playhouse to aid families affected by the September 11 attacks.

Quotations: "I never used to believe in fate. I used to think you make your own life and then you call it fate. That's why I call it irony."

"So my idea of neurotic is spending too much time trying to correct a wrong. When I feel that I'm doing that, then I snap out of it."

"If you're not gonna tell the truth, then why start talking?"

"Time is a precious thing. Never waste it."

"The big catalyst was seeing my sister, when I was 11, doing a dramatic recital. When I saw her on the stage and everyone listening to her so patiently, quietly, that's all I wanted: for someone to look at me and listen to me, but in some beautiful and artistic way."

"I didn't set out to shock. I said, 'Just tell the truth' and see how it comes out. I used to be a milksop, beat around the bush, not speak frankly. Now everyone says, 'Don't ask Gene, because he'll tell you.'"

"I started writing, just casually writing, the ironies in my life - the strange accidents that turned the corner of where my life was going to."

"On stage or in the movies I could do whatever I wanted to. I was free."

"Well, you know, success is a terrible thing and a wonderful thing. If you can enjoy it, it's wonderful. If it starts eating away at you and they're waiting for more from me, or what can I do to top this, then you're in trouble. Just do what you love. That's all I want to do."

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

Membership

Gene Wilder was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.

Personality

The eternally sad look in his eyes said Gene Wilder was hardly an average funny man. The clownish characters he played concealed a life battered by tragedy. His difficult childhood was poisoned by savage school bullying and sexual abuse.

Despite becoming the highest-paid star in Hollywood, Gene was kind and generous; a modest man fated to find himself surrounded by extreme characters. The actor was never comfortable being the big star.

Physical Characteristics: In 1999, Wilder was hospitalized with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, but confirmed in March 2005 that the cancer was in complete remission following chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant. He died in 2016, from complications of Alzheimer's disease.

Wilder was always prone to neuroses.

Quotes from others about the person

• Sidney Poitier: "For some reason when you pair him [Pryor] with Gene Wilder, they make a particular kind of magic together. And, together, they are probably the funniest pair that's ever been on screen."
  
  Jordan Walker-Pearlman: "The decision to wait until this time to disclose his condition wasn't vanity, but more so that the countless young children that would smile or call out to him 'there's Willy Wonka,' would not have to be then exposed to an adult referencing illness or trouble and causing delight to travel to worry, disappointment, or confusion. He simply couldn't bear the idea of one less smile in the world."

Interests

• painting, fencing, bridge

• Writers

  F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Jean Renoir, Gabriel García Márquez

• Artists

  Vincent Van Gogh

• Sport & Clubs

  tennis

• Music & Bands

  Ella Fitzgerald

Connections

Wilder was married four times. His first marriage to Mary Mercier lasted five years. He then married Mary Joan Schutz in 1967 and adopted her daughter, Katharine. Gene married Gilda Radner in 1984 and they were together until her death in 1989. In 1991, Wilder married Karen Boyer.

Father:

William J. Silberman

(May 8, 1900 - May 30, 1973)

Mother:

Jeanne (Baer) Silberman

(August 29, 1907 - November 18, 1957)

Spouse:

Karen Boyer

stepdaughter:

Katharine Anastasia Wilder

late spouse:

Gilda Radner

(June 28, 1946 - May 20, 1989)

Gilda Radner was an American actress and comedian, who was one of the seven original cast members for the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL).

ex-spouse:

Mary Joan Schutz

(born January 12, 1930)

ex-spouse:

Mary Mercier

(born July 7, 1928)

Friend:

Sidney Poitier

(born February 20, 1927)

Sidney Poitier is a Bahamian-American actor, film director, and ambassador.

Friend:

Mel Brooks

(born June 28, 1926)

Mel Brooks is an American director, writer, actor, comedian, producer and composer.

colleague:

Richard Pryor

(December 1, 1940 - December 10, 2005)

Richard Pryor was an American stand-up comedian, actor, and writer.

References

• Gene Wilder: Funny and Sad Brian Scott Mednick's fascinating biography Gene Wilder: Funny and Sad reveals a very serious and private side to Wilder that audiences don't get to see. The book traces Wilder's humble beginnings in 1930s Milwaukee as a shy child who learned early on that being funny got him attention.
  2010