Wilder’s nephew Jordan Walker-Pearlman told Variety magazine on Monday that his uncle had died of complications of Alzheimer’s.
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Mr. Wilder’s rule for comedy was simple: Don’t try to make it amusing; try to make it real.
With his haunted blue eyes and an empathy born of his own history of psychic distress, he aspired to touch audiences much as Charlie Chaplin had.
He invented his stage name, Gene Wilder, by taking the first name from a character in Thomas Wolfe’s “Look Homeward, Angel”.
This classic number from Wilder’s most iconic role perfectly captures his portrayal of the complicated candy man through fantastic a song that all but transports you to Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. His nephew said he kept the diagnosis a secret because “he simply couldn’t bear the idea of one less smile in the world”. “He blessed every film we did with his magic and he blessed me with his friendship”. Wilder frequently collaborated with writer and director Mel Brooks.
Tweeted Jim Carrey: “Gene Wilder was one of the funniest and sweetest energies ever to take a human form”.
A key break for Wilder came when he co-starred with Anne Bancroft in Bertolt Brecht’s “Mother Courage”, and she introduced him to Brooks, her future husband, in 1963. Wilder went on to be one of the many famous faces in Woody Allen’s Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask).
Wilder’s stressed-out accountant Leo Bloom turned out to be the flawless foil for Zero Mostel’s grifter producer Max Bialystock, which included devolving into a screaming mess when deprived of his “blue blanket”.
Wilder scored an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor in 1969 for The Producers. One was the Old West parody Blazing Saddles. The other great creative partner of his life was his third wife, Gilda Radner.
After Radner died of ovarian cancer in 1989, Wilder spent much of his time after promoting cancer research and opened a support facility for cancer patients. “I think one of the things that would make Gilda happiest is if Sparkle, her Yorkshire terrier, pee-peed right on top of her grave”.
He said the documents fill in details about the film-making process, contracts and storyboards associated with films Wilder wrote and starred in, as well as some that were never produced.
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Wilder, who married four times, is survived by his wife of 25 years, Karen Boyer.
