“He was sick, and I knew it and I expected it”. It’s a big shock.
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Wilder and Brooks consistently worked with each other throughout their careers.
But the film remains a big part of his life, and Wilder’s death Sunday hit him personally.
Throughout the ’60s, Mel Brooks had already made a name for himself on TV with a little series known as Get Smart. Brooks reminisced to Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon about their hilarious first meeting. “I wanted to come out with a cane and come down slowly, have it stick into one of the bricks, get up, fall over, roll around, and they all laugh and applaud”.
Mel, 90, recalled the early days of his friendship with Gene, who he met when his late wife Anne Bancroft starred in a stage production of “Mother Courage and Her Children” alongside the actor, who played Chaplain.
In tribute to his collaborator and friend, Brooks also tweeted on Monday, “Gene Wilder-One of the truly great talents of our time”.
Brooks and Wilder’s first professional collaboration was 1967’s “The Producers”, of which Wilder was initially skeptical, Brooks said. “Yeah, you’re going to get the money!” Brooks said that he replied, “Look in the mirror”.
Wilder was nominated twice for an Oscar: Once for portraying “Leopold Bloom” opposite Zero Mostel as “Max Bialystock” in THE PRODUCERS; the second time for co-writing YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN with Brooks.
Also: Brooks discusses pissing out of his childhood apartment window in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and letting his brother take the fall for it.
“He burst into tears and held his face and cried”, Brooks remarked.
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The famous pastry chef posted a snap of the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory actor, who died overnight, aged 83. “Wilder brought laughter and joy into the lives of multiple generations of movie goers through his many iconic performances”, read a Facebook post from the Transit Drive-In.
