The actor who player Charlie Buckett in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory film – Peter Ostrum – has released a statement on the death of Willy Wonka himself, Gene Wilder.
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His and Brooks’s musical adaptation of YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN hit the stage in 2007.
“It is with indescribable sadness and blues, but with spiritual gratitude for the life lived, that I announce the passing of husband, parent and universal artist Gene Wilder, at his home in Stamford, Connecticut”, his nephew says according to Yahoo.
Wilder had also been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma back in 1989. Ostrum hadn’t seen Wilder since the film ended production, but he was still devastated.
Wilder famously portrayed eccentric monster maker Dr. Frankenstein in Mel’s Young Frankenstein, and they teamed up again in 1974 for the cult comedy western Blazing Saddles.
People across America were hurt by the loss of legendary comedy actor Gene Wilder on Monday, including late-night host James Corden.
Wilder played the mysterious, mephistophelean factory proprietor of the title, duping spoiled children into ironic fates.
Wilder was born Jerome Silberman on June 11, 1933 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Jeanne Baer and William J. Siberman a Russian Jewish immigrant. He first acted with Richard Pryor in 1976 with “Silver Streak” and they acted together in several later films.
Despite not finding himself amusing, Wilder continued to appear in comedies with varying degrees of success. It’s what I felt when I watched him.
Before starring in “The Producers“, he had a small role as the hostage of gangsters in the 1967 classic “Bonnie and Clyde”.
He went on to write several screenplays and direct five films. The two met while making the 1982 film “Hanky-Panky” and married in 1984.
Tragically, his mother died in her early twenties of the same disease that took Radner decades later – ovarian cancer.
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As well as Walker-Pearlman, Wilder is also survived by his wife, Karen, and daughter Katharine.
