Gene Wilder, whose wild curls and startling blue eyes brought a frantic air to roles in the movies “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”, “Young Frankenstein” and “Blazing Saddles”, died on Monday at the age of 83, his family said.
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As the world mourns the loss of Gene Wilder, known for making people laugh in amusing films like Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, a local school is looking back on a the time the legendary actor spent at with their students. The actor passed away on Monday at the age of 83 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease, his family confirmed in a statement.
Gene Wilder started his acting career on the stage, but millions knew him from his work in the movies, especially his collaborations with Mel Brooks.
Apart from the director, Wilder frequently collaborated with comedian Richard Pryor. If there’s a heaven he has a Golden Ticket”, while Rob Lowe revealed, “Gene Wilder was one of my earliest heroes.
“What a comic, what a amusing guy, all that stuff!”
When actor Gene Wilder was a little boy, his mother had a heart attack, and in a story that Wilder told many times over the years, her attending physician gave him some advice that stuck with him into his later years. Brooks first cast him as Leo Bloom, a nervy accountant in the 1968 comedy The Producers.
“I had never consciously tried to make anyone laugh in my life”, Wilder said.
Frozen star Josh Gad hailed Wilder as “The greatest comedic mind of my childhood”, as Reese Witherspoon planned to revisit the late star’s cult hit Stir Crazy, adding: “What a special talent and inspiration #RIPGeneWilder”. In 1961 he became a member of the Actors Studio in NY, studying with Lee Strasberg. Wilder has given impeccable performances in the classics ‘Blazing Saddles’ and ‘The Producers’. Later on, he got a chance to perform on the silver screen for a brief role as a kidnapped undertaker in Bonnie and Clyde (1967).
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He went on to write several screenplays and direct five films. He married “Saturday Night Live” headliner Gilda Radner in 1984 and they costarred in two of his films: “The Woman in Red” and “Haunted Honeymoon”. He sat with his wife of 25 years, Karen Boyer, and looked frail. The title of his 2005 memoir, “Kiss Me Like a Stranger”, came from his then-late third wife, Gilda Radner, whom he met while filming 1982’s “Hanky Panky”.
