But perhaps the most touching anecdote Brooks relayed was getting his new friend Gene to play Leo Bloom in a little play he was writing called “The Producers”. “I think I can be in the movies”. He won the Clarence Derwent Award, given to promising newcomers, for the Broadway work in Graham Greene’s comedy “The Complaisant Lover”.
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He met Brooks through Anne Bancroft, with whom he starred in the Brecht play “Mother Courage”.
Wilder was nominated for two Oscars: best supporting actor for “The Producers” and best adapted screenplay for “Young Frankenstein”. Dr. FRONK-en-steen, the in-denial grandson of the legendary monster-maker in Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein”.
Wilder’s response: “Oh yeah, you’re going to get the money”.
Ostrum never made another film, despite his happy experience working on “Willy Wonka”, but he often remembers Wilder and Jack Albertson, the man who played Charlie’s grandfather.
The former child star celebrated the film’s 45th anniversary earlier this year in Seneca Falls, telling syracuse.com he has no regrets about not pursuing an acting career after the movie.
Wonka’s grand entrance would go on to become one of the most iconic scenes from the 1971 film – and now we know we have Wilder, himself, to thank for it.
“He said, ‘I had an idea”.
We’ll leave you with his lovely rendition of “Pure Imagination” from 1971’s WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY.
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Want more stories like this? He is survived by fourth wife Karen Boyer Webb, whom he married in 1991. The Late Late Show host James Corden even uploaded a special video on how Wilder had “rejected” an opportunity to appear on the show. Also Gilda Radner and Wilder co-starred in “The Woman in Red”, not “The Lady in Red”.
