He said: “He was the pro and I was the rookie”.
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Brooks and Wilder’s friendship spanned decades and their collaborations produced classics like “Young Frankenstein”, “Blazing Saddles” and “The Producers”.
When Gene Wilder passed away at 83 on Monday, many of us wondered how his director/friend, Mel Brooks, was handling the loss of someone so special to him. His first notable role was Leo Bloom, a nervously anxious accountant pulled into a scam to produce a flop on Broadway, in 1967’s The Producers, where he would get his first Oscar nomination for his performance.
Watch Brooks’ tribute to Wilder below.
American actor Gene Wilder (L) performs alongside compatriot Rolf Saxon, October 2, during the rehearsal of a scene from Neil Simon’s “Laughter on the 23rd Floor”.
Brooks, who has been responsible for creating some of the greatest comedy movies and TV shows of the past century, stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday night.
The actor’s nephew, Jordan Walker-Pearlman, told the media outlet that Gene Wilder would still be recognized at restaurants by kids and parents even up until two years ago.
In the 1974 film Young Frankenstein, with Teir Garr and Marty Feldman.
Brooks recalls Wilder doubted the project would see the light of day.
“He was taking off his makeup in his dressing room, and I took the script and I said, ‘Gene, we got the money, we’re going to make the movie”.
Brooks had originally planned to appear on Fallon’s show to promote Young Frankenstein: A Mel Brooks Book: The Story of the Making of the Film, as well as a talk at Radio City Music Hall on September 2. “You’re going to get the money”.
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“I didn’t want to do the kind of junk I was seeing”, he said in an interview.
