Willy Wonka’s Charlie Says Gene Wilder’s Death Is Like “Losing a Paren”

Peter Ostrum, who played Charlie Bucket in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, mourned his late co-star Gene Wilder in an interview with Variety.

– US actor Gene Wilder, remembered by many for his lead role in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, has died at the age of 83, his family has confirmed, BBC News reports.

In a statement Wilder’s family said: “It is with indescribable sadness and blues, but with spiritual gratitude for the life lived that I announce the passing of husband, parents and universal artist Gene Wilder at his home in Stamford, Connecticut”. He told interviewer Robert Osborne in 2013, “I don’t think I’m that amusing”, and said, “I’ll make my wife laugh once or twice in the house, but [I’m] nothing special”. Brooks would call him “God’s ideal prey, the victim in all of us”.

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. They previously teamed up in Silver Streak, and “Stir Crazy” reunited the duo for another winning combination.

Corden finished his tribute by thanking the legendary star, adding: “Thank you so much for everything you gave us, Gene Wilder, you are loved and you are going to be so dearly, dearly missed”. In 1969, he was up for best supporting actor for his role in The Producers, a Mel Brooks comedy.

His and Brooks’s musical adaptation of YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN hit the stage in 2007.

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.

Wilder had a small role as the hostage of gangsters in the 1967 classic Bonnie and Clyde, a year before The Producers. Samuel L Jackson wrote: “Gene Wilder, always giving us the Most!”

Wilder married actress Gilda Radner in 1984; she died of ovarian cancer in 1989.

Wilder is survived by Karen Boyer, his wife of 25 years, and his nephew.