Gene Wilder

Biography

Born in Milwaukee, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Wilder studied drama at the University of Iowa, where he was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity, graduated in 1955, and later attended the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the UK. He served in the United States Army from 1956 to 1958.

Returning to the United States, Wilder sought work in the theater, supporting himself by driving a limousine and teaching fencing. His career started with the theater in various off-Broadway shows before making it on the Great White Way. It was on Broadway that he had a particularly good year in 1961 with the plays "The Complaisant Lover" and "Roots", and received the Clarence Derwent Award. It was several years later when casting for Mother Courage and Her Children in 1964 with actress Anne Bancroft when his career received an even greater boost; comedian Mel Brooks, whom Bancroft was dating at the time, took a liking to Wilder and cast him in several films.

Wilder's first big part was in Bonnie and Clyde where he played an undertaker abducted by the couple. Perhaps two of his best known roles are as Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and as Leo Bloom in The Producers.

In the late 1970s and 1980s he appeared in a number of movies with Richard Pryor, making them the most prolific inter-racial comedy double act in movies during the period. However, Wilder later admitted the two were not as close as people believed. In fact, in his autobiography Wilder said many negative things about Pryor. He said that his troubled co-star's drug addiction made him very difficult and unpleasant to work with. However, he also said that when Pryor was not high, he was fun and pleasant to be around. He also maintains that he felt he had a better chemistry with Pryor as a co-star than with anyone else he has worked with.

In 1979 Wilder starred alongside Harrison Ford in the comedy The Frisco Kid. He also wrote and starred in Murder in a Small Town and its sequel, The Lady in Question as a theater producer turned amateur detective Larry "Cash Carter"

Wilder was married to Saturday Night Live actress Gilda Radner from 1984 until her death from ovarian cancer in 1989. Since then he has remained active in promoting cancer awareness and treatment. Wilder himself was hospitalized with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1999 and made a full recovery in 2000.

Wilder has been married to speech therapist Karen Boyer since 1991.

On March 1, 2005, Wilder released his highly-personal memoir Kiss Me Like A Stranger, an account of his life covering everything from his childhood, when his mother died of heart disease, up through Radner's death.

Controversy with Tim Burton

Gene Wilder is probably best known for his role as Willy Wonka in 1971's Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Prior to the release of Tim Burton's 2005 new movie adaptation of the book (entitled Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Wilder said the new adaptation was "all about money" (though the original version had been produced by the Quaker Oats Company in hopes of selling its new line of Wonka bar chocolates) and that there was no need to make a new movie adaptation of the book. Wilder has noted that, if the new adaptation "has to be done," Johnny Depp is a perfect choice to reprise the role of Willy Wonka. Tim Burton has said he felt that the 1971 version was sappy and that he "rate[s] Chitty Chitty Bang Bang higher."

Filmography

Upcoming:

Stage appearances

Trivia

Additionally, Pryor served as a co-writer (and was originally set to star) in Blazing Saddles with Wilder.