Comedy legend Gene Wilder passed away yesterday at age 83 due to complications from Alzheimer's, a condition he kept from his legions of fans(including many small children) that he did not wish to upset. Gene stayed curiously out of the spotlight in his senior years. If you're under the age of 30, you probably only know him for the pristine image pictured here. His Willy Wonka is immortalized as the centerpiece of one of the great live-action family films(and there was nothing Tim Burton and Johnny Depp could do about it), but there's more to the man than that kooky candy-maker. He was Mel Brooks' muse, and was one half of Hollywood's
first interracial tag team with Richard Pryor. The mismatched pair paved the way for so many other dissimilar duos that it became easy to forget where it all began. It's about time you found out.
Wilder was born Jerome Silberman to working-class parents in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A 13 year old Gene, enthralled by his sister's stage acting, made the fateful decision to follow in her footsteps when he sought the guidance of her drama teacher. As a teenager he became increasingly involved in his local theater community, performing for the first time in a production of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", before graduating from high school in 1951. After college and a three-year stint in the Army, he moved to New York and resumed his showbiz aspirations. A name change and acceptance into Lee Strasburg's legendary Actors Studio(where Charles Grodin was a classmate) made him a fixture on the off-Broadway scene. A 30 year old Wilder met Mel Brooks in 1963. The popular playwright had multiple projects in mind, and promised to enlist Gene for a future collaboration. His big break into movies occurred as a hapless hostage in 1967's "Bonnie and Clyde", Arthur Penn's game-changing crime drama that launched the careers of Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. Brooks finally came calling for "The Producers", a cult comedy that scored Wilder a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination in 1968.
"Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" needs no introduction in 2016, but this Roald Dahl delight didn't make as much dough as you think in 1971. It took the cable/VHS era to get every kid in the country into that factory filled with Oompa Loompas a full decade later. Success would be much more immediate in the case of "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein". The reputation of Mel Brooks rests almost entirely with his two 1974 triumphs, and Gene is a big reason for that. Wilder suggested that edgy stand-up sensation Richard Pryor should be his costar in 1976's "Silver Streak". The bathroom scene alone ensured that this wouldn't be a one-time meeting of cinema's most contrasting comedians. Four years later, "Stir Crazy"(directed by Sidney Poitier) put the odd couple in the clink and was an even bigger hit.
Wilder's popularity had him working steadily in studio comedies with considerable creative control throughout the 1980s- "Hanky Panky", "The Woman in Red", "Haunted Honeymoon", "See No Evil, Hear No Evil". But Leonard Nimoy's "Funny About Love" and "Another You"(his fourth and final outing with Pryor) both bombed in the early '90s. An NBC sitcom titled "Something Wilder" lasted only one season in 1994-95. Perhaps realizing that age was an issue and that his style of comedy had passed it's expiration date, Gene was rarely seen onscreen for the last twenty-plus years. He came out of semi-retirement in 2003 for two episodes of TV's "Will & Grace"(for which he won an Emmy), but was otherwise content with the legacy of laughs he left behind. Thanks for the Golden Ticket, Gene. Complete filmography(22 films in total, the highly successful ones are darkened)
"Bonnie and Clyde"(1967)
"The Producers"(1968)
"Start the Revolution Without Me"(1970)
"Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx"(1970)
"Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory"(1971)
"Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex*(But Were Afraid To Ask"(1972)
"Rhinoceros"(1974)
"Blazing Saddles"(1974)
"The Little Prince"(1975)
"Young Frankenstein"(1974)
"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother"(1975)
"Silver Streak"(1976)
"The World's Greatest Lover"(1977)
"The Frisco Kid"(1979)
"Sunday Lovers"(1980)
"Stir Crazy"(1980)
"Hanky Panky"(1982)
"The Woman in Red"(1984)
"Haunted Honeymoon"(1986)
"See No Evil, Hear No Evil"(1989)
"Funny About Love"(1990)
"Another You"(1991)
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