Gene Wilder

Known for ActingBorn 1933-06-11Died 2016-08-29Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

Gene Wilder (born Jerome Silberman; June 11, 1933 – August 29, 2016) was an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, singer-songwriter, and author. He began his career on stage, and made his screen debut in an episode of the TV series The Play of the Week in 1961. Although his first film role was portraying a hostage in the 1967 motion picture Bonnie and Clyde, Wilder's first major role was as Leopold Bloom in the 1967 film The Producers for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. This was the first in a series of collaborations with writer/director Mel Brooks, including 1974's Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, which Wilder co-wrote, garnering the pair an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. He is known for his iconic portrayal of Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) and for his four films with Richard Pryor: Silver Streak (1976), Stir Crazy (1980), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989), and Another You (1991), as well as starring in Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972). He directed and wrote several of his own films, including The Woman in Red (1984). With his third wife, Gilda Radner, he starred in three films, the last two of which he also directed. Her 1989 death from ovarian cancer led to his active involvement in promoting cancer awareness and treatment, helping found the Gilda Radner Ovarian Cancer Detection Center in Los Angeles and co-founding Gilda's Club. After his last acting performance in 2003 – a guest role on Will & Grace for which he received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor – he turned his attention to writing. He produced a memoir in 2005, Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art; a collection of stories, What Is This Thing Called Love? (2010); and the novels My French Whore (2007), The Woman Who Wouldn't (2008), and Something to Remember You By (2013).Read more

Movies & web series

Something Wilder

Making Frankensense of Young Frankenstein

Mel Brooks: Make a Noise

Blacks and Jews

The Making of 'The Producers'

Marty Feldman: Six Degrees of Separation

Richard Pryor: I Ain't Dead Yet, #*%$#@!!

Scarecrow

Young Frankenstein

Remembering Gene Wilder

Role Model: Gene Wilder

The Frank Skinner Show

Private Screenings: Robert Osborne

Love, Gilda

Late Night with Conan O'Brien

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic

Bonnie and Clyde

The Last Laugh

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

The Electric Company

Blazing Saddles

Will & Grace

The Producers

Acts of Love and Other Comedies

Pure Imagination: The Story of 'Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'

EXPO: Magic of the White City

See No Evil, Hear No Evil

The Little Prince

The DuPont Show of the Week

Mel Brooks: Unwrapped

CBS News Sunday Morning

Hello Actors Studio

After They Were Famous

Back in the Saddle

Silver Streak

Stir Crazy

Thursday's Game

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex *But Were Afraid to Ask

Alice in Wonderland

Frankenstein: A Cinematic Scrapbook

The Woman in Red

Murder in a Small Town

Death of a Salesman

The Lady in Question

The Frisco Kid

The Defenders

Please Turn the Page