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RIP - Gene Wilder

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by DFWRocket, Aug 29, 2016.

  1. DFWRocket

    DFWRocket Member

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    Rest In Peace Gene - now you'll be with Gilda again

    http://variety.com/2016/film/news/gene-wilder-dead-dies-willie-wonka-young-frankenstein-1201846745/


    Gene Wilder, who regularly stole the show in such comedic gems as “The Producers,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Young Frankenstein,” “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” and “Stir Crazy,” died Monday at his home in Stamford, Conn. His nephew Jordan Walker-Pearlman said he died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 83.

    He had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1989.


    The comic actor, who was twice Oscar nominated, for his role in “The Producers” and for co-penning “Young Frankenstein” with Mel Brooks, usually portrayed a neurotic who veered between total hysteria and dewy-eyed tenderness. “My quiet exterior used to be a mask for hysteria,” he told Time magazine in 1970. “After seven years of analysis, it just became a habit.”


    Habit or not, he got a great deal of mileage out of his persona in the 1970s for directors like Mel Brooks and Woody Allen, leading to a few less successful stints behind the camera, the best of which was “The Woman in Red,” co-starring then-wife Gilda Radner. Wilder was devastated by Radner’s death from ovarian cancer in 1989 and worked only intermittently after that. He tried his hand briefly at a sitcom in 1994, “Something Wilder,” and won an Emmy in 2003 for a guest role on “Will & Grace.”

    His professional debut came in Off Broadway’s “Roots” in 1961, followed by a stint on Broadway in Graham Greene’s comedy “The Complaisant Lover,” which won him a Clarence Derwent Award as promising newcomer. His performance in the 1963 production of Brecht’s “Mother Courage” was seen by Mel Brooks, whose future wife, Anne Bancroft, was starring in the production; a friendship with Brooks would lead to some of Wilder’s most successful film work. For the time being, however, Wilder continued to work onstage, in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in 1963 and “Dynamite Tonight” and “The White House” the following year. He then understudied Alan Arkin and Gabriel Dell in “Luv,” eventually taking over the role.

    Wilder also worked in television in 1962’s “The Sound of Hunting,” “The Interrogators,” “Windfall” and in the 1966 TV production of “Death of a Salesman” with Lee J. Cobb. He later starred in TV movies including “Thursday’s Game” and the comedy-variety special “Annie and the Hoods,” both in 1974.

    In 1967 Wilder essayed his first memorable bigscreen neurotic, Eugene Grizzard, a kidnapped undertaker in Arthur Penn’s classic “Bonnie and Clyde.”

    Then came “The Producers,” in which he played the hysterical Leo Bloom, an accountant lured into a money bilking scheme by a theatrical producer played by Zero Mostel. Directed and written by Brooks, the film brought Wilder an Oscar nomination as best supporting actor. With that, his film career was born.

    He next starred in a dual role with Donald Sutherland in “Start the Revolution Without Me,” in which he displayed his fencing abilities. It was followed by another middling comedy, “Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx,” also in 1970.

    In 1971 he stepped into the shoes of Willie Wonka, one of his most beloved and gentle characters. Based on the children’s book by Roald Dahl, “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” was not an immediate hit but became a children’s favorite over the years. The same cannot be said for the 1974 Stanley Donen-directed musical version of “The Little Prince,” in which Wilder appeared as the fox. He had somewhat better luck in Woody Allen’s spoof “Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex,” appearing in a hilarious segment in which he played a doctor who falls in love with a sheep named Daisy.

    Full-fledged film stardom came with two other Brooks comedies, both in 1974: Western spoof “Blazing Saddles” and a wacko adaptation of Mary Shelley’s famous book entitled “Young Frankenstein,” in which Wilder portrayed the mad scientist with his signature mixture of hysteria and sweetness.

    Working with Brooks spurred Wilder to write and direct his own comedies, though none reached the heights of his collaborations with Brooks. The first of these was “The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Younger Brother” (1975), in which he included such Brooks regulars as Madeline Kahn and Marty Feldman. It was followed by 1977’s “The World’s Greatest Lover,” which he also produced.

    Wilder fared better, however, when he was working solely in front of the camera, particularly in a number of films in which he co-starred with Richard Pryor.

    The first of these was 1978’s “Silver Streak,” a spoof of film thrillers set on trains; 1980’s “Stir Crazy” was an even bigger hit, grossing more than $100 million. Wilder and Pryor’s two other pairings, “See No Evil, Hear No Evil” and “Another You,” provided diminishing returns, however.

    While filming “Hanky Panky” in 1982, Wilder met “Saturday Night Live” comedienne Radner. She became his third wife shortly thereafter. Wilder and Radner co-starred in his most successful directing stint, “The Woman in Red” in 1984, and then “Haunted Honeymoon.” But Radner grew ill with cancer, and he devoted himself to her care, working sporadically after that and hardly at all after her death in 1989.

    In the early ’90s he appeared in his last film with Pryor and another comedy, “Funny About Love.” In addition to the failed TV series “Something Wilder” in 1994, he wrote and starred in the A&E mystery telepics “The Lady in Question” and “Murder in a Small Town” in 1999. He also appeared as the Mock Turtle in a 1999 NBC adaptation of “Alice in Wonderland.”

    He last acted in a couple of episodes of “Will and Grace” in 2002-03 as Mr. Stein, winning an Emmy.

    He was born Jerome Silberman in Milwaukee and began studying acting at the age of 12. After getting his B.A. from the U. of Iowa in 1955, Wilder enrolled in the Old Vic Theater school in Bristol, where he learned acting technique and fencing. When he returned to the U.S. he taught fencing and did other odd jobs while studying with Herbert Berghof’s HB Studio and at the Actors Studio under Lee Strasberg.

    Wilder’s memoir “Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art” was published in 2005. After that he wrote fiction: the 2007 novel “My French w****”; 2008’s “The Woman Who Wouldn’t”; a collection of stories, “What Is This Thing Called Love?,” in 2010; and the novella “Something to Remember You By: A Perilous Romance” in 2013.

    Wilder was interviewed by Alec Baldwin for the one-hour TCM documentary “Role Model: Gene Wilder” in 2008. The actor was active in raising cancer awareness in the wake of Radner’s death.

    Before Radner, Wilder was married to the actress-playwright Mary Mercier and Mary Joan Schutz (aka Jo Ayers). He is survived by his fourth wife Karen Boyer, whom he married in 1991, and his nephew.
     
  2. donkeypunch

    donkeypunch Contributing Member

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    Dang.... Rest In Power....
     
  3. DFWRocket

    DFWRocket Member

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    NSFW - language

    <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vxrrbpSN0lY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
     
  4. Pole

    Pole Houston Rockets--Tilman Fertitta's latest mess.

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  5. ItsMyFault

    ItsMyFault Contributing Member

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    Another legend gone. RIP
     
  6. what

    what Member

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    Only one man could play opposite the greatest comedian of all time and that was gene wilder.
     
  7. leroy

    leroy Contributing Member

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    One of the best comedic actors of all time. It's a shame he hadn't been working much over the past couple of decades. The world could've used more of his humor and creativity.
     
  8. Surfguy

    Surfguy Contributing Member

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    It's kind of weird that...about a month ago or so...I actually was doing internet searches on him because I wasn't sure if he had died or not. I just wanted to see what he was up to. Turns out he was just taking it easy and out of the showbiz spotlight. He didn't completely rule out doing a project in the future from older interviews. But, I guess nothing ever materialized that was offered to him that he wanted to do. It's obviously been that way for many years.

    My favorite films of his are "Willy Wonka.." and "Stir Crazy" but my all time fave is "The Frisco Kid". And, the latter is my favorite Harrison Ford film as well.
     
  9. edwardc

    edwardc Member

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    Great comedian may he R.I.P
     
  10. CCity Zero

    CCity Zero Member

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    Wow! I was reading up on him over the weekend/last weekend, We were talking about Pryor so I ended up reading about Wilder too (to see if anything new and as a refresher on their works). Probably need to pull out the movies/stream. RIP
     
  11. Dave2000

    Dave2000 Contributing Member

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    RIP

    outside of Willy Wonka, See No Evil, Hear No Evil is a classic to me, was my first R movie I watched, and Houston native Joan Severance was smoking......
     
  12. JayZ750

    JayZ750 Contributing Member

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    Love all his stuff.
    RIP
     
  13. heypartner

    heypartner Contributing Member

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    Comedy Icon

    One of the best straight-men ever, among his other talents. Or should we call it "Best stressed out man" ever. Silver Streak was huge in my hometown, because that's our school mascot -- the train.
     
  14. Rashmon

    Rashmon Contributing Member

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    [​IMG]

    Sad to hear this news.
     
  15. Nero

    Nero Member

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    He will live forever in my heart as Dr. Frederick FRONk-en-steen.

    Such a genius. The man was a master class in comedic timing in everything he did.
     
  16. PhiSlammaJamma

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    Love Willy Wonka!
     
  17. Dgn1

    Dgn1 Member

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    Dammit another one
     
  18. dandorotik

    dandorotik Contributing Member

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  19. ROXTXIA

    ROXTXIA Contributing Member

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    He had an impeccable sense of timing that was just hilarious.

    Madeline Kahn explaining a situation, all distressed, half teary-eyed; as Sherlock Holmes' younger brother, Wilder listening all sharp-eyed and interrupting time and again with, "LIAR!" Which would throw her all off as she struggled to tell the story she'd concocted.

    "No matter what you hear.....no matter how much I scream.....do....NOT....open that door." (once inside, tiptoeing; inadvertently makes noise, waking The Creature who jumps up and snarls at him: "AAAAARRRRRGH!"; Frederick FRAHNkensteen at the door now, at first calm:) "Open the door. Open it up. Open it." (looks over shoulder; Creature has stood and shed manacles) "Open the door. Ha ha! Don't you know when someone's telling a joke? OH MO-MMY! HELP!"

    "Stir Crazy" (having been put in the oven at prison so the warden can break him; when they open the door---): "Just one more day. Please. I was just starting to get into myself. Be a pal."
     
  20. davidio840

    davidio840 Contributing Member

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    Damn..

    RIP Gene. Really funny fella
     

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