46 Facts About Gene Wilder

Jerome Silberman, known professionally as Gene Wilder, was an American actor, comedian, writer and filmmaker.

Gene Wilder collaborated with Mel Brooks on the films The Producers, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, as well as with Richard Pryor in the films Silver Streak, Stir Crazy, See No Evil, Hear No Evil and Another You.

Gene Wilder directed and wrote several of his own films, including The Woman in Red.

Gene Wilder's father was a Russian-Jewish immigrant, as were his maternal grandparents.

Gene Wilder asked her teacher if he could become his student, and the teacher said that if he was still interested at age 13, he would take Wilder on as a student.

The day after Gene Wilder turned 13, he called the teacher, who accepted him; Gene Wilder studied with him for two years.

Gene Wilder performed for the first time in front of a paying audience at age 15, as Balthasar in a production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

Gene Wilder graduated from Washington High School in Milwaukee in 1951.

Gene Wilder was raised Jewish, but he held only the Golden Rule as his philosophy.

Gene Wilder studied Communication and Theatre Arts at the University of Iowa, where he was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.

Gene Wilder was drafted into the Army on September 10,1956.

Gene Wilder was then given the opportunity to choose any post that was open, and wanting to stay near New York City to attend acting classes at the HB Studio, he chose to serve as paramedic in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at Valley Forge Army Hospital, in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.

Gene Wilder was discharged from the army a year later and returned to New York.

Several months later, Gene Wilder was accepted into the Actors Studio.

Gene Wilder chose "Wilder" because it reminded him of Our Town author Thornton Wilder, while "Gene" came from the character Eugene Gant in Thomas Wolfe's first novel, Look Homeward, Angel.

Gene Wilder liked "Gene" because as a boy, he was impressed by a distant relative, a World War II bomber navigator who was "handsome and looked great in his leather flight jacket".

Gene Wilder later said that he could not see Gene Wilder playing Macbeth, either.

In 1963, Gene Wilder was cast in a leading role in Mother Courage and Her Children, a production starring Anne Bancroft, who introduced Gene Wilder to her boyfriend Mel Brooks.

Mostel approved, and Gene Wilder was cast for his first leading role in a feature film, 1967's The Producers.

The Producers eventually became a cult comedy classic, with Mel Brooks winning an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and Gene Wilder being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

In 1969, Gene Wilder relocated to Paris, accepting a leading role in Bud Yorkin's Start the Revolution Without Me, a comedy that took place during the French Revolution.

In 1971, Gene Wilder auditioned to play Willy Wonka in Mel Stuart's film adaptation of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

When filming was about to begin in London, Gene Wilder received an urgent call from Brooks, who was filming Blazing Saddles, offering Gene Wilder the role of the "Waco Kid" after Dan Dailey dropped out at the last minute, while Gig Young became too ill to continue.

Gene Wilder shot his scenes for Blazing Saddles and immediately afterwards filmed The Little Prince.

Marty Feldman and Madeline Kahn agreed to participate in the project, and Gene Wilder began writing what became his directorial debut, 1975's The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother.

In 1975, Gene Wilder's agent sent him a script for a film called Super Chief.

Gene Wilder accepted, but told the film's producers that he thought the only person who could keep the film from being offensive was Richard Pryor.

Gene Wilder wrote, produced, and directed The World's Greatest Lover, which premiered in 1977, but was a critical failure.

For some reason when you pair him [Pryor] with Gene Wilder, they make a particular kind of magic together.

In 1980 Gene Wilder teamed up again with Richard Pryor in Stir Crazy, directed by Sidney Poitier.

Gene Wilder's remaining work consisted of television movies and guest appearances in TV shows.

Gene Wilder was inducted into the Wisconsin Performing Arts Hall of Fame, at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts in Milwaukee, on April 9,1991.

In 1994, Gene Wilder starred in the NBC sitcom Something Gene Wilder.

Gene Wilder went back to the small screen in 1999, appearing in three television movies, one of which was the NBC adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.

Gene Wilder met his first wife, Mary Mercier, while studying at the HB Studio in New York.

Schutz and Gene Wilder separated after seven years of marriage, with Katharine suspecting that Gene Wilder was having an affair with his Young Frankenstein co-star, Madeline Kahn.

Gene Wilder met Saturday Night Live actress Gilda Radner on August 13,1981, while filming Sidney Poitier's Hanky Panky.

Gene Wilder moved in with Wilder, and the couple married on September 14,1984, in the south of France.

The disease finally went into remission, giving the couple a respite, during which time Gene Wilder filmed See No Evil, Hear No Evil.

In 1998, Gene Wilder collaborated on the book Gilda's Disease with oncologist Steven Piver, sharing personal experiences of Radner's struggle with ovarian cancer.

Gene Wilder himself was hospitalized with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 1999, but confirmed in March 2005 that the cancer was in complete remission following chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant.

Also in 2001, Gene Wilder donated a collection of scripts, correspondences, documents, photographs, and clipped images to the University of Iowa Libraries.

On March 1,2005, Gene Wilder released his highly personal memoir, Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art, an account of his life covering everything from his childhood up to Radner's death.

Gene Wilder died on August 29,2016, at the age of 83, at home in Stamford, Connecticut, from complications of Alzheimer's disease.

Gene Wilder had been diagnosed 3 years before his death but kept knowledge of his condition private.

Gene Wilder was included in the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences In Memoriam montage during the Oscars telecast.