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The following biography
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Wikipedia.org
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Free Encyclopedia.”
Gene Wilder, birth name Jerome Silberman,
(born June 11, 1933) is an American actor who has starred in more than
thirty movies.
He is best known as the title character
from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and is also known for his
collaborations with writer, producer, and director Mel Brooks. He also
collaborated on many projects with comedian Richard Pryor. Gene Wilder
made many movies with Brooks starting with The Producers in 1968,
playing the role of accountant Leopold “Leo” Bloom, for which he was
nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actor. He was also
nominated for an Academy Award for co-writing Young Frankenstein with
Brooks. (Years later, he would spoof himself while guest-starring on
Will & Grace as a character named "Frank Stein.")
****
Birth name: Jerome Silberman
Date of birth: June 11, 1933
Birth location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Height: 5'10½"
Notable role(s): Leo Bloom in The Producers
Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate
Factory
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein in Young
Frankenstein
Jim (The Waco Kid) in Blazing Saddles
****
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 prestigious 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 the best 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
pathologist 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 his wife'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 [citation needed]."
Filmography
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 (1974)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter
Brother (1975) (also director)
Silver Streak (1976)
The World's Greatest Lover (1977) (also
producer, director, and writer)
The Frisco Kid (1979)
Sunday Lovers (1980) (also director and
writer)
Stir Crazy (1980)
Hanky Panky (1982)
The Woman in Red (1984) (also director and
writer)
Haunted Honeymoon (1986) (also director and
writer)
See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) (also
writer)
Funny About Love (1990)
Another You (1991)
Alice in Wonderland (1999) (the mockturtle)
Upcoming:
Instant Karma (2006) (cancelled)
Stage appearances
The Complaisant Lover (Broadway, 1962)
Mother Courage and Her Children (Broadway,
1963)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Broadway,
1963)
The White House (Broadway, 1964)
Luv (Broadway, 1966)
Laughter on the 23rd Floor (London, 1996)
Trivia
Wilder was the voice of "Letterman" on the
children's educational television series The Electric Company from 1972
to 1977.
Wilder played congas on "Life During
Wartime" and "I Zimbra", two tracks from the 1979 album Fear of Music by
Talking Heads.
While on Will & Grace, Wilder's character
at one point said, "Strike that, reverse it" which was a line from when
he was Willy Wonka.
Was the voice in a 1960s Alka-Seltzer
commercial.
****
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URL of Original Article:
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Date Article Copied:
October 2006
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