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Gene Wilder

Gene Wilder

Birthday: 1933-06-11 | Place of Birth: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

Gene Wilder (born Jerome Silberman; June 11, 1933 – August 29, 2016) was an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, singer-songwriter and author. Wilder 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. Wilder 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). Wilder 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 – Wilder 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). Description above from the Wikipedia article Gene Wilder, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

2005
EXPO: Magic of the White City

as    Narrator (voice)

1999
Alice in Wonderland

as    Mock Turtle

1994
Something Wilder

as    Gene Bergman

1991
Another You

as    George / Abe Fielding

1990
Funny About Love

as    Duffy Bergman

1989
See No Evil, Hear No Evil

as    Dave Lyons

1986
Haunted Honeymoon

as    Larry Abbot

1984
The Woman in Red

as    Theodore Pierce

1982
Hanky Panky

as    Michael Jordon

1981
Sunday Lovers

as    Skippy (sketch 'Skippy')

1980
Stir Crazy

as    Skip Donahue

1979
The Frisco Kid

as    Avram

1977
The World's Greatest Lover

as    Rudy Valentine / Rudy Hickman

1976
Silver Streak

as    George Caldwell

1975
1974
Young Frankenstein

as    Frederick Frankenstein

1974
Blazing Saddles

as    Jim

1974
Rhinoceros

as    Stanley

1974
The Little Prince

as    The Fox

1971
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

as    Willy Wonka

1970
Start the Revolution Without Me

as    Claude / Philippe

1970
Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx

as    Quackser Fortune

1967
Bonnie and Clyde

as    Eugene Grizzard