Iconic Comic Actor Gene Wilder Dies at Age 83

The sad news for fans of film comedy spread like wildfire earlier this week. Here’s the opening paragraph facts from the New York Times:

Gene Wilder, who established himself as one of America’s foremost comic actors with his delightfully neurotic performances in three films directed by Mel Brooks; his eccentric star turn in the family classic “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”; and his winning chemistry with Richard Pryor in the box-office smash “Stir Crazy,” died early Monday morning at his home in Stamford, Conn. He was 83.

A nephew, the filmmaker Jordan Walker-Pearlman, confirmed his death in a statement, saying the cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease.

Mr. Wilder’s rule for comedy was simple: Don’t try to make it funny; try to make it real. “I’m an actor, not a clown,” he said more than once.

And what an actor. That’s from the first few lines of the obituary. We movie geeks mourn with the rest of the globe, but we’d also like to celebrate the beloved star by taking a look back at his nearly 50 year screen career.  In 1967, after much work on the stage and in television, Mr. Wilder made his film debut in a brief  comedy sequence as part of  a movie “game-changer” from director Arthur Penn, BONNIE AND CLYDE.

His role was that of a frantic new husband that the Barrow gang takes a “liking to”, until he reveals his occupation. Later that year, Wilder would begin the first of several great screen partnerships (he was a terrific team player) when he co-starred with Zero Mostel in the Oscar-winning (Best Original Screenplay) comedy classic, the Mel Brooks farce THE PRODUCERS.

As the initially timid, prone to bouts of exasperated panic Leo Bloom, Wilder created a screen persona that he’d use for the rest of his celebrated screen characters. But it would be several years before he joined forces with Brooks. In the meantime, Wilder added many more memorable roles to his resume’. 1970 saw him in two little-seen gems. He was an Irishman romancing Margot Kidder in QUACKSER FORTUNE HAS A COUSIN IN THE BRONX, then  he was part of two sets of identical twins (Donald Sutherland, the other set) in the swashbuckling, Paris set parody START THE REVOLUTION WITHOUT ME from director Bud Yorkin (right before he began TV’s “All in the Family”).

The next year Wilder played the title character in a film that barely made a ripple at the box office, but thanks to repeated holiday airings on TV (much like THE WIZARD OF OZ) and home video sales, has become a cherished, mush-adored movie treasure, Mel Stuart’s WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (see the photo above). Perhaps 1971 audiences just weren’t ready for the sophisticated satire or the dark humor as the loopy “candy-man”, with the aid of his “Oompa-Loompa” minions dealt karmic justice to several bombastic brats. Wilder showed off his musical chops as he sang a wistful Bricusse/ Newley song that became an anthem for dreamers everywhere.

Talk about shifting gears! Wilder followed up Wonka in ’72 by teaming up with that other famous comedy writer/director Woody Allen for his anthology EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX * BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK.  In one outrageous segment, Wilder played a prominent, married doctor who begins a passionate affair… with a sheep! Then came perhaps Gene’s greatest year of cinematic triumphs. At the start of 1974 he re-teamed with Mostel in the film adaptation of the famed Eugene Ionesco play RHINOCEROS. Then came a reunion with Brooks when Wilder stepped in for an ailing actor, at almost the last minute, and played boozy but redeemed hero the Waco Kid (AKA Jim) in the box office smash BLAZING SADDLES.

During filming, Wilder told Brooks that he was toying with an idea of a comedy based on the most famous gothic horror novel of all time. After much cajoling, the two would work on a script. Following the release of the musical fantasy THE LITTLE PRINCE with Wilder as the Fox, audiences would get to see that collaboration, maybe the greatest monster movie parody of all time, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. It was a loving tribute, shot in shimmering black and white, of the iconic James Whale Universal films of the 1930’s. Wilder was Frederick Frankenstein (so embarrassed by his infamous legacy that he insists that it’s pronounced”Frawnk-enstein”), the grandson of the original mad scientist Victor, who inherits the ancestral family castle in Transylvania and finally decides to “take up the family business”.  With an all-star cast (a true movie-lovers’ “dream team”), the flick is pure, giddy comedy nirvana.

Here’s one of many memorable moments:

But this would be the final pairing with Brooks. The following year, Wilder would begin his long screen directing career by pulling triple duty (directing, writing, and starring) in THE ADVENTURE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES’ SMARTER BROTHER, re-teaming with his YF co-stars Madeline Kahn and Marty Feldman. 1976 saw the start of another screen partnership as Wilder displayed great screen chemistry with stand-up comedy superstar Richard Pryor in Arthur Hiller’s Hitchcock homage, the comedy/romantic/thriller SILVER STREAK.

Audiences responded to the team-up, and demanded more flicks featuring the off-beat, likable duo. They’d have to wait four long years for the Sidney Poitier directed prison farce STIR CRAZY. Nearly ten years later, the two would reunite for Hiller in SEE NO EVIL, HEAR NO EVIL. The final Wilder/Pryor comedy (and Wilder’s final feature film) would be 1991’s ANOTHER YOU.  After STREAK, there was another self-written and directed romantic farce set in the 1920’s, THE WORLD’S GREATEST LOVER, with Wilder attempting to rival silent screen heart-throb Rudolph Valentino while trying to save his marriage to Carol Kane. And then Wilder saddled up for another Western as a Polish rabbi riding alongside Harrison Ford in Robert Aldrich’s THE FRISCO KID. Two years after STIR, Wilder began his final screen partnership when he was paired with TV’s “Saturday Night Live” star Gilda Radner in Poitier’s own Hitchcock-influenced comedy-romance HANKY PANKY.

This lead to a marriage and two more films, THE WOMAN IN RED and HAUNTED HONEYMOON. Between the last two Pryor flicks, Wider played a cartoonist (?!) for director Leonard Nimoy in FUNNY ABOUT LOVE.

So we raise a glass, or a box of popcorn, to frizzy-haired funnyman Gene Wilder. Thinking of you will forever put a smile on our faces. Thanks for the bounty of belly-laughs! Now where’d I put my blue blanket??!!