RIP Gene Wilder (1933 - 2016)
Monday, August 29, 2016 at 7:28PM Comedy legend Gene Wilder has passed away, after complications with Alzheimer's disease. He served as Mel Brooks's leading player, producing such classics as Blazing Saddles, The Producers and Young Frankenstein. After those films, he also frequently starred opposite Richard Pryor. But to many he will always be remembered for the hilarious sly cruelty of his Willy Wonka, a performance that seen from a childhood gaze is awe-inspiring and warm only to become more delectably rotten in adulthood.
After the passing of his wife Gilda Radner (Wilder also had his own battle with cancer), he mostly stepped out of the spotlight, leaving those mentioned behemoths to speak for his legacy. For me, his Frederic Frankensteen is the one that sticks - all barking neuroses and feigned composure while lampooning the heightened acting styles of Universal horror classics. The performance is so physical and modulated to extremes that his comedy becomes like a set piece, a spectacle worth coming back to again and again.
What are your favorite Gene Wilder memories?
Reader Comments (24)
THE PRODUCERS....COMIC GENIUS...
His comedy was so singular and wonderful. It's rare to have such classics that will continue to infect many generations to come. Not only will Willy Wonka remain the watermark for children's classics, but his Mel Brooks films will remain indelible comic masterpieces. Wilder had such a great range for comedy, both in slinging one liners and in physical comedy. He will be missed.
I had no idea he was 83. I loved him as a kid in Young Frankenstein, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, and Silver Streak. Very funny and seemed like a genuinely nice guy. RIP.
I loved Wilder and Donald Sutherland in Start The Revolution Without Me, where they played two sets of twins mismatched at birth (like Lily Tomlin and Bette Midler in Big Business). I remember it as hilarious, and Wilder and Sutherland perfectly matched.
He was everything and his Wonka is such a formative performance for me. RIP.
Willy Wonka, Young Frankenstein AND The Producers - his legacy is secure, and he will be missed.
Young Frankenstein has got to be one of the best comedy classics of all time. RIP.
The Producers
Young Frankenstein
Blazing Saddles
Bonnie And Clyde (a very small role, but... he nailed it!)
I fear I've never seen Willy Wonka. Must give it a go.
Willy Wonka is the first thing that always comes to mind when I see him but I loved him in Silver Streak, which even though it was a big hit is a seriously under appreciated movie. It takes something that shouldn't be that funny and because of the players turns it into a side splitting farce.
Well, Willy Wonka obviously as well as Fronkensteen and Waco Kid as they're essential to the world of cinema. I also like his work with Richard Pryor and Gilda Radner. One film I mentioned at a forum that is one of my all-time favorite moments of Wilder is in Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) where he is a doctor that falls in love with a sheep. It is easily one of the funniest things ever created and makes you wonder if bestiality is really wrong. Goddamn, of all of the things Woody Allen has written. That was the funniest thing he's done and Wilder made it even funnier.
"And what is the reward for this treachery?"
"Half of France"
"I see. And for my brother?"
Start The Revolution Without Me
RIP Mr. Wilder.
Shoulda gotten an Oscar nomination for Young Frankenstein. And Wonka, too. He is one of my idols - an absolutely brilliant comedian who was just as funny doing nothing as when he was talking; a truly consummate performer. I saw him years back, around town in CT, and while the age showed he still had that twinkle in his eye. I kinda loved that no one went up to him, he looked as though he was enjoying just being out and about like a non-famous person.
RIP, you genius.
He probably was the funniest actor of the late 60s and early to mid-70s. He seemed to have lost his touch somewhat once the 80s arrived, but in his prime, he was simply glorious. In my universe, he's an Oscar winner for 'Young Frankenstein'.
And has nobody mentioned 'Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)' yet? Okay, so I'm going to do it now: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask).
My husband and I watched Spy on Friday evening, then sat and debated our favourite funny films. We both landed on See No Evil, Hear No Evil, so we streamed it, and it's sill as funny as it ever was. A film that would never be made in today's PC world. Then 2 days later, Gene Wilder died. A legend. RIP.
i just rewatched young frankenstein last week and afterwards wondered if gene wilder was still alive; a quick google reassured me he was. damn
"I'm in pain and I'm wet and I'm still hysterical!"
Willy Wonka and the barely controlled lunacy in Young Frankenstein.
An amazing little Ionesco stage adaptation of Rhinoceros that he did with Zero Mostel. Rhinoceros is a curiously absurd political farce, worth checking out if you haven't! Wilder was so great - one of my favorite actors, what a great voice!
He's just perfect in everything he was a part of. A gifted but never overly-showy comedian. I love that he knew just when to exit before he was compartmentalized by Hollywood into a specific type of role. Now get Ryan Gosling on that bio-pic. Who would play Gilda I wonder...
R.I.P. Gene Wilder. A very warm and loveable actor. I'll always have a soft spot for him in Silver Streak. And I recall seeing him on a chat show many years ago, but a few years after Gilda Radner's death, and his eyes filled with tears as he talked about her. He had clearly loved her so much.
Gene Wilder was just a brilliant comic actor. I've watched him countless times in Young Frankenstein and in Willy Wonka and he's always just enthralling and funny and wonderful. He will be missed.
"Young Frankenstein"
Of all of the attempts at describing Wilder's charm, this one is the most on the nose. Heart.
No one seems to remember his Emmy-winning work on "Will & Grace" as Will's neurotic and absent-minded boss. He took on the role after Gregory Hines's death. Wilder was amazing in that role. I've seen very little of his work, which I'll try to rectify, but I vividly remembered this work and enjoyed it very much. RIP.