Gene Wilder (born
Jerome Silberman; June 11, 1933) is an American
stage and
screen actor,
director,
screenwriter, and author.
Wilder began his career on stage, making his screen debut in the film
Bonnie and Clyde in 1967. His first major role was as
Leo Bloom in the 1968 film
The Producers. This was the first in a series of prolific collaborations with writer/director
Mel Brooks, including 1974's
Young Frankenstein, the script of which garnered the pair an
Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. Wilder is known for his 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). Wilder has directed and written several of his films, including
The Woman in Red (1984).
His marriage to actress
Gilda Radner, who died 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.
In more recent years, Wilder turned his attention to writing, producing a
memoir in 2005,
Kiss Me Like A Stranger: My Search for Love and Art, and the novels
My French Whore (2007) and
The Woman Who Wouldn't (2008).
Early life and education
Wilder, born in
Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, and his sister Corinne (b. 1927) were the children of Chicago-born Jeanne (
née Baer) and William J. Silberman, a Russian
Jewish
immigrant.
Wilder first became interested in acting when at age 8, his mother was diagnosed with
rheumatic fever and the doctor told him to "try and make her laugh." When Jeanne Silberman felt that her son's potential wasn't being fully realized in Wisconsin, she sent him to
Black-Foxe, a military institute in
Hollywood, where he wrote that he was
bullied and
sexually assaulted, primarily because he was the only Jewish boy in the school. After an unsuccessful short stay at Black-Foxe, Wilder returned home and became increasingly involved with the local theatre community. At age fifteen, he performed for the first time in front of a paying audience, as
Balthasar (
Romeo's manservant) in a production of
Shakespeare's
Romeo and Juliet.
Acting career
Early starts: Old Vic and Army
Wilder studied Communication and Theatre Arts at the
University of Iowa, where he was a member of the
Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity.
[. University of Iowa Alumni Association. Retrieved on March 19, 2008] Following his 1955 graduation from Iowa, he was accepted at the
Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in
Bristol, England. After six months of studying
fencing, Wilder became the first freshman to win the All-School Fencing Championship. Desiring to study
Stanislavski's system, he returned to the U.S., living with his sister and her family in
Queens. Wilder enrolled at the
HB Studio.
Wilder was drafted into the Army on September 10, 1956. At the end of
recruit training, he was assigned to the
medical corps and sent to
Fort Sam Houston for training. He 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 a Medic in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at
Valley Forge Army Hospital, in
Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. In November 1957, his mother died from
ovarian cancer. He was discharged from the army a year later and returned to New York. A scholarship to the HB Studio allowed him to become a full-time student. At first living on unemployment insurance and some savings, he later supported himself with odd jobs such as driving a
limousine and teaching fencing. Wilder's first professional acting job was in
Cambridge, England, where he played the Second Officer in
Herbert Berghof's production of
Twelfth Night. He also served as a fencing
choreographer.
After three years of study with Berghof and
Uta Hagen at the HB Studio,
Charles Grodin told Wilder about
Lee Strasberg's
method acting. Grodin persuaded him to leave the Studio and begin studying with Strasberg in his private class. Several months later, Wilder was accepted into the
Actors Studio. Feeling that "Jerry Silberman in
Macbeth" did not have the right ring to it, he adopted a
stage name.
He chose "Wilder" because it reminded him of
Our Town author
Thornton Wilder, while "Gene" came from
Thomas Wolfe's first novel,
Look Homeward, Angel. He also 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."
[Shelden, Michael. . The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved on March 16, 2008.] After joining the Actors Studio, he slowly began to be noticed in the
off-Broadway scene, thanks to performances in
Sir Arnold Wesker's
Roots and in
Graham Greene's
The Complaisant Lover, for which Wilder received the
Clarence Derwent Award for "Best Performance by an Actor in a Nonfeatured Role."
Mel Brooks
In 1963, Wilder was cast in a leading role in
Mother Courage and Her Children, a production starring
Anne Bancroft, who introduced Wilder to her then-boyfriend
Mel Brooks.
[ CNN.com - Transcripts. Retrieved on March 18, 2008] A few months later, Brooks mentioned that he was working on a screenplay called
Springtime for Hitler, for which he thought Wilder would be perfect in the role of
Leo Bloom. Brooks elicited a promise from Wilder that he would check with him before making any long-term commitments with any on Broadway or off-Broadway productions.
Months went by, and Wilder toured the country with different theatre productions, participated in a televised
CBS presentation of
Death of a Salesman, and was cast for his first role in a film—a minor role in
Arthur Penn's 1967
Bonnie and Clyde. After three years of not hearing from Brooks, Wilder was called for a reading with
Zero Mostel, who was to be the star of
Springtime for Hitler and had approval of his co-star. Mostel approved, and Wilder was cast for his first leading role in a featured film, 1968's
The Producers.
The Producers eventually became a
cult comedy classic, with Mel Brooks winning an
Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and Wilder being nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Nevertheless, Mel Brooks' first directorial effort did not do well at the box office and was not well-received by all critics;
New York Times critic
Renata Adler reviewed the film and described it as "black college humor."
[Wilder, 133.]In 1969, 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. After shooting ended, Wilder returned to New York, where he read the script for
Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx and immediately called Sidney Glazier, who produced
The Producers. Both men began searching for the perfect director for the film.
Jean Renoir was the first candidate, but he would not be able to do the film for at least a year, so
British-Indian director
Waris Hussein was hired.
Willy Wonka, Young Frankenstein, and Richard Pryor
In 1971,
Mel Stuart offered Wilder the lead role in his
film adaptation of
Roald Dahl's
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Wilder was initially hesitant, but finally accepted the role under one condition:
When Stuart asked why, Wilder replied, "because from that time on, no one will know if I'm lying or telling the truth."
All three films Wilder did after
The Producers were box office failures:
Start the Revolution and
Quackser seemed to audiences poor copies of Mel Brooks films, while
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory seemed, to many parents, a moral story "too cruel" for children to understand, thus failing to attract family audiences.
After hearing that
Wonka had been a commercial failure,
Woody Allen offered Wilder a role in one segment of
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask). Wilder accepted, hoping this would be the hit to put an end to his series of flops.
Everything was a hit, grossing over $18-million in the United States alone against a $2-million budget.
Wilder in 1984.
After
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask), Wilder began working on a script he called
Young Frankenstein. After he wrote a two-page scenario, he called
Mel Brooks, who told him that it seemed like a "cute" idea but showed little interest. A couple of months later, Wilder received a call from his then-agent,
Mike Medavoy, who asked if he had anything where he could include
Peter Boyle and
Marty Feldman, his two new clients. Having just seen Feldman on television, Wilder was inspired to write a scene that takes place at Transylvania Station, where Igor and Frederick meet for the first time. The scene was later included in the film almost verbatim. Medavoy liked the idea and called Brooks, asking him to direct. Brooks was not convinced, but having spent four years working on two box office failures, he decided to accept.
While working on the
Young Frankenstein script, Wilder was offered the part of the Fox in the
musical film adaptation of
Saint Exupéry's classic book,
The Little Prince. When filming was about to begin in London, Wilder received an urgent call from Mel Brooks, who was filming
Blazing Saddles, offering Wilder the role of the "Waco Kid" after
Dan Dailey dropped out at the last minute, while
Gig Young became too ill to continue. Wilder shot his scenes for
Blazing Saddles and immediately afterwards filmed
The Little Prince.
After
Young Frankenstein was written, the rights were to be sold to
Columbia Pictures, but after having trouble agreeing on the budget, Wilder, Brooks and producer Michael Gruskoff went with
20th Century Fox, where both Brooks and Wilder had to sign five-year contracts.
Young Frankenstein was a commercial success, with Wilder and Brooks receiving
Best Adapted Screenplay nominations at the
1975 Oscars, losing to
Francis Coppola and
Mario Puzo for their adaptation of
The Godfather Part II. While filming
Frankenstein, Wilder had an idea for a romantic musical comedy about a brother of
Sherlock Holmes. Marty Feldman and
Madeline Kahn agreed to participate in the project, and Wilder began writing what became his directorial début, 1975's
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother.
In 1975, Wilder's agent sent him a script for a film called
Super Chief. 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. Pryor accepted the role in the film, which had been renamed
Silver Streak, the first film to team Wilder and Pryor. While filming
Silver Streak, Wilder began working on a script for
The World's Greatest Lover, inspired by
Fellini's
The White Sheik. Wilder wrote, produced, and directed
The World's Greatest Lover, which premièred in 1977 but was a commercial and critical failure.
The Frisco Kid (1979) would be Wilder's next project. The film was to star
John Wayne, but he dropped out when the
Warner Brothers executives tried to dissuade him from charging the studio his usual $1-million fee.
Harrison Ford, a then up-and-coming actor, was hired for the role.
Sidney Poitier and Gilda Radner
In 1980,
Sidney Poitier and producer
Hannah Weinstein persuaded Wilder and Richard Pryor to do another film together.
Bruce Jay Friedman wrote the script for
Stir Crazy, with Poitier directing, for
Columbia Pictures. Pryor was heavily struggling with his
cocaine addiction, and filming became difficult; but once the film premièred, it became an international success.
New York magazine listed "Skip Donahue" (Wilder) and "Harry Monroe" (Pryor) # 9 on their 2007 list of "The Fifteen Most Dynamic Duos in Pop Culture History," and the film has often appeared in "best comedy" lists and rankings.
Poitier and Wilder became friends, with the pair working together on a script called
Traces — which became 1982's
Hanky Panky, the film where Wilder met comedienne
Gilda Radner. Through the remainder of the decade, Wilder and Radner worked in several projects together. After
Hanky Panky, Wilder directed his third film, 1984's
The Woman in Red, which starred Wilder, Radner, and
Kelly LeBrock.
The Woman in Red was not well-received by the critics, nor was their next project, 1986's
Haunted Honeymoon, which failed to attract audiences.
TriStar Pictures was looking to produce another film starring Wilder and Pryor, and Wilder agreed to do
See No Evil, Hear No Evil only if he was allowed to rewrite the script. The studio agreed, and
See No Evil, Hear No Evil premiered on May 1989 to mostly negative reviews. Many critics praised Wilder and Pryor, and even
Kevin Spacey's performance, but they mostly all agreed that the script was terrible.
Roger Ebert called it "a real
dud"; the
Deseret Morning News described the film as "stupid," with an "idiotic script" that had a "contrived story" and too many "juvenile gags"; while
Vincent Canby called it "by far the most successful co-starring vehicle for Mr. Pryor and Mr. Wilder," also acknowledging that "this is not elegant movie making, and not all of the gags are equally clever."
Something Wilder's opening card
1990s–2000s
Wilder did one final film with
Richard Pryor, the 1991 box office flop
Another You, in which Pryor's physical deterioration from
multiple sclerosis was clearly noticeable.
In 1994, Wilder starred in the
NBC sitcom Something Wilder. The show received poor reviews and lasted only one season. He went back to the small screen on 1999, appearing in three NBC
television movies, most notably
Alice in Wonderland. Three years later, Wilder guest-starred on two episodes of NBC's
Will & Grace, winning a
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor on a Comedy Series for his role as Mr. Stein,
Will Truman's boss.
Personal life
Relationships
Wilder met his first wife, Mary Mercier, while studying at the HB Studio in New York. Although the couple had not been together long, they married on July 22, 1960. They spent long periods of time apart, eventually divorcing in 1965. A few months later, Wilder began dating Mary Joan Schutz, a friend of his sister. Schutz had a daughter, Katharine, from a previous marriage. When Katharine started calling Wilder "
Dad," he decided to do what he felt was "the right thing to do," marrying Schutz on October 27, 1967 and adopting Katharine that same year. Schutz and Wilder separated after seven years of marriage, with Schutz thinking that Wilder was having an affair with his
Young Frankenstein co-star,
Madeline Kahn. After the divorce, he briefly dated his other
Frankenstein co-star,
Teri Garr. Wilder would eventually become estranged from Katharine.
Wilder met
Saturday Night Live actress
Gilda Radner on August 13, 1981, while filming
Sidney Poitier's
Hanky Panky. Radner was married to
G.E. Smith at the time, but she and Wilder became inseparable friends. When the filming of
Hanky ended, Wilder found himself missing Radner, so he called her. The relationship grew, and Radner eventually divorced Smith in 1982. She moved in with Wilder, and the couple married on September 14, 1984, in the south of France. The couple wanted to have children, but Radner suffered
miscarriages, and doctors could not determine the problem. After experiencing severe fatigue and suffering from pain in her upper legs on the set of
Haunted Honeymoon, Radner sought medical treatment. Following a number of false diagnoses, it was determined that she had
ovarian cancer in October 1986.
[Radner, Gilda. It's Always Something. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.] Over the next year and a half, Radner battled the disease, receiving
chemotherapy and
radiotherapy treatments. The disease finally went into remission, giving the pair a respite, during which time Wilder filmed
See No Evil, Hear No Evil.
By May 1989, the cancer returned and had metastasized. Radner died on May 20, 1989. Wilder later stated, "I always thought she'd pull through."
[Broeske, Pat H. BookPage. Accessed on April 5, 2008.]Following Radner's death, Wilder became active in promoting cancer awareness and treatment, helping found the Gilda Radner Ovarian Cancer Detection Center in
Los Angeles and co-founding
Gilda's Club, a support group to raise awareness of cancer that began in
New York City and now has branches throughout the country.
Semi-retirement and authorship
Wilder at a book signing in May 2007
While preparing for his role as a deaf man in
See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Wilder met Karen Webb (née Boyer), who was a clinical supervisor for the
New York League for the Hard of Hearing. Webb coached him in
lip reading. Following Gilda Radner's death, Wilder and Webb reconnected, and on September 8, 1991, they married.
The two live in
Stamford, Connecticut, in the 1734 Colonial home that he shared with Radner. The Wilders spend most of their time painting
watercolors, writing, and participating in charitable efforts.
In October 2001, he read from
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as part of a special benefit performance held at the
Westport Country Playhouse to aid families affected by the
September 11, 2001 attacks.
Also in 2001, Wilder donated a collection of scripts, correspondences, documents, photographs, and clipped images to the
University of Iowa Libraries.
[ (Bulk Dates: 1970s) 3.75 linear ft. Retrieved on February 29, 2008.]In 1998, Wilder collaborated on the book
Gilda's Disease with
oncologist Steven Piver, sharing personal experiences of Radner's struggle with ovarian cancer. 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.
On March 1, 2005, 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. Two years later, in March 2007, Wilder released his first novel,
My French Whore, which is set during
World War I. His second novel,
The Woman Who Wouldn't, was released in March 2008.
Work
Film
Television
- Will & Grace (2002) Episode "Boardroom and a Parked Place" (Guest Star — Mr. Stein)
- Will & Grace (2003) Episode "Sex, Losers & Videotape" (Guest Star — Mr. Stein)
Stage
- The White House (Broadway, 1964)
- The Scarecrow (Broadway, 1972)
Publications
- Piver, M. Steven and Gene Wilder. Gilda's Disease: Sharing Personal Experiences and a Medical Perspective on Ovarian Cancer. Broadway Books, 1998. ISBN 076790138X.
- Wilder, Gene. Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art. St. Martin's Press, 2005. ISBN 031233706X.
