As 2016 draws on, the year has taken from us another treasured actor in the form of Gene Wilder. Diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 1989, Wilder had undertaken just one role – in voice acting – since 2003. However the news of his death comes with great sadness to those who have grown to know and love the two-times Oscar nominated actor through his roles in Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, The Producers and, of course, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Born Jerome Silberman in Wisconsin, on 11th June 1933, Wilder first became interested in acting at age 8, when his mother was diagnosed with rheumatic fever and the doctor told him to try and make her laugh. He studied for a brief time at Bristol Old Vic, but adopted his stage name when he was 26 in order to be accepted into the infamous Actor’s Studio. He began to be noticed in the off-Broadway scene, and made his start in film and television with roles in Death of a Salesman and Bonnie and Clyde, before being granted his first lead film role as Leo Bloom in 1968’s The Producers, a role which earned him a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the Academy Awards.
Wilder’s relationship with Mel Brooks, formed from his role in The Producers, continued in Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, that granted Wilder two of his best remembered and well-loved roles. However, it is perhaps Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory for which the veteran actor became best known, taking the titular role of Roald Dahl’s eccentric, wondrous and even mysterious factory owner in his stride in a performance as heart-warming as it is, in parts, disturbing and frightening.
Wilder continued working throughout the 1970s and 1980s, but his roles became few and far between from the 1990s as his health problems affected his ability to work, and he lost heart in the future of truthfulness and creative quality in the film industry. In spite of his relative lack of appearances on film and television is recent years, Gene Wilder has remained a childhood favourite of audiences all over the world, as the outpourings of sadness at the news of his death have shown. Mel Brooks stated how “he blessed every film we did with his magic and he blessed me with his friendship”, and Noel Fielding spoke of his “pure joy and wonder”. His spark of pure imagination will be sorely missed.
“If there’s a heaven, he has a Golden Ticket.” – Jim Carrey
Words by Amie Bailey