GENE WILDER
Name: Gene Wilder
Birth name: Jerome Silberman
Born: 11 June 1933 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
Gene Wilder (born Jerome Silberman on June 11, 1933) is an Academy Award-nominated
American actor who is best known for his role as Willy Wonka, his collaborations
with Mel Brooks in Blazing Saddles, The Producers, and Young Frankenstein, and
his four movies with Richard Pryor: Silver Streak; Stir Crazy; See No Evil, Hear
No Evil; and Another You.
Born in Milwaukee, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Wilder studied drama at
the University of Iowa, where he was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity,
graduated in 1955, and later attended the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the
UK. He served in the United States Army from 1956 to 1958 where he served as a
Medic in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at Valley Forge Army
Hospital in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.
After the Army he received a scholarship to the HB studio, supporting himself,
at first, with unemployment insurance and some savings, and afterwards with odd
jobs such as driving a limousine and teaching fencing. His career started with
the theater in various off-Broadway shows before making it on the Great White
Way. Around 1961 he became a member of The Actors Studio and gained notoriety in
the Broadway scene with the plays "The Complaisant Lover" and "Roots", for which
he received the Clarence Derwent Award. It was several years later the movie
Mother Courage and Her Children featuring actress Anne Bancroft was being cast
in 1964 that Wilder's career received an even greater boost. Comedian Mel Brooks,
whom Bancroft was dating at the time, took a liking to Wilder and cast him in
several films.
Wilder's first big part was in Bonnie and Clyde where he played an undertaker
abducted by the couple. Perhaps his best known roles are as Willy Wonka in Willy
Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Dr. Frederick Frankenstein in Young Frankenstein
and as Leo Bloom in The Producers. During this time he also worked as the voice
of "Letterman" on the children's educational television series The Electric
Company from 1972 to 1977.
In the late 1970s and 1980s he appeared in a number of movies with Richard Pryor,
making them the most prolific inter-racial comedy double act in movies during
the period. However, Wilder later admitted the two were not as close as people
believed. He said that his troubled co-star's drug addiction made him very
difficult and unpleasant to work with. However, he also maintains that he felt
he had a better chemistry with Pryor as a co-star than with anyone else he has
worked with. In all, they made four movies together: Silver
Streak (1976), Stir Crazy (1980), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) and Another
You (1991).
In 1979 Wilder starred alongside Harrison Ford in the comedy The Frisco Kid. He
also wrote and starred in Murder in a Small Town and its sequel, The Lady in
Question as a theater producer turned amateur detective Larry "Cash" Carter.
Name: Gene Wilder
Birth name: Jerome Silberman
Born: 11 June 1933 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
Gene Wilder (born Jerome Silberman on June 11, 1933) is an Academy Award-nominated
American actor who is best known for his role as Willy Wonka, his collaborations
with Mel Brooks in Blazing Saddles, The Producers, and Young Frankenstein, and
his four movies with Richard Pryor: Silver Streak; Stir Crazy; See No Evil, Hear
No Evil; and Another You.
Born in Milwaukee, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Wilder studied drama at
the University of Iowa, where he was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity,
graduated in 1955, and later attended the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the
UK. He served in the United States Army from 1956 to 1958 where he served as a
Medic in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at Valley Forge Army
Hospital in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.
After the Army he received a scholarship to the HB studio, supporting himself,
at first, with unemployment insurance and some savings, and afterwards with odd
jobs such as driving a limousine and teaching fencing. His career started with
the theater in various off-Broadway shows before making it on the Great White
Way. Around 1961 he became a member of The Actors Studio and gained notoriety in
the Broadway scene with the plays "The Complaisant Lover" and "Roots", for which
he received the Clarence Derwent Award. It was several years later the movie
Mother Courage and Her Children featuring actress Anne Bancroft was being cast
in 1964 that Wilder's career received an even greater boost. Comedian Mel Brooks,
whom Bancroft was dating at the time, took a liking to Wilder and cast him in
several films.
Wilder's first big part was in Bonnie and Clyde where he played an undertaker
abducted by the couple. Perhaps his best known roles are as Willy Wonka in Willy
Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Dr. Frederick Frankenstein in Young Frankenstein
and as Leo Bloom in The Producers. During this time he also worked as the voice
of "Letterman" on the children's educational television series The Electric
Company from 1972 to 1977.
In the late 1970s and 1980s he appeared in a number of movies with Richard Pryor,
making them the most prolific inter-racial comedy double act in movies during
the period. However, Wilder later admitted the two were not as close as people
believed. He said that his troubled co-star's drug addiction made him very
difficult and unpleasant to work with. However, he also maintains that he felt
he had a better chemistry with Pryor as a co-star than with anyone else he has
worked with. In all, they made four movies together: Silver
Streak (1976), Stir Crazy (1980), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) and Another
You (1991).
In 1979 Wilder starred alongside Harrison Ford in the comedy The Frisco Kid. He
also wrote and starred in Murder in a Small Town and its sequel, The Lady in
Question as a theater producer turned amateur detective Larry "Cash" Carter.