Gene Wilder
Gene Wilder (born Jerome Silberman; June 11, 1933 – August 29, 2016) was an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, singer-songwriter, and author. He began his career on stage, and made his screen debut in an episode of the TV series The Play of the Week in 1961. Although his first film role was portraying a hostage in the 1967 motion picture Bonnie and Clyde, Wilder's first major role was as Leopold Bloom in the 1967 film The Producers for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. This was the first in a series of collaborations with writer/director Mel Brooks, including 1974's Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, which Wilder co-wrote, garnering the pair an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. He is known for his iconic 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), as well as starring in Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972). He directed and wrote several of his own films, including The Woman in Red (1984). With his third wife, Gilda Radner, he starred in three films, the last two of which he also directed. Her 1989 death 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. After his last acting performance in 2003 – a guest role on Will & Grace for which he received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor – he turned his attention to writing. He produced a memoir in 2005, Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art; a collection of stories, What Is This Thing Called Love? (2010); and the novels My French Whore (2007), The Woman Who Wouldn't (2008), and Something to Remember You By (2013).
70 acting credits · 5 directing credits
Acting · 70
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962
Will & Grace
1998
The View
1997
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
1993
Wogan
1982
CBS News Sunday Morning
1979
The Defenders
1961
Les Rendez-vous du dimanche
1975
Film '72
1971
The Electric Company
1971
Legends
2006
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
1971
The Frank Skinner Show
1995
Please Turn the Page
1977
Young Frankenstein
1974
Bonnie and Clyde
1967
Blazing Saddles
1974
The Woman in Red
1984
See No Evil, Hear No Evil
1989
Alice in Wonderland
1999
The Producers
1968
The DuPont Show of the Week
1961
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex *But Were Afraid to Ask
1972
After They Were Famous
2002
Something Wilder
1994
Stir Crazy
1980
Silver Streak
1976
The Last Laugh
2016
Inside the Actors Studio
1994
The Little Prince
1974
Another You
1991
The Frisco Kid
1979
Frankenstein: A Cinematic Scrapbook
1991
Hanky Panky
1982
Haunted Honeymoon
1986
Richard Pryor: I Ain't Dead Yet, #*%$#@!!
2003
The World's Greatest Lover
1977
Start the Revolution Without Me
1970
Hitler: The Comedy Years
2007
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother
1975
Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic
2013
Hello Actors Studio
1988
Marty Feldman: Six Degrees of Separation
2008
Murder in a Small Town
1999
Love, Gilda
2018
Death of a Salesman
1966
Remembering Gene Wilder
2024
Making Frankensense of Young Frankenstein
1996
Sunday Lovers
1980
Funny About Love
1990
Thursday's Game
1974
Pure Imagination: The Story of 'Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'
2001
The Lady in Question
1999
Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx
1970
The Making of 'The Producers'
2002
Scarecrow
1972
Mel Brooks: Make a Noise
2013
Rhinoceros
1974
Back in the Saddle
2001
Private Screenings: Robert Osborne
2014
Acts of Love and Other Comedies
1973
The Trouble With People
1972
Role Model: Gene Wilder
2008
Mel Brooks: Unwrapped
2018
Baryshnikov in Hollywood
1982
Blaze of Glory: Mel Brooks' Wild, Wild West
2014
Wilder
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Blacks and Jews
1997
Gene Wilder: Be in the Moment, Today
2010
EXPO: Magic of the White City
2005