Wilder, Gene

Wilder, Gene

▪ American actor
original name  Jerome Silberman 
born June 11, 1935, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
 
 American comic actor best known for his portrayals of high-strung neurotic characters.

      As a youth in Milwaukee, Wilder was a student of the renowned acting instructor Herman Gottlieb, and in 1955 he graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in theatre. In 1961 he joined the Actors Studio in New York City, where he studied under Lee Strasberg (Strasberg, Lee); in the same year, Wilder made his Broadway debut in the play Roots. During the next few years he acted in several Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, garnering good reviews for his performances in The Complaisant Lover (1961), Mother Courage and Her Children (1963), and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1963).

      Wilder made his film debut with a small part in Warren Beatty's Bonnie and Clyde (1967). A turning point in his career came when actor-director-writer Mel Brooks, whom Wilder had met during his Broadway days, cast Wilder in The Producers (1968) opposite the explosive Zero Mostel (Mostel, Zero). Though the film did middling business at the time, it earned for Wilder an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor, and it has since come to be regarded as a classic comedy. He next starred in two films that have developed a cult following: Start the Revolution Without Me (1970), in which Wilder demonstrated his considerable skill at fencing, and Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx (1970), in which he delivered a sensitive performance as a Dublin dung salesman. Wilder was also memorable as the title character in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) and as a respected doctor whose career is destroyed when he falls in love with a sheep in one segment of Woody Allen (Allen, Woody)'s Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex but Were Afraid to Ask (1972).

      Wilder became a major star of the early 1970s with his performances in two hilariously scatological Brooks films, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein (both 1974). The first film, a ribald spoof of westerns, featured Wilder as the laconic “Waco Kid,” a drunken ex-gunslinger. Young Frankenstein, hailed by many critics as one of the greatest comedies ever made, provided Wilder with his best screen role, that of a third-generation member of the Frankenstein family who tries to deny his heritage and demands that his name be pronounced “Fronk-en-shteen.” Also for this film, Brooks and Wilder collaborated on the Oscar-nominated screenplay. Wilder's success in the Brooks films inspired him to write and direct his own comedies, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975) and The World's Greatest Lover (1977). Most critics, however, found these films to be pale imitations of the Brooks style.

      Wilder teamed with comic Richard Pryor (Pryor, Richard) for two popular comedies, Silver Streak (1976) and Stir Crazy (1980), and for two flops, See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) and Another You (1991). He appeared with his wife, comedian Gilda Radner, in such films as Hanky Panky (1982), The Woman in Red (1984), and Haunted Honeymoon (1986). Following Radner's death from ovarian cancer in 1989, Wilder established Gilda's Club, a support centre for cancer patients.

      In 2005 Wilder published Kiss Me Like a Stranger, a memoir. He also wrote the novels My French Whore (2007) and The Woman Who Wouldn't (2008).

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • WILDER, GENE — (Jerry Silberman; 1933– ), U.S. actor. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Wilder received a B.A. from the University of Iowa. He taught fencing before making his off Broadway debut in Arnold Wesker s Roots in 1961. Moving on to the Broadway stage,… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Wilder, Gene — pseud. di Silberman, Jerry …   Sinonimi e Contrari. Terza edizione

  • Gene Wilder — en 1984 Nombre real Jerome Silberman Nacimiento 11 de junio de 1935 76 años …   Wikipedia Español

  • Gene Wilder — Infobox actor name = Gene Wilder imagesize = caption = Wilder at a book signing, May 2007 birthname = Jerome Silberman birthdate = birth date and age|mf=yes|1933|6|11 deathdate = birthplace = Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA occupation = Comedic actor… …   Wikipedia

  • Gene Wilder — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Wilder. Gene Wilder …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Gene Wilder — im Mai 2007 Gene Wilder (* 11. Juni 1933 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; eigentlich Jerome Silberman) ist ein US amerikanischer Schauspieler, der vor allem in komischen Rollen erfolgreich war. Leben Gene Wilder begann seine Schauspielerlaufbahn …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Wilder — bezeichnet: veraltet einen isoliert von der Zivilisation lebenden Menschen, siehe Indigene Völker Edler Wilder, Idealbild des von der Zivilisation unverdorbenen Naturmenschen eine Sagen und Märchenfigur, meist wilder Mann genannt Wilder ist der… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Wilder — may refer to: *Wilder, Idaho *Wilder, Kentucky *Wilder, Minnesota *Wilder, Vermont *Wilder (Dungeons Dragons), a character class in Dungeons Dragons *A wilder (Wheel of Time) in Robert Jordan s The Wheel of Time series * National Lampoon s Van… …   Wikipedia

  • Gene Evans — Dans Baïonnette au canon (1951) Données clés Nom de …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Gene — m English: short form of EUGENE (SEE Eugene), now quite commonly used as an independent given name in America. It has been made familiar especially by film stars such as Gene Autry, Gene Hackman, and Gene Wilder …   First names dictionary

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