Gene Wilder, who delighted audiences with his comic turns in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and Mel Brooks classics, including Blazing Saddles and The Producers, died on Monday at age 83.
The actor died of complications from Alzheimer’s, holding hands with family members and taking his last breath as Ella Fitzgerald’s Somewhere Over The Rainbow played on a speaker, his nephew Jordan Walker-Pearlman said.
“It is with indescribable sadness and blues, but with spiritual gratitude for the life lived, that I announce the passing of husband, parent and universal artist Gene Wilder, at his home in Stamford, Connecticut,” Walker-Pearlman said in a statement. “It is almost unbearable for us to contemplate our life without him.”
Photo: AFP
He was acclaimed for his turn as The Waco Kid in Brooks’ third film, the spoof Western and box-office smash Blazing Saddles.
The 1974 movie shot down the myths perpetuated about the American West, pouring light on closeted racism, but it is also stacked full of gags and is often listed among critics’ top 10 comedy films.
Brooks and Wilder joined forces on their Oscar-nominated script for the director’s next film, Young Frankenstein, which poked fun at the Universal horror pictures of the 1930s.
“Gene Wilder — One of the truly great talents of our time. He blessed every film we did with his magic & he blessed me with his friendship,” Brooks said on Twitter.
The Milwaukee native, known for his impeccable timing and frizzy hair, got his break in the 1961 off-Broadway production of Arnold Wesker’s Roots and followed with his Broadway debut as the comic valet in Graham Greene’s The Complaisant Lover.
His other Broadway credits include One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, alongside Kirk Douglas, and a production of Mother Courage and Her Children a year later, in which he co-starred with Anne Bancroft.
Bancroft was dating Brooks — her future husband — and introduced the pair, who hit it off immediately.
The director showed Wilder an early script, entitled Springtime for Hitler, which would eventually become The Producers.
Wilder won the first of his two Oscar nominations for his portrayal of Leopold Bloom in the film — his first major role.
However, it was his portrayal of eccentric candy impresario Willy Wonka in the 1971 musical fantasy based on Roald Dahl’s 1964 book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that turned him into a superstar.
His last major role was in a TV film version of Alice in Wonderland in the late 1990s, which also starred Ben Kingsley and Martin Short.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number