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Gene Wilder
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
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 o…
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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).
Filmography
Movies and shows, newest first
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2026
Wilder
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2024
Remembering Gene Wilder
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2018
Love, Gilda
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2018
Mel Brooks: Unwrapped
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2016
The Last Laugh
Movie Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
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2014
Blaze of Glory: Mel Brooks' Wild, Wild West
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2013
Mel Brooks: Make a Noise
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2013
Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic
Movie George / Skip Donahue (archive footage)
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2010
Gene Wilder: Be in the Moment, Today
Movie Himself
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2008
Role Model: Gene Wilder
Movie Self
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2008
Marty Feldman: Six Degrees of Separation
Movie Self
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2007
Hitler: The Comedy Years
Movie Leo Bloom (archive footage) (uncredited)
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2006
Legends
TV show Self
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2005
EXPO: Magic of the White City
Movie Narrator (voice)
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2004
Parkinson
TV show Self - Guest
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2003
Richard Pryor: I Ain't Dead Yet, #*%$#@!!
Movie (archive footage)
More credits
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2002
The Making of 'The Producers'
Movie Self
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2002
After They Were Famous
TV show Self (archive footage)
- 2001
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2001
Back in the Saddle
Movie Self
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1999
The Lady in Question
Movie Larry 'Cash' Carter
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1999
Alice in Wonderland
Movie Mock Turtle
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1999
Murder in a Small Town
Movie Cash Carter
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1998
Will & Grace
TV show Mr. Stein
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1997
The View
TV show Self
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1997
Blacks and Jews
Movie Self
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1996
Making Frankensense of Young Frankenstein
Movie Self
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1995
The Frank Skinner Show
TV show Self
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1994
Something Wilder
TV show Gene Bergman
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1994
Inside the Actors Studio
TV show Self
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1993
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
TV show Self - Guest
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1991
Another You
Movie George / Abe Fielding
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1991
Frankenstein: A Cinematic Scrapbook
Movie Dr. Frankenstein (archive footage)
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1990
Funny About Love
Movie Duffy Bergman
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1989
See No Evil, Hear No Evil
Movie Dave Lyons
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1988
Hello Actors Studio
Movie Self
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1986
Haunted Honeymoon
Movie Larry Abbot
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1984
The Woman in Red
Movie Theodore Pierce
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1982
Hanky Panky
Movie Michael Jordon
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1982
Wogan
TV show Self
