Remembering Gene Wilder

 “Just Thinking”

We watched a documentary on Netflix this week, “Remembering Gene Wilder” and it really impacted me, I think it was because his movies were a timeline of my formidable years. We think of Wilder as the actor who played the Waco Kid, Willie Wonka or Young Frankenstein, but he was so much more, not just an actor, but a writer, director and producer who was active for forty plus years.

He was born Jerome Silberman in Milwaukee and moved to New York after finishing his service in the Army. He started as a stage actor in off Broadway, he was in a production with Anne Bancroft who was dating Mel Brooks at the time, who was working on a new film. Although it was very early in the process, this led to his first major film role as Leo Bloom in the 1967 film “The Producers”, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His first film role was that of a hostage in the 1967 motion picture “Bonnie and Clyde” starring Warren Beaty and Faye Dunaway.

Although he was not originally cast in Blazing Saddles, the actor slated to play the Waco Kid, was Gig Young, a well-known actor at the time. However, during the first day of shooting, Young, who had struggled with alcoholism, became ill and was unable to continue. Mel Brooks had to quickly find a replacement, and he reached out to Gene Wilder.

Wilder was initially reluctant, but after Brooks explained the situation, he flew out to LA and stepped into the role with just one day's notice. His portrayal of the fast-drawing, world-weary gunslinger became one of the highlights of the film, and his chemistry with Cleavon Little helped make “Blazing Saddles” a comedy classic.

Gene Wilder came up with the concept for “Young Frankenstein”, and he approached Brooks with the idea. Wilder envisioned the story as a comedic homage to the classic Universal horror films of the 1930s, particularly “Frankenstein”. Columbia pictures agreed to do the film until Brooks and Wilder told them that the film would be shot in Black and White, they turned them down, but 20th Century Fox agreed to do the film that was a huge success.

One fun fact that I learned was that in the movie the “Frisco Kid” (a personal favorite) the role of the rough-and-tumble outlaw cowboy was offered to John Wayne, the producers went and met with John Wayne to seal the deal and asked him to take $250,000 cut in his salary, the Duke said something to the effect of "I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them. So, an up-and-coming Harrison Ford got the part of Tommy Lillard.

Gene Wilder is synonymous with so many of his collaborators: Mel Brooks, Marty Feldman, Richard Prior, Madeline Kahn, Teri Garr, Gilda Radner, Peter Boyle and Harrison Ford.

Check it out, it’s well worth the watch

Let me know what you think

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