Gene Wilder Net Worth

Gene Wilder's Quotes

• [on Mel Brooks] A loud kind of Jewish genius--maybe that's as close as you can get to defining him.
• Woody [Woody Allen] makes a movie as if he were lighting 10,000 safety matches to illuminate a city. Each one is a little epiphany: topical, ethnic or political.
• [on the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) to the Daily Telegraph] It's all about money. It's just some people sitting around thinking, "How can we make some more money?" Why else would you remake "Willy Wonka" [Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)]?
• [on his role in Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972)] And that's not an easy task, being in bed with a sheep, especially if you make the sheep nervous. I'm not going to go on, if you know what I'm talking about.
• I'm not so funny. Gilda [Gilda Radner] was funny. I'm funny on camera sometimes. In life, once in a while. Once in a while. But she was funny. She spent more time worrying about being liked than anything else.

Interesting Facts about Gene Wilder

1. Played men wrongly accused of crimes in five films: Silver Streak (1976), The Frisco Kid (1979), Stir Crazy (1980), Hanky Panky (1982) and See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989).
2. Starred with Richard Pryor in four movies: Silver Streak (1976), Stir Crazy (1980), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) and Another You (1991).
3. Won the Clarence Derwent award for the Broadway play "The Complaisant Lover" in 1962.
4. Attended and graduated from Washington High School (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) in 1951. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Iowa at Iowa City in 1955. He was a lifelong brother of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.
5. Wilder adopted his second wife (Mary Joan Schutz)'s daughter, Katharine Anastasia, but the two reportedly became estranged when she was in her early 20s. After his third wife, Gilda Radner, died of ovarian cancer, Wilder co-founded Gilda's Club, a support group to raise awareness of the disease. Wilder's fourth wife and widow, Karen Boyer, is a former speech pathologist. They first met when he consulted with her about playing the role of a deaf man in See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989).
6. Wilder was a supporter of the Democratic Party for many years, and staunchly opposed U.S. actions in the Vietnam War and the Iraq War. He supported Eugene McCarthy in the 1968 presidential election. That same year, he campaigned, along with Elaine May and Renée Taylor, on behalf of Eugene McCarthy, Allard Lowenstein and Paul O'Dwyer.
7. In 1999, Wilder was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and underwent chemotherapy. The following year, he was treated with adult stem-cell therapy. He made a full recovery.
8. When he chose his stage name, he chose "Wilder" because he loved Thornton Wilder's play "Our Town". He chose the name "Gene" simply because he liked this, not realizing until later this was because his mother's name was Jeanne (she was sick for most of his childhood, and he spent much of his time entertaining her as a kid to keep her happy and her spirits up. He subconsciously chose the name because he loved her so much and in honour of her).
9. While serving in the United States Army from 1956-1958, he was assigned as a Medic to the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at Valley Forge General Hospital in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. He worked in treating psychiatric patients.
10. Wilder claimed that before Mel Brooks recruited him, he regarded himself as more of a dramatic actor than a comedic actor.
11. His performance as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein ("that's FRONKensteen") in Young Frankenstein (1974) is ranked #9 on Premiere magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
12. His performance as Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) is ranked #38 on Premiere magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
13. Was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for The Producers (1967) but lost to Jack Albertson, who won for The Subject Was Roses (1968). Both Wilder and Albertson would later co-star in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971).
14. Wilder was born to an Ukrainian Jewish immigrant father and an Illinois-born mother of Russian Jewish descent; he had a Bar Mitzvah when he was 13 years old in 1946.
15. For an American Film Institute poll, Wilder designated The Circus (1928) as his favourite film.
16. In 1991, the Best Man at his wedding was his nephew, director-screenwriter Jordan Walker-Pearlman. Twenty-four years later, Wilder served as Best Man Emeritus, Ring Bearer, and Parent of the Groom at Walker-Pearlman's wedding to Elizabeth Hunter. He was recorded dancing down the aisle. According to Wilder's memoir, "Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art", he considered his nephew, whom he helped to raise as his son.
17. Longtime resident of Fairfield County's Stamford, Connecticut until his death. Upon his death from complications of Alzheimer's disease, he was cremated and his ashes given to his family.
18. He was offered a cameo role in The BFG (2016), which, like Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), was based on a book by Roald Dahl, but he declined.
19. He was considered for the Moon King in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), which went to Robin Williams.
20. He turned down Jon Voight's role in Catch-22 (1970) in order to play twins in Start the Revolution Without Me (1970).