Gene Wilder, star of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and Mel Brooks comedies such as The Producers, Blazing Saddles and Silent Movie, is dead at 83, his family says.
Wilder's nephew said Monday that the actor and writer died earlier this month in Stamford, Conn., from complications from Alzheimer's disease.
The frizzy-haired actor was a master at playing panicked characters caught up in schemes that only a madman such as Mel Brooks could devise, whether reviving a monster in Young Frankenstein or bilking Broadway in The Producers. He also starred in Brooks's Silent Movie.
This handout photo provided by Warner Bros. and the Library of Congress shows Gene Wilder as the mercurial Willy Wonka amused by one of his creations. (Warner Bros., Library of Congress)
Wilder also knew how to keep it cool as the boozy sheriff in Blazing Saddles and as the charming candy man in the children's favorite Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
Born Jerome Silberman, Wilder was also known for his collaborations with Richard Pryor: Silver Streak — partly shot in Toronto and Calgary — Stir Crazy, which was directed by Sidney Poitier; and See No Evil, Hear No Evil.
He directed four movies, including Haunted Honeymoon, starring his second wife, Gilda Radner. He was with Radner until her death from ovarian cancer in 1989.
Wilder wrote about his life in the 2005 autobiography Kiss Me Like a Stranger.
More to come
Gene Wilder dead at 83
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