Jerome Silberman, known professionally as Gene Wilder, is an American stage and screen comic actor, director, screenwriter, author, and activist. Wilder began his career on stage, and made his screen debut in the TV-series Armstrong Circle Theatre in 1962. 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 1968 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, the latter of which garnered the pair an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. Wilder also wrote Young Frankenstein, making it the first movie Mel Brooks directed but did not personally write. Wilder is known for his portrayal of Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and for his four films with Richard Pryor: Silver Streak, Stir Crazy, See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and Another You. Wilder has directed and written several of his films, including The Woman in Red. [More at Wikipedia]

June 11th, 1933 in Milwaukee  /  Died:   Aug 29th, 2016 - aged 83, complications of Alzheimer's disease