Gene Wilder Passes (83 years old)

[WildCard]

Gene Wilder passed away today from complications from Alzheimer's

[qwksndmonster]

:(

[josie]

I'm going to go home and watch Blazing Saddles and cry.

[That Aud Smell]

He had such wonderful and unique gifts when it came comedy -- his sense of timing, especially.

 

Not just comedy either - his delivery on this song is perfect (he somehow kept it from becoming too saccharine or syrupy (yes, playing on words)):

 

 

 

R.I.P.

[North Buffalo]

Say shiite.... Shitte, I'm bad... strikes match..... Sheeeeit. Nothing like stir crazy with Pryor. RIP Willy Wonka...

[darksabre]

For me there are few better than the combination of Wilder and Kahn. Two very serious and very funny people. I'm quite thankful we were fortunate enough to get Wilder for longer.

[BagBoy]

What knockers!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID1mST8AzGo

[WildCard]

Fun fact: the ony way Wilder would agree to play Wonka was if he was allowed to implement his famous entrance, where he walks disheveled to the gate and does a somersault

[Huckleberry]

2016 really isn't a good year to be famous.

[Eleven]

I truly enjoyed Gene Wilder.  He'll be missed, but the reality is that he's been missed for a couple of decades already now.

 

He will always be the best Wonka.

 

I am very happy to see none of the "now he's with Gilda again" in this thread that I've seen all over the Internet.  That must be driving his surviving wife (of 15 years!) up the freaking wall.

[K-9]

[beerme1]

I truly enjoyed Gene Wilder.  He'll be missed, but the reality is that he's been missed for a couple of decades already now.

 

He will always be the best Wonka.

 

I am very happy to see none of the "now he's with Gilda again" in this thread that I've seen all over the Internet.  That must be driving his surviving wife (of 15 years!) up the freaking wall.

 

I'm going to suggest she doesn't read any of the side of the internet.

[Stoner]

Well, he always was unselfish.

[Norcal]

Funny funny man. RIP to you sir!

[Eleven]

I'm going to suggest she doesn't read any of the ###### side of the internet.

 

 

It's the whole Internet.  Every comment I have seen (except, blessedly, here) is about Gilda and how they're together again.  And that just isn't right. 

[BagBoy]

It's the whole ###### Internet.  Every comment I have seen (except, blessedly, here) is about Gilda and how they're together again.  And that just isn't right. 

 

Speaking only for myself, I thought the same thing about Gene and Gilda.  I did not know he had remarried.  If I knew that he had remarried, I would share your sentiments (and do now).  I'm thinking most of the other Gene and Gilda posters were as in the dark as I was.

Edited August 30, 2016 by BagBoy

[GASabresIUFAN]

I grew up on his movies. Stir Crazy, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silver Streak, and Willy Wonka are still among my favorite films. Right now I'm watching Harrison Ford and Gene in one of secret favorites the Frisco Kid.

 

Watching this movie is breaking my heart. He was a great comic actor and always seemed like a wonderful man. The world is a little darker place today without him.

 

On the bright side these great films will live on forever.

[SwampD]

We should have just had a "Greats Who Are Now Gone" thread this year.

 

 

I'll just put this here, but Rudy van Gelder also passed last week. If you can think of a great jazz song in your head, most likely, he recorded it. The music he recorded was and is still very influential in my life as a musician and recording engineer. He was 91 and I honestly didn't know he was still alive.

[Sabre Dance]

Young Frankenstein may have been the best combination of satire and homage ever put on film.  Although Mel Brooks was a collaborator on the story and screenplay, it was really Gene Wilder's baby.  Wilder's combination of acting, comedy and writing made this film one of my favorites of all time, and now, over 40 years later, still one of the greats.  Gene will be much missed but well remembered. 

[That Aud Smell]

Young Frankenstein may have been the best combination of satire and homage ever put on film.  Although Mel Brooks was a collaborator on the story and screenplay, it was really Gene Wilder's baby.  Wilder's combination of acting, comedy and writing made this film one of my favorites of all time, and now, over 40 years later, still one of the greats.  Gene will be much missed but well remembered. 

 

Amen.

 

I listened to his interview on the NPR program Fresh Air last night while driving kids hither and thither, and - man. What a fascinating guy.

 

The story he told about how the Puttin' on the Ritz bit came to be in the film was especially memorable.

 

I also mourn the fact that, as best I can tell, our country is not apt to produce entertainment talents with the same sort of widely varied background as Wilder (and so many others, I am sure). Wilder talked about going to college in Iowa, enlisting in the army, and working in a psychiatric hospital (where he reflected on the fact that his then-nearly uncontrollable compulsion of prayer was quite similar to what many of the patients were exhibiting). All of that, apparently, before he made his way to NYC and became an actor.

[darksabre]

Amen.

 

I listened to his interview on the NPR program Fresh Air last night while driving kids hither and thither, and - man. What a fascinating guy.

 

The story he told about how the Puttin' on the Ritz bit came to be in the film was especially memorable.

 

I also mourn the fact that, as best I can tell, our country is not apt to produce entertainment talents with the same sort of widely varied background as Wilder (and so many others, I am sure). Wilder talked about going to college in Iowa, enlisting in the army, and working in a psychiatric hospital (where he reflected on the fact that his then-nearly uncontrollable compulsion of prayer was quite similar to what many of the patients were exhibiting). All of that, apparently, before he made his way to NYC and became an actor.

 

I listened to that interview as well. Hollywood doesn't put out a lot of fascinating people these days it would seem.