3_Gene-Wilder

 

 

Funny man, frizzy-haired Gene Wilder, has died from complications from Alzheimer’s Disease at the age of 83 at this home in Stamford, Ct.

Whether showing his comedic edge in Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles, or as Leo Bloom (for which he won an Oscar nomination, 1968) in The Producers or in Young Frankenstein, he was always at the top of his game. You will also remember him as the charming candyman in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

In 1982, while making the little known Hanky-Panky, he fell in love with co-star Gilda Radner. They were married in 1984, and co-starred in two Wilder-penned films: The Woman in Red and Haunted Honeymoon. After Ms. Radner died from ovarian cancer, he devoted much of his time promoting cancer research and opened a support facility for cancer patients.

Wilder is survived by his wife, Karen, whom he married in 1991, and his daughter from a previous marriage, Katherine, from whom he was estranged.