Gene Wilder Biography

Fast Facts

• Was a quick study at fencing, and became the first freshman to ever win the All-School Fencing Championship at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
• Later worked as a fencing instructor and as a fencing choreographer
• In the early 1960s, he joined the Actors Studio and landed his first Broadway role in The Complaisant Lover
• Made his film debut in Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
• While performing in the Broadway production of Mother Courage and Her Children, he met Mel Brooks, who offered him a part in the musical The Producers (1968)
• Wrote his first screenplay, Young Frankenstein (1974), with Mel Brooks
• Best known for his zany performances in (among others) Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1970), Blazing Saddles (1974) and Young Frankenstein (1974)
• After the death of his beloved wife, Gilda Radner, in 1989, he took a break from his film career and focused on establishing organizations such as Gilda's Club and the Gilda Radner Ovarian Cancer Detection Center
• Published an autobiography, Kiss Me Like a Stranger, in 2005 and a novel, My French Whore, in 2007