‘ഫ്രിസി ഹെയര്ഡ്
ആക്ടര്’ എന്നറിപ്പെടുന്ന ഹോളിവുഡ് ഹാസ്യനടന്ജീന്വില്ഡര് അന്തരിച്ചു(83).
അല്ഴിമേഴ്സ്
രോഗത്തിനടിമയായ താരം കഴിഞ്ഞ ഞായറാഴ്ച്ച
സ്റ്റാംഫോര്ഡിലെ വസതിയിലാണ് മരിച്ചതെന്ന്
താരത്തിന്റെ ബന്ധു പറഞ്ഞു. നാടകനടനായാണ്
ആദ്യം ജീന് അറിയപ്പെട്ടത്. ദി
പ്രൊഡ്യൂസേഴ്സ്, ബ്ലേസിങ്
സാഡില്സ്, യങ്
ഫ്രാങ്കെസ്റ്റീന് എന്നീ സിനിമകളാണ് ജീനിന്റെ
ജീവിതം മാറ്റിമറിച്ചത്. മികച്ച കഥാപാത്രങ്ങളാണ് ജീനിനെ
തേടിയെത്തിയത്. ജിം കാരി,
ക്ലോറിസ് ലെച്ച്മാന് തുടങ്ങിയ പ്രമുഖ താരങ്ങള്
ജീനിന് ആദരാഞ്ജലികള് അര്പ്പിച്ചു.
Gene Wilder, who
regularly stole the show in such comedic gems as “The Producers,” “Blazing
Saddles,” “Young Frankenstein,” “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” and
“Stir Crazy,” died Monday at his home in Stamford, Conn. His nephew Jordan
Walker-Pearlman said he died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was
83.
His nephew said in a
statement, “We understand for all the emotional and physical challenges this
situation presented we have been among the lucky ones — this illness-pirate,
unlike in so many cases, never stole his ability to recognize those that were
closest to him, nor took command of his central-gentle-life affirming core
personality. The decision to wait until this time to disclose his condition
wasn’t vanity, but more so that the countless young children that would smile
or call out to him “there’s Willy Wonka,” would not have to be then exposed to
an adult referencing illness or trouble and causing delight to travel to worry,
disappointment or confusion. He simply couldn’t bear the idea of one less smile
in the world.
He continued to enjoy
art, music, and kissing with his leading lady of the last twenty-five years,
Karen. He danced down a church aisle at a wedding as parent of the groom and
ring bearer, held countless afternoon movie western marathons and delighted in
the the company of beloved ones.”The comic actor, who was twice Oscar
nominated, for his role in “The Producers” and for co-penning “Young
Frankenstein” with Mel Brooks, usually portrayed a neurotic who veered between
total hysteria and dewy-eyed tenderness. “My quiet exterior used to be a mask
for hysteria,” he told Time magazine in 1970. “After seven years of analysis,
it just became a habit.”Habit or not, he got a great deal of mileage out of his
persona in the 1970s for directors like Mel Brooks and Woody Allen, leading to
a few less successful stints behind the camera, the best of which was “The
Woman in Red,” co-starring then-wife Gilda Radner. Wilder was devastated by
Radner’s death from ovarian cancer in 1989 and worked only intermittently after
that. He tried his hand briefly at a sitcom in 1994, “Something Wilder,” and
won an Emmy in 2003 for a guest role on “Will & Grace.”
His professional
debut came in Off Broadway’s “Roots” in 1961, followed by a stint on Broadway
in Graham Greene’s comedy “The Complaisant Lover,” which won him a Clarence
Derwent Award as promising newcomer. His performance in the 1963 production of
Brecht’s “Mother Courage” was seen by Mel Brooks, whose future wife, Anne
Bancroft, was starring in the production; a friendship with Brooks would lead
to some of Wilder’s most successful film work. For the time being, however,
Wilder continued to work onstage, in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in 1963
and “Dynamite Tonight” and “The White House” the following year. He then
understudied Alan Arkin and Gabriel Dell in “Luv,” eventually taking over the
role.
Wilder also worked in
television in 1962’s “The Sound of Hunting,” “The Interrogators,” “Windfall”
and in the 1966 TV production of “Death of a Salesman” with Lee J. Cobb. He
later starred in TV movies including “Thursday’s Game” and the comedy-variety
special “Annie and the Hoods,” both in 1974.
In 1967 Wilder
essayed his first memorable bigscreen neurotic, Eugene Grizzard, a kidnapped
undertaker in Arthur Penn’s classic “Bonnie and Clyde.” Then came “The
Producers,” in which he played the hysterical Leo Bloom, an accountant lured
into a money bilking scheme by a theatrical producer played by Zero Mostel.
Directed and written by Brooks, the film brought Wilder an Oscar nomination as
best supporting actor. With that, his film career was born.He next starred in a
dual role with Donald Sutherland in “Start the Revolution Without Me,” in which
he displayed his fencing abilities. It was followed by another middling comedy,
“Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx,” also in 1970.
In 1971 he stepped
into the shoes of Willy Wonka, one of his most beloved and gentle characters.
Based on the children’s book by Roald Dahl, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate
Factory” was not an immediate hit but became a children’s favorite over the
years. The same cannot be said for the 1974 Stanley Donen-directed musical
version of “The Little Prince,” in which Wilder appeared as the fox. He had
somewhat better luck in Woody Allen’s spoof “Everything You Wanted to Know
About Sex,” appearing in a hilarious segment in which he played a doctor who
falls in love with a sheep named Daisy.Full-fledged film stardom came with two
other Brooks comedies, both in 1974: Western spoof “Blazing Saddles” and a
wacko adaptation of Mary Shelley’s famous book entitled “Young Frankenstein,”
in which Wilder portrayed the mad scientist with his signature mixture of
hysteria and sweetness.Working with Brooks spurred Wilder to write and direct
his own comedies, though none reached the heights of his collaborations with
Brooks. The first of these was “The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter
Brother” (1975), in which he included such Brooks regulars as Madeline Kahn and
Marty Feldman. It was followed by 1977’s “The World’s Greatest Lover,” which he
also produced.Wilder fared better, however, when he was working solely in front
of the camera, particularly in a number of films in which he co-starred with
Richard Pryor.
The first of these
was 1976’s “Silver Streak,” a spoof of film thrillers set on trains; 1980’s
“Stir Crazy” was an even bigger hit, grossing more than $100 million. Wilder
and Pryor’s two other pairings, “See No Evil, Hear No Evil” and “Another You,”
provided diminishing returns, however.While filming “Hanky Panky” in 1982,
Wilder met “Saturday Night Live” comedienne Radner. She became his third wife
shortly thereafter. Wilder and Radner co-starred in his most successful
directing stint, “The Woman in Red” in 1984, and then “Haunted Honeymoon.” But
Radner grew ill with cancer, and he devoted himself to her care, working
sporadically after that and hardly at all after her death in 1989.In the early
’90s he appeared in his last film with Pryor and another comedy, “Funny About
Love.” In addition to the failed TV series “Something Wilder” in 1994, he wrote
and starred in the A&E mystery telepics “The Lady in Question” and “Murder
in a Small Town” in 1999. He also appeared as the Mock Turtle in a 1999 NBC
adaptation of “Alice in Wonderland.”He last acted in a couple of episodes of
“Will and Grace” in 2002-03 as Mr. Stein, winning an Emmy.
He was born Jerome
Silberman in Milwaukee and began studying acting at the age of 12. After
getting his B.A. from the U. of Iowa in 1955, Wilder enrolled in the Old Vic
Theater school in Bristol, where he learned acting technique and fencing. When
he returned to the U.S. he taught fencing and did other odd jobs while studying
with Herbert Berghof’s HB Studio and at the Actors Studio under Lee
Strasberg.Wilder’s memoir “Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art”
was published in 2005. After that he wrote fiction: the 2007 novel “My French
Whore”; 2008’s “The Woman Who Wouldn’t”; a collection of stories, “What Is This
Thing Called Love?,” in 2010; and the novella “Something to Remember You By: A
Perilous Romance” in 2013.Wilder was interviewed by Alec Baldwin for the
one-hour TCM documentary “Role Model: Gene Wilder” in 2008. The actor was also
active in raising cancer awareness in the wake of Radner’s death.He is survived
by his fourth wife Karen Boyer, whom he married in 1991 and his nephew. His
sister Corinne, predeceased him in January 2016.Before Radner, Wilder was married
to the actress-playwright Mary Mercier and Mary Joan Schutz (aka Jo Ayers).
Prof. John Kurakar
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