Gene Wilder, the iconic actor who starred in "Blazing Saddles," "Young Frankenstein," and "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," died at his home in Stamford, Connecticut on Sunday. He was 83.
Wilder's nephew said he passed away from complications from Alzheimer's disease.
Wilder joined WNPR'sWhere We Live program in 2008 after receiving the Governor's Award for Excellence in Culture and Tourism.
Wilder on Writing "Young Frankenstein"
"Young Frankenstein was because I was scared to death when I saw Frankenstein movies when I was nine years old. The first one anyone, and then the second one Bride of Frankenstein. And all those years later, when I first put pen to paper, all I did was write 'Young Frankenstein' on a yellow legal pad and then put down maybe two pages of what I thought might happen to me if I were a medical student, something like that, and I was left the inheritance of Beaufort von Frankenstein. And then I called Mel and I told him about it and he said 'Cute. That's cute.' But he didn't say anything more than that.
"I usually mix comedy, drama, a little sadness, love. I mix them all together."
Gene Wilder
"And then my agent called and said 'Have you got anything for you and Peter Boyle and Marty Feldman?' ... As it happens I do have something but give me another day or two. I want to write a little bit more and then I'll send it to you. I wrote the Transylvania Station scene almost verbatim the way it is in the movie now. And I sent it to him and he sold it, Mel said he would direct it and that was it.
"I wanted to make it a happy ending instead of the fear I had when I was nine years old and it ended so badly."
On People Quoting His Movies
"Oh, I like it very much. It's like paying tribute to what we hoped would be all those years ago. I always am complimented when they say lines."
The Impact of Willy Wonka
"I think that the children, when it first came out, understood it more than adults. It is a morality tale. Finding one honest boy who would give back the Everlasting Gobstopper. It is scary, but scary intentionally, to try and find that one boy who wouldn't be put off by - when we did it I told the director 'I like it but I'd like to add one thing to it. I'd like to come out limping and have everyone think that Willy Wonka is a cripple. And then I'll do a forward somersault and jump up and they all go Yay!' and he said 'What do you want to do that for?' and I said from that point on, no one knows whether I'm lying or telling the truth."
Why Wilder Didn't See the "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" Remake
"I didn't see it on purpose... When I saw what he was doing with Willy Wonka, I said don't see this because you're just going to be upset by it. I didn't think he was taking the right road. I didn't want Willa Wonka turned into a dark movie."
On Kiss Me Like a Stranger and Gilda Radner
"Three weeks before she died, she came up to me and said, 'I have a title for you: Kiss Me Like a Stranger. Maybe you can use it some day.' It wasn't until 14 years later, when I had to put a title on the book I'd written, that I thought about all the hell she was going through -- and a little bit of the hell I was going through when she was so deathly ill -- and I would plead with her, 'Just treat me the way you do any stranger you meet. You're cheerful. You're laughing, you hug them, you kiss them. With me, you holler, you yell. Just treat me like a stranger.' She said, 'I can't, because you're my husband. You're the only one I can let my emotions out -- my yelling, my screaming. Who else can I do that with?' And I thought, well, she gave me the title, so I might as well use it. And so I did.
"She was wonderful. She had a spirit that I've never seen in anyone before. Like a firefly that lights up, goes out, lights up, goes out. Her greatest attribute and her greatest detriment was that she needed to be loved by everyone. Not liked, but loved by everyone that she saw. And it made people very happy. And I think it exhausted her."
This report includes information from The Associated Press.
