Gene Wilder Dead: ‘Willy Wonka’ Star Was 83
The comic actor was at his best in ‘The Producers,’ ‘Blazing Saddles’ and ‘Young Frankenstein’ and teamed with Richard Pryor in four films.
Gene Wilder, the leading man with the comic flair and frizzy hair known for teaming with Mel Brooks on the laugh-out-loud masterpieces The Producers, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, has died, his family told The Associated Press. He was 83.
The two-time Oscar nominee also starred as a quirky candy man in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) and in four films alongside stand-up legend Richard Pryor.
Wilder’s nephew said Monday that the actor died this month in Stamford, Conn. from complications from Alzheimer’s disease. In 1999, Wilder was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma and treated with radiation and stem cell transplants.