(11 June 1933 - 29 August 2016)
The American comedy actor began his career in the theatre in an off-Broadway production of Arnold Wesker’s Roots in 1961. He continued on stage and on television until his first film in 1967, a small part in Bonnie and Clyde. Having met director Mel Brooks he was cast in The Producers (1967) as the hysterical accountant Leo Bloom and subsequently made his best films with Brooks: as the drunken cowboy in Blazing Saddles and the Doctor in Young Frankenstein, which he co-wrote with Brooks. He had also made an impression in Start the Revolution Without Me (1970), Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) and Woody Allen’s Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex… (1972). Wilder took to writing and directing and, although The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother and The World’s Greatest Lover were reasonably good, his Haunted Honeymoon and The Woman in Red were not as funny as they should have been. He worked with Richard Pryor (who had co-written Blazing Saddles) on Silver Streak (1976), Stir Crazy (1982), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) and Another You (1991). He also made films with the third of his four wives, Gilda Radner (she died in 1989): Hanky Panky, The Woman in Red and Haunted Honeymoon. Wilder also did further stage work in London in Neil Simon’s Laughter on the 23rd Floor in 1996. His last appearances included the TV series Something Wilder (1994-5) and Will and Grace (2002-3) after which he painted, wrote novels and worked for his cancer charity. Finally, he was the voice of Elmer in Yo Gabba Gabba! (2015).
MICHAEL DARVELL
