Film Career
Wilder made his film debut with a minor role in 1967's Bonnie and Clyde. He took on his first major role in The Producers, playing Leo Bloom against Zero Mostel's Max Bialystock. The film was a box office flop and received mixed reviews, but Wilder earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He quickly became an in-demand commodity in Hollywood, taking parts in several comedies, including the idiosyncratic title character inWilly Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
Willy Wonka brought to life the weird and wild Roald Dahl book of the same name, and it thoroughly established Gene Wilder as a leading man who could hold his own in any comedic situation. As the enigmatic Wonka, Wilder chewed the scenery right into a Golden Glove nomination for best actor and became known to a legion of young film-goers.
Despite Wilder's personal success, though, none of his films of this period met with much commercial success. He finally broke that streak with a role in Woody Allen's 1972 film Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask). He then took a last-minute role in Mel Brooks' 1974 comedy Blazing Saddles, a decision that would help define his career.
Blazing Saddles was a western like no other, and it set out to offend every viewer equally. Now a cult classic, the movie set Wilder on a path through his other classic films, including four with Richard Pryor: Silver Streak (1976), Stir Crazy (1980), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) and Another You (1991).
Stir Crazy, in which Wilder and Pryor played prison inmates, was a notable hit, and like Blazing Saddles before it, the film helped to cement Wilder's reputation as a comedy legend.
Wilder began writing and starring in more films in 1974, starting with Young Frankenstein (in which he played Dr. Frederick Frankenstein). Like Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein set out to turn an established genre, this time horror, on its head. Starring Wilder as the infamous Dr. Frankenstein's grandson, the movie is unrelenting in its jokes and sight gags, and audiences have been connecting with it since the day it hit theaters.
Wilder also wrote, directed and starred in 1975's The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother and 1977's The World's Greatest Lover. WhileYoung Frankenstein was a hit and achieved a huge cult following, the others failed to gain positive critical response and were commercially unsuccessful.