Gene Wilder has died at age 83 of Alzheimer’s.
He was one of his generation’s great comic actors, with a natural gift for underplaying a straight man and perfect deadpan delivery, and was in some of the greatest comedies of the 1970s.
Blazing Saddles, of course:
And who can forget the freaky boat ride from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory:
And here’s an animated overview of his life in his own words:
It’s the day after Worldcon, and I’m more than a little toasty, so expect slow blogging while I get up to speed.
So here’s a long interview with Gene Wilder about his career, working with Richard Pryor, Mel Brooks, Gilda Radner, etc. Wilder has reached the stage in his life where he speaks slowly and carefully, but always cognizantly, and it’s an interesting interview. I suspect that if it were not the day after Worldcon, I’d find it a little slow, but right now slow is just fine.