Born Jerome Silberman, Gene Wilder made his film debut as a kidnap victim in Bonnie and Clyde, in 1967. Wilder is best known for his work with Mel Brooks, in the films Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, and The Producers. But he also anchored the children's classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, still popular today.
Wilder was also in Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, and he teamed up with Richard Pryor in the films Silver Streak, Stir Crazy and See No Evil, Hear No Evil. After his wife, comic actress Gilda Radner, died of ovarian cancer in 1989, Wilder formed the support group Gilda's Club to raise awareness of the disease.
Wilder has now written a memoir, Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art.
This interview originally aired on March 16, 2005.
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