How can Gene Wilder be gone?

The short, horrible answer is that he was 83 & life is a bitch
Thanks for the laughs funny man…“good day sir”

everybody dies.

Sad but true.

Yes indeed, @ragingloli, cynical though your comment is, I know and accept that everybody dies. I lost a dear childhood friend to cancer recently so that is not an unknown concept to me.

But you know, some people seem eternally young and vibrant—both my friend and Gene Wilder were examples. And I believe in honoring people we’ve admired when they’ve gone, whether a well-known actor or just a kind next-door neighbor. .

Blazing Saddles is already playing, and hubby is laughing through tears.

He takes this stuff much harder than I do. I lost it at Bowie and Rickman, but that is it so far.

Next up will be Willy Wonka.

Here is one way of looking at it. Gene Wilder was 83 years old and suffering from a type of cancer that isn’t curable at this time and Alzheimer’s. For his sake, we should be thankful that this wasn’t drawn out.

Fond memories of Gene will live on through his family and those that appreciate his work. How many of us can say this?

R.I.P. Gene, you were one of a kind.

How can he be gone and how could he have been 83? It seems extraordinary.

I’m listening to an interview to remember how he seemed like such a genuinely nice guy in real life.

Fresh Air – December 29, 2005 – Actor Gene Wilder

He says he wrote the Puttin’ On the Ritz scene for Young Frankenstein, and Mel Brooks didn’t want to use it. ZOMG I fall off my chair laughing every time I see that bit.

Really hard to believe he was 83 and even harder to accept that he’s gone. I loved that guy. Thanks for all the laughs, Gene.

As others have mentioned…Gene was genius in all the roles and scenes he acted in. Very few comedic actors have paved such an indelible series of top notch roles. He went out taking on the biggest role of his life and that was that of a sufferer of Alzheimer’s….very few sufferers of Alzheimer’s go out with as many faculties in tack as he did…I am sure he was playing the Puttin on the Ritz in his head as he went…will miss him dearly…RIP

Watch his portion of Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex (but were afraid to ask), and laugh through the tears. He is amazing.

@Cruiser – His nephew said they were listening to music as he was dying, and Ella Fitzgerald was singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” when he took his last breath.

I am having a real hard time with this. Gene Wilder is one of those wonderful people who should be immortal.

He was in my favorite movie of all time, Young Frankenstein. That’s how I prefer to remember him.

I saw that Seek and told me like my mom who passed last May….that even the most challenged at deaths door welcome all opportunity to connect with what they loved as they take their last breath. Absolutely love his work and his wife’s ample portfolio….who made me laugh more between Gilda and him is a draw.

Sedagive!!??

When I was inquiring with friends, I was surprised to learn that quite a few of them had never heard of or seen The World’s Greatest Lover which in my opinion, is one of the funniest movies of all time. Here is the Trailer. You can also watch the whole movie on Youtube.

The onscreen friendship between him & Cleavon Little in Blazin Saddles has never been matched. Throughout the many laughs of that film the acting, the chemistry between the pair of them is top, top quality bettering anything he did with Pryor.
Young Frankenstein is my fave Wilder film, funny as fuck with many laugh out loud moments.

What knockers!

The outtakes from YF are hilarious, Wilder/Feldman/Kahn the holy trinity of genius comedy

@Kardamom Great movie! Sherlock Holmes Smarter Brother is another fun one.

“Yes, yes, we all know what he did”

@filmfann About 3 months ago, because I’m a Sherlock Holmes-phile, I was looking for that movie. I may have actually seen it at the drive in with my folks when I was a kid, but I don’t remember seeing it. Unfortunately it’s not on Netflix. I shall try to find it on Youtube.