“Young Frankenstein/Willy Wonka” Star Gene Wilder Dead At 83

Gene Wilder

Is it possible that when you’ve inspired countless belly laughs through decades of sterling film work,  that the impact of passing away registers even more acutely?

That’s how I feel upon hearing the news that comic genius Gene Wilder passed away today at his home in Connecticut due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease.

Via USA Today:

Wilder was unforgettably funny in such classics as The Producers, Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles, his frizzy hair enveloping his head like a halo, his voice rising to a shriek when the role called for panic. And his roles usually did.

He was a specialist at playing panicked characters caught up in schemes that only a madman such as Brooks could devise, whether reviving a monster in Young Frankenstein or bilking Broadway in The Producers.

But he also knew how to keep it cool as the boozy sheriff in Blazing Saddles and as the charming candy man in the children’s favorite Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.