Interesting, overlooked, and significant obituaries from around the world, as they happen, emphasizing the positive achievements of those who have died. Member, Society of Professional Obituary Writers.
Monday, August 29, 2016
Gene Wilder
Actor, director, novelist, and screenwriter; one of the funniest people who ever lived -- via Variety. AKA Jerome Silberman. One of my idols. The first time I saw him was in the 1966 restaging for TV of "Death of a Salesman" -- he played Bernard. I can't think of a bad performance from him. He was different -- long, crazy hair yet extremely well-spoken (he studied at the Old Vic and was a champion fencer). "Bonnie and Clyde," "Willy Wonka," his films with Mel Brooks -- " "The Producers," "Blazing Saddles," and "Young Frankenstein," his unique trilogy of solo vehicles -- "The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother," "The World's Greatest Lover," and "The Frisco Kid"; his string of successes with Richard Pryor -- "Silver Streak," "Stir Crazy," etc.; and his detective-film work at the end of his career, all splendid. He could go from masterful underplaying to the most extreme overacting . . . sometimes in the same sentence.
