Here’s a great anecdote from Kiss Me Like A Stranger: My Search for Love and Art
Silver Streak was a big hit and was chosen as the Royal Performance for the queen of England and the royal family. I couldn’t go to London because I was filming The World’s Greatest Love at the time, but a month later, when Prince Charles came to visit 20th-Century Fox, I was invited to attend a luncheon in his honor, to be held in the Fox commissary.
As I was walking along the small street that leads from the office buildings to the commissary, a taxi pulled up and I heard someone shouting, “Oh, Mr. Wilder! … Mr. Wilder!” I turned and saw Cary Grant stepping out of the taxi. My heart started pounding a little faster, but I didn’t throw up this time, as I did when I met Simone Signoret. Cary Grant walked up to me, and after we shook hands, he said, “I was sailing on the QEII to England with my daughter, and on the second day out she said, ‘Dad-dy, I want to see the Silver Streak — they’re showing it in the Entertainment Room.’ And I said, ‘No, darling, I don’t go to movies in public.’ And she said, ‘Dad-dy, Dad-dy, please – I want to see the Silver Streak.’ So I took her to see your film. And then we saw it again the next day, and the next. Tell me something, will you?”
“Of course.”
“Was your film in any way inspired by North by Northwest?”
“Absolutely! Collin Higgins, who wrote the film, loved North by Northwest. It was one of his favorites. I think he was trying to do his version of it.”
“I thought so,” Mr. Grant said. “It never fails! You take an ordinary chap like you or me … (An ordinary chap like you or me? Didn’t he ever see a Cary Grant movie?) … put him in trouble way over his head, and then watch him try to squirm out of it. Never fails!”
Yeah, you know.
An ordinary chap.
Mm-hm. Completely an “Everyman”.
I actually heard Gene Wilder tell this story in person when he came to my school – and it was hysterical because of his spot-on Cary Grant impression (the clipped syllables – “Dad-dy”, etc.) – also the look on Gene Wilder’s face after he said the words “like you or me” – Did Cary Grant just compare himself to me? I love it because part of what made Grant so amazing was his breezy (seeming) obliviousness to his own extra-ordinariness and the fact that he is not, and had never been, an “ordinary chap”!
That’s a GREAT anecdote but I am completely distracted by my jealousy that you had the opportunity to see Gene Wilder speak in person. I adore Gene Wilder. He has one of my all-time favorite faces. He’s got wonderful timing. I’ve been meaning to read his autobiography and this is a good reminder that I really need to do so.
I absolutely agree about Cary Grant. That debonair perfection could have seemed aloof or cold but instead comes across as a particular state of grace in someone so completely unaffected.
I didn’t even know he had an autobiography. On the list it goes.
Marisa – it was a thrill to meet him. It was my birthday that day, I remember. He’s as sweet and HYSTERICAL as you would imagine. Great storyteller.
I highly recommend his book – it’s lovely!
Ditto to Ken.
I (heart) Gene Wilder.
and I (heart) Cary Grant. How awesome he was – this totally talented, totally handsome guy – and he considers himself “ordinary.” That’s part of his wonderfulness.
Oh – and I know this is silly because I don’t know Gene Wilder – but reading his book, and reading about his marriages and the whole Gilda tragedy and stuff – to read about his marriage now, to this lovely grounded woman who works with the deaf (I met her the night he came to my school, too – she’s basically got a Humpty Dumpty smile – like THAT wide, and THAT friendly) … Anyway, you read about how they met, and the happiness he has found so late in life, and you just feel glad about it. Like he deserves it.
But it also gives me hope. Life is never over til it’s over.
that’s so lovely : ) i would’ve liked to hear Gene Wilder as Cary Grant
I loved Gene Wilder from the moment he started singing “Pure Imagination” the first time I saw Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory when I was a kid. I was hooked.
I posted a blog about Gilda a couple months ago, whom I have also always been fond of. I think I will find it very life affirming to read about his later years – It’s always nice to think that second chances can come at any time in life. Thanks for the tip!
Here’s a quote from the book that I LOVED about Gilda (who I also ADORE):
//We didn’t get along well, and that’s a fact. We just loved each other, and that’s a fact.//
God.