I said what I needed to say on Twitter.
Humphrey Bogart said that good acting was “6 feet back” in the eyes. Gene Wilder exemplified that.
For example this:
Actors watch a moment like that and have the same reaction to it that a young violinist has to seeing Ihtzak Perlman play Carnegie Hall. You are in the same field as that genius, in name only. You’re not even in the same hemisphere with these people when it comes to talent. A moment like that one turns the actors I know into Salieris. That’s the breaks. Just be grateful that there are such artists who come down among us for a short while and grace us with their presence, their generosity, their gifts.
I am so sad. I wasn’t introduced to Gene Wilder till my mid-teens, when my family immigrated to Canada and my little brother took over the VCR and made us watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory almost every single day. And EVERY TIME, I would sit and watch it through to the end. You were never bored watching Wilder. I could watch him do anything, literally anything. He could have filmed himself brushing his teeth and I’d be in hysterics. What an amazing talent. He left us too soon. Thank you for this amazing piece and for sharing that video Sheila.
An unbelievable genius. Untouchable.
And that he connected with so many generations of audiences … it was an amazing career.
Genius performer. We were so lucky. He was always just in it. That pause before his soft yearning “when?” after Cleavon Little tells him that drinking like that will kill him…. during his hysterics in The Producers, when in the space of ten seconds his face turns as red as Mostel’s robe… irreplaceable. Oh, I love his face.
“When?” hahahahaha Oh God.
The man’s timing … it just can’t be learned. I just watch in awe.
Hi Sheila
Gene Wilder was so funny, though I saw few of his films.
Woman in Red was one of those, with that vulnerable eyes, and his common man dilemma, to sleep with this lovely woman, betraying his wife, or not. But when you see his not-loveliness, his ridiculous and tender hair and his sad and lusting eyes at the same time, you can understand why the beautiful woman will want him.
He was a great actor, his pauses are more telling than all the words. Chapeau.
His eyes were so extraordinary.
Yes, great actor. Irreplaceable. Nobody else did what he did!
Wow, that is one of the all-time great reactions! I forgot about that. What a genius.
Stir Crazy and Silver Streak were two of the “movies that made me love movies”, they were both staples of my childhood.
For me the line reading of “Put. The Candle. Back.” in Young Frankenstein is one of my all-time favorites.
PER IMDB: His performance as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (“that’s FRONKensteen”) in Young Frankenstein (1974) is ranked #9 on Premiere magazine’s 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
He was really funny, but there was also something very genuine about him even in these farces, he could play “discomfort” in such a way that my heart would break for him. Great, great actor. RIP.
You get the sense that he could have been a tremendous tragic actor as well. He always had that edge.
My great friend Dan wrote a beautiful tribute in Brooklyn magazine – speculating on what might have happened if his career had continued (or at least gone in a different way) in the 90s and beyond.
http://www.bkmag.com/2016/08/30/pure-imagination-gene-wilder-1933-2016/
The Mulholland Drive idea is particularly titillating.
One of my all time favorite sight gags (saw it first when I was about 11?) – in Blazing Saddles:
“I’m not the Kid anymore. Look at this hand.”
“Steady as a rock.”
“Yeah, but I shoot with this one-”
NPR gave a memorial this morning and played the audio clip from The Producers: “I’m wet! I’m hysterical, and I’m wet!” Funny without the visual.
Yes. Genius.
That “I’m hysterical and I’m wet” moment has to be one of the best nervous breakdowns ever. I mean, there’s really nothing else like it in the whole history of cinema!! Who else would play it like that? But then you see him do it and you think, “That is really the ONLY way to play it.”
Also loved him in Start the Revolution Without Me. “You want to see excitement?? I’LL SHOW YOU EXCITEMENT IF THAT’S WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE!!! “
Oh God, I love that movie too!
Truly a comic wolf in sheeps clothing.
Love your description. So so true.