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Actor Gene Wilder: 'Kiss Me Like a Stranger'

Fresh Air | By Terry Gross
Published December 29, 2005 at 12:00 AM EST
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Born Jerome Silberman, Gene Wilder made his film debut as a kidnap victim in Bonnie and Clyde, in 1967. Wilder is best known for his work with Mel Brooks, in the films Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, and The Producers. But he also anchored the children's classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, still popular today.

Wilder was also in Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, and he teamed up with Richard Pryor in the films Silver Streak, Stir Crazy and See No Evil, Hear No Evil. After his wife, comic actress Gilda Radner, died of ovarian cancer in 1989, Wilder formed the support group Gilda's Club to raise awareness of the disease.

Wilder has now written a memoir, Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art.

This interview originally aired on March 16, 2005.

Copyright 2023 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air.

Terry Gross
Terry Gross is the host and executive producer of NPR's Fresh Air.
See stories by Terry Gross

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Federal funding is gone.

Congress has eliminated all funding for public media.

That means $2.1 million per year that Connecticut Public relied on to deliver you news, information, and entertainment programs you enjoyed is gone.

The future of public media is in your hands.

All donations are appreciated, but we ask in this moment you consider starting a monthly gift as a Sustainer to help replace what’s been lost.

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