Jerome Silberman

Jerome Silberman

Jerome Silberman was born on June 11, 1933 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

His Father was a Jewish Immigrant from Russia.

He was sent to Black-Foxe, a Military Institute in Hollywood, California where he was bullied and assaulted, primarily because he was the only Jewish Boy in the school.

He shortly left California and returned to Wisconsin where he graduated Washington High School in Milwaukee in 1951.

He then studied Communication and Theatre Arts at the University of Iowa, where he was a Member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.

After his graduation in 1955 he went to study at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol, England.

Back in the US he was Drafted in 1956 where he went into the Medical Corps.

He served as a Paramedic in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at Valley Forge Army Hospital, in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania until his Discharge in 1958.

After the Military he held several jobs including being a Limo Driver and a Fencing Instructor until he enrolled into the Actor’s Studio in New York City.

It was at this time that Jerome Silberman decided make a Stage Name for himself.

He chose "Wilder" because it reminded him of “Our Town” Author Thornton Wilder, while "Gene" came from the Character Eugene Gant in Thomas Wolfe's first novel, “Look Homeward, Angel.”

Jerome Silberman became Gene Wilder.

In 1963, He was cast in a Leading Role in “Mother Courage and Her Children”, a production starring Anne Bancroft, who introduced Wilder to her Boyfriend (and later Husband) Mel Brooks.

Wilder and Brooks worked on “The Producers” in 1968 and Gene Wilder’s Career took off.

He was in: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), Silver Streak (1976), Stir Crazy (1980), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) and Another You (1991.)

He was married 4 times: Mary Mercier (m. 1960; div. 1965)​. Mary Joan Schutz (m. 1967; div. 1974)​, Gilda Radner (m. 1984; died 1989)​ and Karen Boyer ​(m. 1991)

Wilder was hospitalized with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma in 1999, but confirmed in March 2005 that the Cancer was in complete Remission following Chemotherapy and a Stem Cell Transplant.

Gene Wilder died on August 29, 2016, at the age of 83, at home in Stamford, Connecticut, from complications of Alzheimer's Disease.