Died at 93
male
Gene Wilder (born Jerome Silberman; June 11, 1933 – August 29, 2016) was an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, singer-songwriter, and author. He began his career on stage, and made his screen debut in an episode of the TV series The Play of the Week in 1961. Although his first film role was portraying a hostage in the 1967 motion picture Bonnie and Clyde, Wilder's first major role was as Leopold Bloom in the 1967 film The Producers for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. This was the first in a series of collaborations with writer/director Mel Brooks, including 1974's Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, which Wilder co-wrote, garnering the pair an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. He is known for his iconic portrayal of Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) and for his four films with Richard Pryor: Silver Streak (1976), Stir Crazy (1980), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989), and Another You (1991), as well as starring in Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972). He directed and wrote several of his own films, including The Woman in Red (1984). With his third wife, Gilda Radner, he starred in three films, the last two of which he also directed. Her 1989 death from ovarian cancer led to his active involvement in promoting cancer awareness and treatment, helping found the Gilda Radner Ovarian Cancer Detection Center in Los Angeles and co-founding Gilda's Club. After his last acting performance in 2003 – a guest role on Will & Grace for which he received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor – he turned his attention to writing. He produced a memoir in 2005, Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art; a collection of stories, What Is This Thing Called Love? (2010); and the novels My French Whore (2007), The Woman Who Wouldn't (2008), and Something to Remember You By (2013).
In a world populated by sentient robots, Rodney Copperbottom is an aspiring young inventor from Rivet Town who idolizes Bigweld, an entrepreneur and philanthropist whose company provides robots with products ranging from everyday appliances to spare parts. Following Bigweld's example to "see a need, fill a need", Rodney creates Wonderbot to assist his dishwasher father Herb. When Herb's supervisor confronts them, Wonderbot panics and wreaks havoc in the kitchen, leaving Herb in debt. To help Herb pay for the damages, Rodney decides to move to Robot City, hoping to present Wonderbot to Bigweld Industries in order to get a job there; despite objections from his mother Lydia, Herb encourages Rodney to pursue his dream, as he gave up his musical ambitions for his safer dishwashing job and has regretted it ever since. Upon arrival at Robot City, Rodney is ejected from Bigweld Industries by his second-in-command Phineas T. Ratchet, who in Bigweld's absence has stopped producing spare parts in favor of expensive "Upgrades", thereby "outmoding" robots who are unable or refuse to pay for them. Ratchet's mother, Madame Gasket, runs the Chop Shop, a facility that collects scrap and spare parts with Sweeper trucks, and melts them to create Upgrades.
